A Brief History on Pharrell Williams’ Grammys Hat

 

 

 

The Real Winner:  Pharrell Williams’ Hat.

The real star of the 2014 GRAMMYs was, not Jay Z, Beyonce or Madonna. It was without a doubt, Pharrell Williams’ hat. Having scored a ridiculous amount of attention and it’s own twitter account, that hat was the real winner of the night.

Aside from Pharrell Williams’ winning Producer of the Year and speaking on the behalf of Album of the Year winners Daft Punk, William’s caused a stir.

Many, including myself, joked and laughed that the he looked like a park ranger and my personal favorite, Smokey the Bear.

However the hat was a vintage Vivienne Westwood Buffalo hat that was part of the birth of Hip Hop. Malcolm McLaren, manager of the Sex Pistols and former beau of Westwood, created the hat with the British designer for her autumn/winter 1982/ 1983 collection. McLaren then featured the hat in the World’s Famous Supreme Team’s music video for their 1982 early hip-hop classic “Buffalo Girls.”

 

McLaren was much inspired by American Folk culture and created this look based off of the 1844 performance of “Buffalo Gals,” a traditional song performed by Blackface singer John “Cool White” Hodges.

The hat actually protected legitimate cultural references, and for that, I take back my Smokey the Bear comment.