Maximalist Hats

Iris Apfel's recorded motto, More is more & Less is a Bore, gives this collection two of its clearest declarations. AP's report describes her combinations of haute couture and oversized costume jewelry, her mix of designer fashion with flea-market finds, and the Costume Institute exhibition staged at the Met in 2005. WBUR reports that Salem's Peabody Essex Museum holds approximately 1,000 pieces worn by Iris and Carl Apfel. The references give these maximalist hats a vocabulary of deliberate visual excess. The community distinction is just as useful: participants describe pattern, texture, arrangement and deliberate decor, rather than simply accumulating objects. A hot-weather fashion discussion recommends stacked jewelry, bag charms and pattern mixing when clothing layers are impractical. Those details sit behind the collection's taste jokes, from reserving the right to add fringe to stacking until it becomes architecture. Three focal points is the wearer's comic demand, and beige getting only a cameo is a personal preference. MAXIMALIST and DOPAMINE DRESSER name the wearer; MORE IS MORE takes a single arched treatment. The fringe and architecture lines each come in two colorways, with jewel-toned hats, bright contrast and a patterned option. Every design is custom embroidered on a dad hat, ready to join the outfit that already has plenty going on.