By Design : Slightly Tipsy Hats : Hard edges don’t do much for Anita Hopkins. She designs headgear with undulating lines.
Most designers will readily acknowledge the influence of Coco Chanel. Los Angeles milliner Anita Hopkins takes it a step further, encouraging comparisons with the French design legend, noting that each launched her design career with headgear, that each saw convention as something to rebel against.
That’s not to say Hopkins’ hats much resemble Chanel’s. Hardly. There are no severe lines. No artificial flowers tacked on the brim. No linings. No inside bands. No stiffness. No machine stitching. Sometimes no finish to the edge. They aren’t, in Hopkins’ words, “these flat boards with too much symmetry to them.”
So what are they? Inventive in their shapes, wearable in conception and execution, and flattering--particularly on older women.
Her idea of a hat, Hopkins says, is something that will draw attention to the face, framing it in irregular, undulating lines. “None of our faces have real hard angles on them,” she points out. “We have all these imperfections in our faces which make us so unique, so my hats have that same characteristic.”
A hat should also, she says, be something that fits into your wardrobe, that finishes an outfit, rather than an accessory out to make a statement on its own. It should be versatile, too. Hopkins illustrates this point with what she calls her “cap cloche,” a personal favorite, in straw. Bill forward, it’s “a sort of military-looking cap during the day”; bill turned backward, “it’s this darling cloche for the evening.” Double crowned or fully double-layered hats also do double duty, as the pieces can be worn singly or together.
Soft, malleable materials--Panama straw, felt and, lately, toyo, a woven substance made in China from paper--predominate, making for a hat that’s as packable as a T-shirt.
The silhouettes often evoke the cloches and droopy brims of the ‘20s and ‘30s. Even Hopkins’ most extravagant concoctions--such as the oversized straw shoulder dusters she made for the Jean-Louis Scherrer Boutique line last spring--have a romantic cast.
Hopkins’ designs look wonderful on the designer herself. She has the strong chin and high cheekbones characteristic of fashion models of the past, and, in fact, it was as a model that Hopkins, now 46, got her start in fashion in the late ‘70s. Moving to London from the San Gabriel Valley, where she grew up, she pursued a 12-year career that took her all over Europe and Japan.
“I knew from the age of, like, 16 that I wanted to be a designer,” she says. “I thought in terms of fashion, of course, because that’s where all my interest lay.”
After modeling came a couple of years spent styling magazine photo shoots in Paris. Her first foray into designing resulted in Nitabands, the hair accessories line she launched in 1987, after returning to the United States. But, having always loved hats, she began decorating ready-made stock a few years later, and quickly discovered she wanted to create her own shapes.
She began with Panama straw, taking the hands-on approach, learning by experimenting. Formal training was never part of the plan.
“I’m so happy I know nothing about millinery because it would inhibit me from doing exactly what I’m doing. . . . It’s so limiting when you have to go learn a certain process to do anything.”
She prefers “just sculpting the hat over the mold,” letting the material inspire the design. “You have to explore all the possibilities of what it wants to do,” she says. “It has a mind of its own.”
* Anita Hopkins’ hats are available at Shauna Stein, the Beverly Center; Ron Ross, Studio City, and Fred Segal on Melrose Avenue.
