The fall 2024 menswear shows were a headgear bonanza, from the cowboy hats at Louis Vuitton to the outlandish creations worn by Walter Van Beirendonck’s Surrealist monsters.
WWD Weekend sat down with London-based milliner Stephen Jones to break down his favorite looks, which included a couple of throwback moments for the designer, who is preparing for a major exhibition at the Palais Galliera fashion museum in Paris in October.
Jones has witnessed a surge in demand for men’s hats over the last decade, with the popularization of styles such as beanies and baseball caps. “Hats used to be an out-there purchase. Now if you go into any store, from H&M to Loro Piana, they’re all selling hats,” he remarks.
In addition to his collections for designers, Jones has undertaken numerous individual high-profile commissions for celebrities including Princess Diana, Rihanna and Kylie Minogue. But men’s design is where it all began.
“When I first started off, most of my customers were men before women. They were all pop people, so it was Boy George and Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran,” he recalls.
This season, brands such as Prada, Givenchy and Dior used headgear in their menswear collections to send subtle signals about their heritage and positioning that will not go unnoticed by lovers of high fashion, Jones says.
“It can really underline or be an accent to show a particular feeling where the clothes can’t,” he explains. “If something’s maybe slightly more classic, you can put a hat on that outfit and it immediately balances the look.”
Here are some of his favorites from the Paris and Milan men’s shows for fall 2024.
PRADA’S SWIMMING CAPS
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons paired stereotypical office attire with swimming caps, goggle-like eyeglasses and pool slides.
“It really grabbed everybody’s attention because people are used to a shaved head, but people aren’t used to the removal of the hair completely, which is essentially what it did,” Jones says of the colorful knit caps.
It made the models look more athletic, but also vulnerable, he feels. Above all, it was a punchy way to imprint the collection in an era of short attention spans.
“It’s this incredible shorthand which is immediately understandable. Put something on somebody’s head and it’s obvious in a way that no other article of clothing is,” he says.
Jones thinks the look has commercial mileage. “If you’re a Prada fan, you will be wearing that hat next season,” he predicts. “I think fashion now, especially men’s fashion, is so much about fandom, in a way almost more than fashion. Are you going to be in the Prada team?”
LOUIS VUITTON’S COWBOY HATS
Pharrell Williams topped his Wild West collection with a selection of cowboy hats, choosing a plain cream-colored version to take his extended runway bow.
“I thought they were really good. I mean, who has the authority to do cowboy hats, but him, an American?” says Jones.
While not as extreme as the “Happy” singer’s iconic Vivienne Westwood Buffalo topper, the Louis Vuitton styles cut a dash, as demonstrated by Beyoncé, who wore one to the Grammy Awards.
“He’s been a client of mine on and off and I know him a little bit, but he loves hats. He loves how they extend his personality,” says Jones. “And he’s a performer, like Beyoncé is a performer. Not every fashion designer is a performer.”
The Vuitton show offered a wide selection of materials that should resonate with collectors, according to Jones. “To say, ‘I have a Pharrell cowboy hat’ is quite something in your wardrobe, whether you’re wearing it this season or whether you’re wearing it in 10 years’ time,” he opines.
DIOR’S BALLET BERETS
Kim Jones was inspired by his uncle Colin’s photographs of Rudolf Nureyev for his ballet-inspired collection, which included his first full line of haute couture for men. For the hats, he took his cue from a beret from the French luxury house’s archives.
“He showed me the hat and I just started to laugh,” says Jones, who has designed hats for Dior for 27 years and recognized the creation as one of his own, from a 1999 womenswear collection by John Galliano.
He decided to make a velvet version for the couture portion of the fall 2024 men’s collection, and jersey ones for the ready-to-wear looks. Jones personally draped and knotted each one.
“I was given a little bit of extra time so I could work on each guy individually in the show and make sure that it flowed with the lines of his face,” he recalls. “I thought the guys looked beautiful as well. They didn’t look overdressed and they looked believable.”
GIVENCHY’S COUTURE BUBBLE HATS
For its first men’s collection since the departure of creative director Matthew M. Williams, Givenchy’s design studio went back to the roots of the brand with an intimate presentation in its historic couture salons on Avenue George V.
Some models wore hats that brought to mind the graphic styles that founder Hubert de Givenchy designed for Audrey Hepburn in “Charade.” Here, they provided an unexpected counterpoint to looks including a black leather safari jacket and billowing cream pants.
“It was great how these were just plonked on the head. I mean, originally the ones which were sort of ball-like would have been ball-like, but I love the fact that somebody had dented them,” Jones points out.
He applauds Givenchy’s efforts to introduce its heritage to a new generation, at a time when a host of TV shows are exploring the heyday of Paris haute couture.
“It’s an interesting way of approaching it through the hats because a hat is so easily removable. It’s sort of spontaneous and it’s lighthearted. In a way, if they started to make the clothes look like original Givenchy, it would not work, but I thought it was a very clever thing to do,” he says.
WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK’S MONSTER BUNCH
Walter Van Beirendonck’s show was another blast from the past for the milliner. For his monster-inspired fall collection, Van Beirendonck revisited the styling — hair, makeup and accessories — he crafted for his W.&L.T. shows 30 years ago, including hats by Jones.
“The first time I worked with him, we made 110, 120 hats. Each one was different,” Jones recalls. “I think it’s also incredible that he’s actually kept them and they’re all in good condition.”
Like the Givenchy show, this display raised the question of the relationship between fashion and time, he reckons.
“Do those hats look 30 years out of date? No, they look completely contemporary. If you wear tight trousers or baggy trousers, do tight trousers make you look very out of date? No, it’s just a point of view, really. So I think time and fashion’s relationship is being thrown up in the air,” he says.
His favorite was the giant red fluffy trapper hat. “It was just as huge as I remembered it,” Jones says with a laugh.
YOHJI YAMAMOTO’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL HAT
Yohji Yamamoto tapped film director Wim Wenders and other friends of the house to walk in his show, which was about family, tradition and history. Models were old and young, tall and short, male and female. Many of them walked in pairs, dressed in similar clothes.
“Yohji always makes the most wonderful hats, either for men or for women,” Jones enthuses. “Somehow he makes those things which are quite classic, in a way, look so cool.”
Wenders and “The Walking Dead” star Norman Reedus were among those rocking variations of the 80-year-old designer’s signature wide-brimmed felt hat.
“I know quite a few guys who wear Yohji hats and they always look great in them. They’re just fashion-y enough, but not too fashion-y. It’s just that balance, and also, he’s a hat wearer,” says Jones. “A hat which is autobiographical is a believable hat for a man.”
