Hats Off to Caps
You're reading Shopper: Highsnobiety's bulletin on what’s taking up headspace from the marketplace. Below is an edit of May 18's newsletter, in which Shopping Editor Max Migowski talks caps. Subscribe here, or head to the Shopping tab for more recs.
Shoutout to Slightly Ambiguous Baseball Caps
Seeing Björk's blissfully bizarre DJ set at Venice Biennale last week — where she donned Bottega Veneta's fibreglass gown and Myah Hasbany's giant bean-shaped balaclava — got me thinking about headwear. Specifically: the ubiquitous baseball cap, which holds more utility and messaging power than we ever give it credit for as the only real year-round headgear.
While the baseball cap’s most practical purpose is its ability to conceal things — a bad hair day, a receding hairline — the role it can play in one’s personal style is unrivaled. The classic baseball cap is, after all, a personal broadcast station. Whether you use it to pledge allegiance to a sports team, a brand, a band, a vacation abroad, or the endorsement of one’s (perhaps fantasy-)alma mater, the baseball cap does so with a degree of nonchalance that tempers its directness. In fact, these days, the less a baseball cap says, the better (looking at you, Loro Piana cashmere cap).
I’d even argue that the slightly ambiguous baseball cap is the ultimate sweet spot for expression. Enter my very own most treasured cap, for instance: a black (though now faded to brown) hat I purchased at a Lykke Li concert nearly a decade ago, with my then-freshly-ex-love in the room. “So sad, so sexy” it still reads, a faint line stitched to cross through the “sad” part. It’s a coded message for the (fan)girls that get it, who see the hat as a bat signal for striking up a chat about their favorite tracks off the album. Everyone else might look at it and think that I’m a bit of a fetishist for melancholy. Two things can be true at the same time.
Funny phrases, political affiliations, suggested affluence: People love playing with the literal and subtextual connotations of a baseball hat. I'd bet a good bunch of people sporting that MoMA New York Yankees cap haven't actually ever been to New York, much less its Museum of Modern Art (and even fewer an actual Yankees game). Its plain original is for sale at Berlin Airport also, as is the LA Dodgers equivalent, which only further drives home my point. The psychology innate to this is no more or less sophisticated than what caused Trader Joe's grocery store tote to trend (in countries it doesn't operate in, no less); when a literal signifier becomes a status signifier (with resale value!), strange things happen in the supply chain. In the meantime, it gives those of us in the fashion and style chattering class endless material to dissect.
What makes a baseball cap so potent, however obvious or coded its messaging is, humorous or high-tech, is how easy it is to wear. It takes guts to pull off something as oddball as Prada's straw toppers, Namacheko's sailor lids, or even Kangol's viral-gone newsboy beret à la JFK Jr.. A good baseball cap is reliable in a way that no bucket hat, snapback, or trucker deviation ever will be. It’s function and statement all-in-one, and you simply can’t go wrong.
Open Tabs: Everything We've Got Our Eyes On Right Now
These pricey but gorgeous Hermès sandals would have perfectly fit last week's survey of toe-less summer shoes.
Not nearly as upscale but just as nice to look at is the slimmed-down Nike waffle racer. (And these sporty, stretchy knits are pretty pretty, too.)
Kiko Kostadinov's all-black leather kicks are the subtle kind of dress- shoe- slash sneaker hybrid I can get behind without much ado.*
It's May, which may be a counterintuitive time to pitch scarves to you, but hear me out: These COS cashmere triangles come in either a dense or an open weave, and are a breathable, practical, and chic addition to outfits that need to comply with the season’s erratic weather.
Another day, another newsletter, another empty promise of this being the final jacket I'll talk about until fall. Today, After Pray's checked blouson corrupted me.
Not entirely sure what’s going on in the cleavage area of this Maison Margiela button-down, but I'm digging it!
In an unlikely but then again totally sensible move, menswear's unsung tastemaker Aaron Levine recently collaborated with Zara on this standout quarter-zip and sweatshirt, amongst other great garb.
Wayfarer-esque frames are on the come-up again, and these AHLEM sunglasses offer a compliant but distinguished take.
These beautifully pleated Issey Miyake bermudas will convince even the loudest members of the anti shorts alliance to realize that cropped pants mustn't be strictly casual.
And for pants that do need a little extra pizzazz, this Gucci belt gives a new spin on its age-old horsebit design.
For a messenger of this size, this The Row bag isn't as expensive as you'd fear. It sure would fit a lot of caps…
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