Hats may not be the accessory of choice in India, but Gargi Gupta finds a few milliners who are testing the market with their designs.
Headgear is not uncommon in India — the topi, the pagdi, the saafa are all in their own way, colourful and ceremonious. In the cities, however, going bare-headed is quite the norm. We’ve made the trousers, shirt, and other items of Western clothing our own, but that same acceptance hasn’t quite extended to hats.
“It takes a certain amount of personality to carry off hats, and Indians just don’t have it,” says Mumbai-based Shilpa Chavan, one of only a handful of Indian milliners, as those who make, design and trim hats are called. Agrees Nitin Bal Chauhan, the fashion designer from Delhi whose collection also includes a range of hats. “Hats make you stand out and there are very few who are comfortable with that. We just want to melt into the crowd.”
However, with global luxury brands marking their presence in India and lifestyles becoming more confidently cosmopolitan, hats have been gaining in popularity in recent years. High-end international labels are bringing in hats in all the classic styles — bowlers and berets, cloches and fedoras — and they’re flying off the shelves, says salespeople at stores.
| HAT RACK | |
| Armani: | Rs 6,000-Rs 22,000 |
| Versace: | Rs 5,700 |
| Accessorize: | >Rs 2,000 |
| Miss Jo: | Rs 800 |
| Nitin Bal Chauhan: | >Rs 4,000 |
The Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani stores at the capital’s DLF Emporio luxury mall has a small but classic collection of caps and hats from the Italian fashion house’s 2009 autumn-winter season. There’s a choice of bowler hats in wool and suede in the colours of the season — dark navy, brown, grey and, of course, black (price: Rs 16,000-Rs 22,500) — and fitted caps in fine cashmere (Rs 15,000).
For women, there are casual dress hats in nylon with ribbon trimming, and the showpiece — the Capello Lapin Verneirato, a polyurethane cap stitched like the petals of a flower, lined with soft fur. Also available is the faux fur skull cap, embellished with satin ribbon (Rs 6,500), which made an appearance at most Armani ramps shows this season.
Armani, of course, has the widest range of hats in India. Among the others, limited options are available from Versace — woolen skull caps (Rs 5,700) in brown and grey; Hermes — Derbies in felt and wool; and Marc by Marc Jacobs — a rather funky wide-brimmed canvas floppy in bright mauve with vinyl prints of Miss Marc (Rs 23,000).
Lower down the scale there is Accessorize, the British fashion accessories brand, which is franchised at malls in major Indian cities by Planet Retail. Accessorize has a wide range of hats for every occasion — berets and bucket hats in wool and soft leather, trimmed with crystal brooches to add a touch of bling for an evening out; woollen straw hats and peaked caps for the outdoors; and woollen caps with ear flaps to take on the chilly winds — all for under Rs 2,000 apiece. Even cheaper is the fare at Miss Jo, a chain of blingy accessories stores all over Delhi. Here you’ll find dress hats in wool and silk with flower trimmings, baseball caps worked over with sequins, and floppy hats with bits of lace, beads and embroidery (Rs 800 apiece). “The clientele we get is mostly young college-goers looking for something to add a little extra to a party dress or a special date,” says Satish at the store in Select City Walk mall in Delhi.
Turning to Indian designers, most accessorise their garments, at least for ramp shows, with funky, artistic headgear. Some, like Malini Ramani, have even extended their collections to hats — but only intermittently. Only very few, like Nitin Chauhan, design and retail hats regularly. “Most of what I do for the ramp are avant- garde showpieces. What I retail are pared -down versions of these. Even so, the only ones who buy are models or socialites, who might want to wear them to a polo event,” says Chauhan, whose designs are available at multi-designer stores such as Ogaan (prices at under Rs 4,000).
| By design
Shilpa Chavan, the 36-year-old designer from Mumbai who retails under the label LittleShilpa, is India’s only milliner of distinction. “I have been working with Manish Arora, Tarun Tahiliani and Varun Bahl since the ’90s,” Chavan says in between giving directions for a photo-shoot. Trained at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, she has also worked with British milliner Philip Treacy. In September 2009, she was one of five milliners invited to showcase her collection at Headonism, which opened the London Fashion Week. The Rangoli Hat was one of the five elaborate bonnets she showed. Chavan is stocked by international labels like Unconditional and El Salvador. In India, she retails out of a pop-up store called National Permit in Goa. |
