There was a time when a woman without a hat was not dressed. Head adornment was the key to style, a style that has sadly become something dragged out for the races every so often. These days it takes a certain amount of daring to don a hat, and I don’t mean a woolen beanie or beret. The hats I am talking about are the real thing, the straw or felt based numbers decorated with flowers, feathers and sometimes even more obscure objects, yes indeed when it comes to a great hat anything and everything goes.

Hat making is an art form lovable milliners such as Stephen Jones, Philip Treacy and Elsa Schiaparelli have fostered from the fashion runways to the red carpet and cinema screens. And now Stephen Jones and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum have teamed up to bring it to it’s rightful place, the gallery, to be recognized as the art that it is.

Last week The Queensland Art Gallery became the temporary home of over 250 remarkable pieces of headgear.  Hats from the iconic, to simplistic yet stunning day wear pieces, are grouped together in hypnotizing bouquets, united by the materials, styles and even the people or places they appeared. ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones’ takes us on a journey through the entire creation of these intimate pieces of fashion from the conception to the construction.

This exhibition has it all from the hats of the celebrities and designers to the mandatory bonnets of the Victorians. There are hats to make you stand out, hats to make you fit in, hats that dictate status, from tiaras to the instantly recognizable Indian crown and hats that simply leave you speechless.

Even helmets get a tip of the brim and they are indeed head wear, lets face it they have appeared on many a runway over the last few years, think the Pacman style helmets at the Giles Deacon SS09 show and Australian designer Friedrich Gray‘s more traditional numbers at last years Rosemount Australian Fashion Week.

Hats have been the subtle finishing touch and the show stopping centerpiece of fashion since before the runways even existed, Coco Chanel’s simple hats inspired an entire definition of style. Hats, An Anthology by Stephen Jones features some of the greatest, boldest and most eccentric designer milliner collaborations. A wide-brimmed black silk tulle hat from Christian Dior’s first collection in 1948 stands juxtaposed against Stephen Jones own iconic art inspired hat for the Christian Dior Autumn 2007/2008 show.

From Fashion to the lifestyles of the rich and famous and a healthy dose of costume drama, there is no avenue left unexplored. Famous headdresses including, Camlilla Parker-Bowles wedding headpiece designed by Philip Treacy, Mick Jagger’s hat worn for the Rolling Stones ‘A Bigger Bang World Tour’ and Kylie Minogue’s Visor Headress from her ‘Showgirl’ tour appear alongside Darth Vader’s infamous helmet and the ostentatious ostrich feather hat worn by Kiera Knightly in the Duchess.

And still the list could go on, each hat in this exhibition has its own unique identity. Everything from feathers to shoes become characteristic headdresses. Hat’s An Anthology makes it blatantly clear that indeed the hatter is mad in all the best ways, there is no limit to their imagination and there are no shortage of clients willing to entertain their every whimsy and make their head the heart of their outfit.

Hats An Anthology conjures a certain nostalgia for those days when a hat was a fixed fashion statement. Its kaleidoscope of colour, texture and shape leaves you in awe of the power of the hatters imagination and the courageousness of the clients who inspire it.

Hats an Anthology implores us all to be a bit madder in our style and to top every outfit off with a top hat. I am going to the races this week and I will definitely be wearing a hat as mad as the hatters who make them. Stephen Jones and all the anthological contributors, I take my hat off to you.

‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones’
Queensland Art Gallery
27 March – 27 June 2010