The word is in on Hillary Clinton's Inaugural Day wardrobe: loved her, hated the hat.
Hatmakers and fashion critics blew their tops over the big, blue velour number that capped Hillary's outfit at Wednesday's festivities, particularly when she wore the hat indoors for a luncheon appearance."It was a terrible looking hat. No style, no pizazz, no nothing," offered milliner Leo Marshall, president at Lenore Marshall Inc. in Manhattan. "It didn't become her. She picked the wrong hat."
Agreed designer Cherie Jefferson-Lawrence: "She blew it big time."
You remember the hat - a cadet blue with the brim turned up in the front and turned down in the back, a satin band accented with a satin button. Hillary wore it with a large hat pin in the back.
The Daily News described it as "a cross between Paddington Bear's preferred headgear and `Bowery Boy' Leo Gorcey's mashed-brim fedora."
Ouch. With reviews like that, Hillary should be in the market for a crash helmet.
The hat was the creation of Darcy Creech of Southport, Conn., whose chapeau made an enduring impression on a day when there was a lot more (and a lot more important) going on.
"I thought it looked appropriate. But my husband . . . He talked about that hat as if it was a mortal sin," said Mary Lou Luther, syndicated fashion columnist for the Los Angeles Times. "My husband said even Barbara Bush had the sense not to wear a hat."
Top designer Alexander Julian thought the hat flap was a bit much: "I personally liked the hat. And whether I do or don't, does that matter? She should be able to dress for herself. I admire her spirit and gumption."
Love it or hate it, people noticed Hillary's head like no first lady's since Jacqueline Kennedy whipped out her pink pillbox 30 years ago. And Mrs. Clinton wasn't alone in topping off for the Inauguration - Tipper Gore joined her in the hat club.
Which brings us to Mr. Blackwell, who never met an outfit he couldn't trash. Incredibly, the Los Angeles-based fashion critic liked Hillary's hat: "She looked like a queen. I thought she looked fabulous. I really was proud of her."
As for Tipper's topper . . .
"I didn't like Tip's hat at all. It was the wrong hat completely," Mr. B continued. "Tipper better learn how to wear her clothes. I don't think she can do it in four years. She needs a three-way mirror and a lot of good advice."
And both of them should have taken the hats off indoors: "They were the wrong hats for a luncheon. They were not garden party hats," Mr. Blackwell intoned.
Luther said the slagging of the new first lady's outfits has become a time-honored tradition in the fashion industry, as much a part of the new administration as the incoming Cabinet or the inaugural balls.