Spring 2013 marks London-based milliner Piers Atkinson’s tenth season. His witty, often outrageous toppers have always emitted a certain vintage, big-screen glamour. (Can’t you just see Marilyn rocking a pair of the designer’s signature hyper-cherries?) So what better way to celebrate his brand’s fifth anniversary than with an old Hollywood-themed collection? Titled Director’s Cut, Atkinson’s Spring 2013 lineup pulls inspiration from films of the thirties, forties, and fifties as well as greats like Lana Turner, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, and Joan Crawford. “I think when you look at old films, all the girls are wearing hats and they all look a million dollars. It was an era when femininity was more demure,” says the milliner, who now sells his collection in the States at Opening Ceremony. Given the collection’s cinematic nature, it only makes sense that the designer would create a film to showcase his new looks. Directed by Morgan White and styled by Kim Howells, the black-and-white short, which debuts above on Style.com, features glitzy girls wearing Atkinson’s Spring chapeaux, like a swirling black feathered number cleverly named the Hitchcock and a black silk rose beret with a reflective laser-cut veil that bleaches out the face when exposed to a camera flash. Atkinson calls it the Incognita. Although the milliner tells us that the hat, intended to perplex paparazzi, was inspired by Lady Gaga, we think the starlets that influenced his Spring collection would have appreciated this veil of invisibility (as will his famous clientele, which includes a host of pop stars and British nobles). A mini bowler hat with a mustachioed veil also has a supporting role. After all, it wouldn’t be an Atkinson collection without a little cheeky whimsy.
—Katharine K. Zarrella
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