I saw an article in Hat Life magazine about the hat worn by Aretha Franklin at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009. You may remember that it was a Swarovski crystal studded, heather gray wool hat with a gigantic bow made out of the heather gray material. Hard to miss eh! Ms Franklin sang “My Country “Tis of Thee”‘” at the event. It was fantastic. Ms. Franklin also sang at the Martin Luther King funeral. I saw Ms. Franklin on the Larry King Show on CNN shortly after the event. Larry King asked her about the notorious hat. She just said that she got the hat from a little hat shop in Detroit. Now the “hat is out of the bag” so to speak. The Internet is all a buzz about the hat which actually has its very own website.
The Designer/Maker is now revealed as Luke Song of Mr. Song Millinery. Actually the hat is two designs in one. Reportedly it was Ms Franklin’s idea to incorporate the huge bow on the hat – and history was made – an inspired hatty lady!
The actual hat was hand molded and would cost at least $500 to replicate. There has been a mountain of requests for the hat. Mr. Song has been making a satin ribbon version available for $179 (US). Patience he may have temporarily run out of the materials I read.
Mr. Song, an immigrant from Korea, has been in business for 25 years and Ms Franklin is a long time client. He also supplies about 500 boutique stores across the USA. Things are certainly Going (well) for a (Mr.) Song! (Please forgive my poetic licence in the title to the post. Yes we Brits have a weird sense of humour and we spell it funny). Of course the hats themselves are not going for a song. A very blessed designer is Mr. Song. A very good day for we hat wearers around the world. Let’s hope there are more to come.
The Gospelrama blog reported that The Smithsonian Institute has asked Ms. Franklin to donate the hat as part of an Obama Inauguration collection. I could find no word on whether she agreed to the request. I am not sure she would take my calls even if I had her telephone number. Does any reader have an update? Please post a comment if you have more information.
Oh yes you can have some photo fun with the hat. You can shrink it or enlarge it for effect. One Jack Shepherd posted a link to a clip art version of the hat. You can use photo edit software to place the hat on a picture. See my picture on the lead to the post. I used Photo Shop Elements for my picture. Perhaps I should have enlarged the hat a bit more but I like it as it is. I also am using the new picture on my About page on this blog as well as on my Face Book page and in the Hat Revivalist League Group on Face Book (I am the creator of the Group). The link to the posting is on a fun site called Buzz Feed. You can post your creations to the site at the link to the Shepherd post at the beginning of this paragraph. My favorite was the hat superimposed on Dick Cheney – quite an improvement – LOL!
