design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
Pinkham Millinery’s Passage of Hats
What to do to keep the eye on the prize, in this case Pinkham Millinery’s show of Dayna Pinkham’s range of hats? Put the models in black. In the case of the women, most wore black unitards, but Pinkham had accented the lean line on each model with a single stroke, also of black, a dramatic heavy felt collar, bib, or in one instance a gladiator-like paneled miniskirt. It’s this same subtle stroke that completes or elevates the otherwise simple look that is what Pinkham does best. The rear of a short-billed mustard cap’s crown may fold in on itself or the crown might hold an odd angle away from the head as with the Elbow Cap whose sloped front ends at a short, modern bill.
design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
Pinkham fans like Adam Arnold (in a Pinkham cap), Justin Oswald (he’d wanted to wear his custom pirate hat, but settled for his Pinkham straw fedora), and Jayme Hansen (Birds of Prey, Fleshtone), who’s apprenticed with Pinkham for years were treated to a chartered streetcar ride (music provided by a karaoke machine on wheels). Models boarded the streetcar at one stop, alighting at the next for a revolving show on a half-hour ride. Pinkham herself looked radiant for this, her first solo show in an exotic black feathered cocktail hat.
design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
What Pinkham’s hats do (and this is something you’ll find in New York as well with the work of Eugenia Kim) is take the kooky out of hats, bringing them back to the smart accessory they were until they went the way of white gloves. The caps, with short bills and various crown shapes ranging from low-profile to sculptural, are particularly good. They’re a statement accessory for the girl or guy who can carry them off, and you wish you were that girl or guy.
design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
Pinkham excels with strong (which is not to say exaggerated) silhouette and form: shape of crown (many unusual and very modern shapes), line of brim, a crease in the crown making shadow.
design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
The men’s hats were especially good. With proportions echoing the new leaner cuts of trousers and suit coats she showed short crowned and narrower brim (”stingy crown” “stingy brim”) felt hats. If what we call the “Indiana Jones problem” put you off hats, gentlemen, may we remind you instead of Mr. Dean Martin.
design: Dayna Pinkham. photo: Pete Springer
– Lisa Radon
photos: Pete Springer
updated Wednesday September 06 2006 11:43
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