In her role as Dynasty’s Alexis Carrington, Joan Collins wore many fabulous hats. She wore them so well that she convinced many American women that they could pull off their own statement headgear. So, obviously, Collins decided to capitalize by launching her own line of hats.
Practical? Absolutely not. But it was the 1980s, after all.
This was in 1985, and the New York Times News Service was on the scene to ask the tough questions:
Joan Collins, wearing a white silk dress and a big white straw hat with a brim that dipped over her face, said she loved hats and did “a little television show on which I wear them. The actress, also known as Alexis on “Dynasty,” was introducing the Joan Collins Collection of hats at a luncheon at the Pierre Hotel last week. But photographers seemed to be more interested in taking pictures of her than of the models. Most of the hats were quite large, like the one she was wearing, thought there were a few toques and turbans as well.
But just when, besides for lunch at the Pierre, would someone wear a big straw hat? Well, Collins admitted, “A hat isn’t something you would want every day. It’s more for weddings, bar mitzvahs, special lunches.”
The hats ran $60 to $160. Tragically, there are currently none available on Ebay—trust me, I checked—and it doesn’t look like the line lasted as long as her forays into jewelry or perfume. But Andy Warhol attended the launch.
Thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you can even see these beauties in color. “I think that a hat can change any woman’s mood,” Dame Collins declares confidently while wearing sort of a modified cowboy hat. She’s not wrong!
