From snow, rain and sun: Baseball cap as the main headdress of spring
We tell about the trends from the podium, which can be adapted for your wardrobe for the next six months. In this issue we understand how designers unanimously chose the main headdress of the spring - a baseball cap. Caps in this season appeared in most collections: leather - from Moschino, from tweed - from Chanel, from cotton - from Alexander Wang. The baseball cap came into vogue more than half a century ago, and before that it went through a real evolution: it all began, by the way, not from the sports form, as many people used to think, but from the military. We tell how it happened, why caps have not lost their relevance and what to wear them with today.
How it all began
The visor, without which a modern baseball cap would have been just a round cap, was invented at the beginning of the 19th century for the military uniform of Great Britain. Soon the French took note of it, with the result that in 1830 a kepi appeared - a cap with a small hard bottom. His visor was long and large: it was believed that in this way he could better protect the soldier’s face from the sun or rain. In practice, however, everything turned out to be exactly the opposite, and he quickly got wet and lost shape. This, though not entirely successful model, became the prototype of modern caps. In America, caps were worn a little later, in the 1860s, following the example of General George Brinton McClellan. Another progenitor of a baseball cap can be considered a flat cap worn by wealthy residents of Albion at the end of the 19th century (something like this can be seen in the television series Peaky Blinders). Over time, everyone liked it: employees of factories and workshops began to wear it, guards and chauffeurs began to wear it because of the last, and they called it the “driver's cap.”
In the 40s, bini became popular in the United States, whose unusual design was later inherited by baseball caps. The cap consisted of several "panels" forming a dome on top of the dome, fastened with a button. On modern caps this button remained as a decorative element. Of course, the story of a baseball cap could not do without baseball: on April 24, 1849, the New York Knickerbockers team showed a new uniform that included a special straw hat. She became the prototype of our usual cap.
How caps are back in fashion
In the late 80s - early 90s, hip-hop gained momentum - and with it the baseball cap, which turned into a real object of desire, far from being just sports fans. The cap replaced the tired Panama, who was actively promoted by LL Cool J. For example, members of the New York band Kid 'n Play and the TLC women's trio wore a baseball cap with bright, neon clothes. The R & B singer Alia had a huge impact on women's fashion and was tragically lost, according to the American version of Vogue, elements of her style are still traced in the Off-White, Dion Lee, Fenty x Puma collections.
Soon all this migrated from the subculture to the mainstream. Brands such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren Polo, Tommy Hilfiger in the late 90s smoothly changed their course from the "university" choppy preppy to a freer, sporty style. Models in baseball caps began to appear on the pages of glossy magazines, such as Vogue Italia in 1992 or Vogue UK in 1990, and, of course, on the catwalks. So, in 1991, Karl Lagerfeld presented a collection inspired by hip-hop. A little later, the trend picked up Donna Karan.
Presenting modern fashion without a baseball cap is difficult: it was influenced by the normcore, and a comprehensive sports style, and images of pop and rap stars, and the rise of street fashion. At first, the typical male element of the wardrobe, after years the cap lost all gender associations: in the 2012/13 collections Roberto Cavalli combined a baseball cap with large sunglasses, and in DSquared2 this element of sports style harmoniously coexisted with a pencil skirt and high heels. Two years later, the Belgian brand A.F. Vandevorst showed his variation on the topic - slightly rounded caps that almost covered the forehead, and DKNY presented quite authentic baseball caps with the logo. Gucci in the autumn-winter collection of 2016 appeared interesting insulated options with prints and applications - just for the Russian off-season.
What to wear
Since at first the cap was worn by the military or sportsmen, there is still a stereotype that this headgear fits only in a sporty style. In fact, it all depends on your taste: there are so many models today that everyone can find something to their liking. Cap, decorated with sequins or rhinestones, as in the show Elie Saab, easily combined with a skirt and top or dress. A simple monochrome baseball cap, like that of Off-White, will look great with a minimalist set in neutral colors.
The baseball cap can be successfully adapted to the classic style: in combination with a coat or jacket, a plain cap with a small visor will look as impressive as possible. If you are going to a party, pay attention to the images of Kim Kardashian and Rihanna - from their presentation the baseball cap turns into almost an “evening” headdress. A separate subgenre - caps with inscriptions and logos, which are now produced and young fashion brands like the Polish MISBHV, and representatives of the "heavy luxury" like Balenciaga. We recommend to look at the models with inscriptions in Russian, as in the collections of Gosha Rubchinsky, KTZ or Outlaw Moscow. With the cap, you can even declare your musical preferences or ideology, which you adhere to. However, most often the cap is just a cap.
Photo: Vivastudio, BBC, Ports 1961, KM20, STUSSY, MISBHV