Hats Off To Vienna: “Tip of the Hat! A Social History of the Covered Head” @ Wien Museum Karlsplatz” |

In Pier Paolo Pasolini's Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew), religious leaders wear enormously disproportionate headdresses. Dominating the frames, the headpieces are symbolically employed to indicate the conceit and self-importance of the characters wearing them. By changing the proportions of these accessories, Pasolini therefore hinted at something hidden in his characters without mentioning it.

Yet hats and headdresses add and define status not just in films but in real life and Michaela Feurstein-Prasser, Andrea Hönigmann-Polly and Barbara Staudinger, the curators of the "Tip of the Hat! A Social History of the Covered Head" (until 30th October 2016) exhibition at the Wien Museum Karlsplatz (Vienna), perfectly know it.

Hats are not just a mere protection against wind and weather, but they are physical symbols of specific powers and roles or can be employed to make a statement about one's cultural affiliations or political attitudes, at times indicating a person's social rank and standing.

"Tip of the Hat! A Social History of the Covered Head" develops from this basic concept – discovering the hidden meanings behind key headpieces.

The exhibition features approximately over 100 objects, photographs and drawings, some of them borrowed from the Wien Museum's vast collection and in some ways also attempts to trace the history of Vienna's fashion.

The event is therefore a journey that moves from the political upheavals that swept Europe through 1848, with particular attention to the revolution that radically transformed Vienna.

With their Calabrese-style hats, the revolutionaries of 1848 set themselves apart from top hat-wearing reactionaries. Social democrats in flat caps struggled for workers' emancipation, while the Styrian felt hat symbolized loyalty to the regime during the Austro-fascist period.

Hats are symbols of power, of conspicuous expressions of affluence, and signs of status. They are key accessories to complement a uniform, or they can turn into a much-needed whimsical piece to enliven a dress.

While there is emphasis on military hats and on the local production in Vienna that boomed after 1870 (not a lot of people know about it, so it's worth remembering it…), there are also some ethereal and feathery hats from the 1940s by avant-garde Viennese milliner Adele List (1893-1983), some of them in wonderful shades of burnt orange or in vivid blue tones.

Shapes and silhouettes are also extremely interesting – with cloche and cocktail hats; top hats, fedoras and hamburg hats – while materials and decorative elements employed (felt, cotton, feathers and silk) can provide inspirations.

Curators chronologically follow the developments of hats moving onto hiking hats and straw hats, but also hoods, yarmulkes, headscarves and a bejeweled mitre designed in 2007 for Pope Benedict, pieces that function as personal "trademarks", symbols of religious and cultural identity, accessories that hint at devotion or trends.

Graphic designers and photography fans will discover adverts, pages from fashion magazines and portraits of milliners, while students interested in taking this art further will find out that today the Hetzendorf Fashion School is the only institution in the German-speaking world that teaches hat-making.

One key element of this exhibition is that it puts emphasis not just on the designs on display, but on the stories that they immediately reveal abour the wearers and their places in Viennese society. This is an intriguing way to use fashion history to read social history – chapeau to the curators!

Image credits for this post

Hat ensemble from the exhibition
© Wien Museum

Scene from everyday life in Vienna, ca. 1900
Photo: Emil Mayer © Wien Museum

Mühlbauer advertising placard, ca. 1950
© Mühlbauer Hutmanufaktur

Hiking hat with glasses, ca. 1880
© Wien Museum

Girardi straw hat, ca. 1908-1910
© Wien Museum