Although the twentieth century has seen the hat transformed from an indispensable part of every wardrobe into an object that is, except on a few formal occasions, very much an optional extra, it has also witnessed a glorious and exuberant flowering of the milliner's and hatmaker's art. This spectacularly illustrated book is both a history and a celebration of the headgear of the past one hundred years. It covers both sexes and includes not only the work of the great designers - from Jean Patou and Coco Chanel in the 1920s to Phillip Treacy and Patricia Underwood today - but also the mass-produced hats which were worn daily by ordinary men and women. The changing social function and status of the hat is examined, from the bonnets and top hats of the Edwardian era, through the turbans and cloches of the jazz age and the utilitarian wartime years, right up to the 1980s and 1990s when no teenager could contemplate life without a baseball cap and Princess Diana took on the role of 'saint and savior' of the millinery profession. The illustrations draw on the libraries of British and American Vogue and include many classic photographs of the stars of the silver screen and the social scene who set the trends, from Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo to Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy.