Throughout 2011 and across the world, critics, designers and wholesale clothing manufacturers alike heralded winter 2011 - 2012 as the return of pure, unadulterated, high-octane glamour to both the catwalk and the high street, championing it as the conclusion to a decade of glam-romanticism, and drawing the curtains on the last descendant of the grunge chic of the mid-90's. So began a glamour revival for the 21st century, as continental fashion houses were quickly followed by a slew of wholesale clothing manufacturers and ladieswear wholesalers eager to catch this season's hottest trend.
Quickly swept up in this fashion storm was a particular accessory - the hat. The hat has long since been regarded by wholesale clothing manufacturers and ladieswear wholesalers alike as a near-novelty item – inappropriate in all social settings except formal, conservative events such as weddings and funerals, where vehement adheration to cultural norms is valued above all, often with disregard for any modern sartorial principles.
As history goes, hats have an unshakable ability to become iconic pieces of popular culture - a plethora of characters, both fictional and real, have adopted their hat as part of their brand and image. Few will disagree that Indiana Jones' wide-brimmed fedora has become as iconic as Harrison Ford's portrayal of the character, while the simple black bowler has turned both Charlie Chaplin, and Oddjob of Goldfinger, into internationally recognised symbols, although the production of such items has become the realm of costumers rather than the wholesale clothing manufacturers and womenswear wholesalers looking to work the trend.
At least until his most modern incarnation, Sherlock Holmes was barely recognisable without his plaid deerstalker, while Alex DeLarge and his troop of 'droogies' marked themselves out with their sharp derbies in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, again abandoning fashion wholesalers in favour of novelty shops.
With so many associations to so many different types of hat, many have been permanently retired to the dressing-up-box, reserved only for Halloween and novelty costumes. On the catwalk, however, hats mean sophistication. Many wholesale clothing manufacturers, ladieswear wholesalers and designers, such as Hong-Kong born John Rochas, channel the afforementioned drama into avant-garde, structural, tailored creations, while others compliment the ensemble with delicate understatement. However, there is no doubt that from the cap to the cloche, the beanie to the beret and the trilby to the trapper, the hat is the icing on the cake for any outfit this season.
