How about that hat!



Some say Aretha Franklin stole the fashion show at the presidential swearing-in with a big, glittery, dove-gray hat, adorned with the biggest bow ever. It’s certainly the talk of the Internet, and the Detroit milliner who made the $179 chapeau is being swamped with requests for a replica.

But this hat was more than a fashion statement.

Playwright Regina Taylor is the author of a musical called Crowns, about the tradition of wearing big, bold, and beautiful hats in the African American church, where such head coverings are indeed referred to as “crowns” and women who have a large collection of them are known as “hat queens.” Hat queens tend to be of an older generation, says Taylor. “But I see more young African American women wearing hats.”

In October’s cover story, we introduced you to the first life-size, scientifically accurate reconstruction of a Neanderthal woman that's based on fossil anatomy and ancient DNA. She is five feet tall. She is heavily muscled. And you've surely noticed that she’s not wearing any clothes. Anthropologists believe that in summer, Neanderthals probably went naked.

Although the cover headline reads “Neanderthals Revealed,” we thought Wilma, as magazine staffers affectionately call her, might have occasionally craved a cover-up. So we asked some of the Project Runway designers to sketch an outfit for her, featuring materials that would have been available in Neanderthal times: animal skins (aka “leathuh”), fur, bones, and ocher body paint. Two National Geographic magazine designers also took on the challenge of answering the question: "What Would Wilma Wear?" Here are the fashion-forward ensembles they came up with.

Project Runway is over, but thank goodness for Project MOMA.

An extraordinary new show at New York’s Museum of Modern Art shows how scientists are designers too. The show is called “Design and the Elastic Mind,” and it is 3 parts technology, 1 part fashion, and 17 parts crazy.

If you can’t make it to New York for the show’s run (through May 12), here’s a sample of what you’ll be missing, and a “status report” on the products.

NON-STOP SHOES. They’re sneakers, finished in red horse hair and reflective plastic film. I really don’t want to use the “f” word but I can’t help myself – they’re totally fierce. But the fiercest thing of all is the technology these shoes are said to possess. They contain some kind of device that will capture and store the energy you put out all day long. You know, when you leave your desk to walk to the bathroom or run out to buy a mid-afternoon Red Bull. At the end of the day you can hook up the shoes to a special device that will harvest the stored energy and use it to power your home electronica. Status report: The MOMA exhibit did not explain exactly how these shoes work or when they will be on the shelf at Payless.

VICTIMLESS LEATHER. Dilemma: You love the look of leather but don’t want animals to give up their lives so you can have a hot new coat. Solution: Victimless leather! Here’s the theory: A “living layer” of animal tissue, grown in vitro and fed by a nutrient bath, could grow into a leather garment! No animals will be harmed. Status report: There is a prototype featuring a wee leather coat, from the so-called “Tissue and Art Project” at an Australian laboratory.

BEE VASE.  We appreciate all the honey, but why can’t bees work harder for us? A scientist created a scaffold that enabled bees to build a honeycomb in the shape of a lovely vase. What comes from flowers ends up creating a vessel for flowers! Status report: Totally real. The vase is on display. I’d pay $19.99 for it in a heartbeat.

PERSONAL IRRIGATOR. This cool white network of PVC pipes blow out “marine mineral concentrates” that will allegedly improve your immune system (don’t ask me how) and “the body’s elimination functions.” Plus, I bet you’ll always feel like you’re at the seashore from those salty minerals. Sweet! Status report: A French designer is working with biologists and others to produce a variety of devices that improve your “personal environment.”

DOG COMMUNICATOR. What does your dog really mean when it wags its tail? An LED light, calibrated to the connection between wpm (that’s wags per minute) and canine desires will spell out in red lights what a dog wants: 55 wpm means “WALKIES!” And 90wpm: “I REALLY LOVE YOU.” Awww, Fido! You’re the best. Status report: Two British designers created a prototype as part of the “Augmented Animals project.” No word on how they determined the meaning of wags per minute.

The museum shares this amazing stuff online, too.

P.S. Dear Project Runway designer Chris March: There’s a “Cotton thread and human hair” necklace created in Spain in 1996. So you’re not so weird after all!

-Marc Silver

Some of the poseurs on America’s Next Top Model got weaves last night. It hurt. A lot. “I just felt like my scalp was bleeding,” said Ebony. Girlfriend, women have been crying over weaves for 5,000 years.

That’s the age of the weave (pictured, above) found in an ancient tomb by archaeologist Renee Friedman, director of the Hierakonpolis Expedition. The hair extensions were woven to the mummy’s real hair were … also her real hair. She must have grown it, cut it off, then had it woven back on for a  little hairdo height. (Big hair was really popular in 3600 B.C.) The weave woman also dyed her hair with henna for color that really lasted – we’re talking millennia!

“In ancient Egypt if one lived to be really old, like 70, they made you a local saint, so old age was respected no doubt for the knowledge and memory that person had (in a society where most people were dead by 35-40),” says Friedman. “But clearly looking one's age has never been the in thing in life or death.”

The picture of the weave is courtesy of (and copyright by) the Hierakonpolis Expedition. Any suggestions about which model should get this 5,000-year-old weave? Anybody dare to submit a photo of the weave photoshopped onto a model (or celebrity) head? It's gotta look better than some of the makeovers on this week's show!

-Marc Silver