Is it time to buy yourself a hat?

Among all the shimmering gowns and tailored suits on the Golden Globes 2024 red carpet, there was one key item of clothing that stole the show—Succession star Jeremy Strong’s seafoam-green Loro Piana bucket hat, which he wore with a matching suit and a white turtleneck. The look has inspired countless memes, although our favourite is the one comparing him to Anne Hathaway’s character in The Princess Diaries (Hathaway reshared that one too).

The Italian brand isn’t the only one offering bucket hats right now. There are linen ones at Gabriela Hearst, printed ones at Gucci, and fluffy toppers made of velvet or shearling at Burberry, Prada, and Max Mara that look like adorable plushies wrapped around your head. Just yesterday, Sonam Kapoor posted a photo of herself wearing a leather version by Phoebe Philo’s eponymous new label, and The Row, Bottega Veneta, and Coach offer a similarly sleek take on the narrow-brimmed hat.

And there’s plenty of other headgear making the rounds, too. From Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar, everyone has lauded the return of “the personality hat” as blogger Leandra Medine dubbed them last year. These aren’t just practical head warmers. As Medine elaborates, this could be “any topper that has the power to transform your outfit into something more delectable.” The options available right now range from Prada’s sweet little velvet hats that resemble the shiny, Quality Street chocolates of our childhood to the more avant-garde beanies from The Row that come embellished with metallic hardware. There are animal-printed paper boy hats at Dior, and Altuzarra showed Jackie O-esque pillbox hats. And as Beyoncé’s recent NFL halftime performance proved, she’s not taking off her cowboy hat anytime soon. If what’s selling online isn’t enough proof, last year, retail intelligence platform Trendalytics reported that newsboy caps have seen a 219 per cent increase in market adoption and a 17 per cent increase in average weekly searches over the last year.

Fashion’s favourite milliner Philip Treacy once wrote in a book about his work: “The most interesting people in the world wear hats, and I get to meet them.” Because it’s not so much an announcement that underneath that corporate employee exterior, you harbour the spirit of a cowboy who’s just waiting to find the right ten-gallon Stetson, it’s more about finding the hat that fits, or perhaps accentuates, your personality. A playful hat doesn’t need to be a costume, it’s a functional, working piece of clothing. Take Dev Anand, who was rarely seen without his jaunty golf hat. Or Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay, who made ridiculously large headgear a part of his persona as a musician. Or singer-songwriter Janelle Monae, a dedicated hat wearer who once opted for not one, not two, but a tower of black hats by Christian Siriano on the Met Gala red carpet.

Fashion retail consultant and content creator Spardha Malik would also agree. For a recent holiday to Japan, Malik donned a retro, leather pageboy hat that she found at a vintage shop, which she paired with outfits by homegrown brands like Cord, Three, and Péro. “I realised that anything I was wearing would instantly look so much cooler, so much more intentional and thought out, as soon as I put on the hat,” she says. She has three pieces of advice for when shopping for hats, a hat-trick if you will. “First, it’s very hard to find a good hat, so try a lot of them to hunt down the one that looks best on your face. Second, play around with shapes and materials. And third, you don’t want something strange that overpowers your personality, so make sure it fits into your wardrobe.”