Just as Jackie O’s suits were nothing without her tough little pillboxes, Duckie Brown’s soft but sturdy caps for their Spring 2010 show can punctuate and polish any look. “The hats are inspired by a 1960s granny hat we found in a thrift shop,” says Steven Cox, one half of the design duo. “We got rid of the bow and we just liked the shape.” Though these might not be 10-gallon cowboy hats, there is something subversively strong about the straw toppers that come in three icy shades. “This isn’t Steve McQueen,” says Duckie’s other half Daniel Silver, debunking the current trend for Mad Men-era muses, “because we’d rather challenge the ideas of what’s appropriate for men to wear.”
Made in tandem with a small millinery in Brooklyn, the shape follows some tradition—a Moroccan fez meets a proper lady’s church cap—but the hat’s oddly brimless shape and swelled size make it a Duckie original. “The hats made us giggle a bit,” Cox happily admits, “and so into the show they went.”