Chinatown Hats
My husband and I lived deep in the middle of NYC’s Chinatown for a little over 15 years. It was an astonishingly rich visual and cultural experience. And a long one at that. My husband (we’ll call him “C.”) used to say that not a single day would go by when he didn’t see something he had never seen before. He was right. Of course. I found these hats in various shops in our old neighborhood. Not being much of a hat wearer, I’ve long since given them away. But I couldn’t help photographing their structures and patterns. Each unique.
Wednesday 05.11.11 at 5:36 am
Lovely. Structurally, they bear a resemblance to the hats from a province in northeastern India, Assam. Those hats are wide-brimmed, bamboo-made, and are called “Jaapi.”