Fashion: Hats On

Hats and hairdos are enemies. When the bouffant coiffures came in, hats went out. Even for church, they gave way to mantillas or a piece of veil or velvet bow. Until recently, college girls were packed off to school without a single hat to their name.

But now that shorter, more natural hair styles are replacing the bouffant, hats are on the way back in. “Hats are a great way to camouflage yourself,” says new Model Penelope Tree, who wears an assortment of big-brimmed Garbos around the Sarah Lawrence campus. Like such other Garbo fanciers as Julie Christie, Penelope firmly believes: “The floppier the better.”

The movie Bonnie and Clyde has set off a vogue for berets in crochet knits, wool felts and velours. Wherever the young congregate, there is a sudden outcropping of chin-strapped “safari” hats; Manhattan Socialite Linda Hackett rolls up one side of the brim and makes it an “Aussie,” rolls up both sides and has a “cowboy.”

With male attention riveted on thigh-high boots and textured panty hose, women have apparently decided that hats are the thing to bring their neglected faces back into focus. “Besides,” says Jet Setter Louise Savitt, “no man likes to dance with a woman with cold ears.” There is not the slightest danger of cold ears in this year’s status-fur hats, be they Adolfo’s sables, Mr. John’s chinchillas or Halston’s minks. “The new styles are great,” says Best-Dressed Betsy Theodoracopulos, “and wearing them cuts down on visits to the hairdresser.” Since the furs begin at $175 and go all the way up to $900, every little economy helps.