Oh, Chapeaux!

I touched on this briefly in “Dressing Mrs. O.” (February 6), but I’ve got to revisit Aretha’s hat, if only because everyone else seems to be. In Detroit, where it came from. And in New York, where fashion goes to live or die.

Easter Sunday could be a day of glitter and bows all over the U.S.A. this year.

Thing is, what the lady wore on Inaugration Day was modest, understated and extremely low key by many standards. A visit to a black church on any given Sunday will confirm this view. . The book “Crowns: A Portrait of Black Women in Church Hats” explains it all.

Black women do not have a monopoly on such things. Here’s the lineup for this year’s Kentucky Derby. And remember what showed up at Charles and Camilla’s wedding? The hat in the first picture

looks like pieces of Zeus’s thunderbolt. Someone else said the cloche (?) in the second photo looked like a broken bird nest. I agree. And check out the pink number behind it. Queen Liz seems to be late to the action and hasn’t quite got the style yet. But that bottom photo takes it all!

Aretha’s hat may be everywhere, but here’s the best photo yet.

Tags: Aretha's hat, black church, Charles and Camilla, crowns, Kentucky Derby