A Lift for Flattops

Every woman knows how the scarf-makers tried. They snipped everything from chiffon to cotton to sensuous silk into triangles, trapezoids and squares. Givenchy and Balenciaga dappled the shapes with abstract slashes; Emilio Pucci colored them with wildly vibrant designs that looked like stained glass; lesser lights tried everything from polka dots to reproductions of Botticelli paintings. But even when the Mona Lisa was pulled flat over the hair and reefed under the chin, the result was strictly Ellis Island--that flattopped look, with a tail either drooping forlornly at half-mast or sticking out behind like the flight deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Now the hatters have added some crucial undercover work. To give the scarf a lift and banish the babushka look, milliners have concocted a hatlike frame of stiff net. Over the frame goes a kerchief, with the ends either knotted at the nape of the neck or softly folded in front. The result: the scarf hat, a runaway bestseller that can safely be placed on freshly set hair and is often well worth wearing for its own stylish sake.

During the pre-Easter buying spree, scarf hats sold out all over Manhattan, from $65 Adolfo-designed abstracts on a high-crowned framework to a wide assortment of slightly stiffened cotton prints for less than $10. For the hat industry, the Manhattan sellout was a happy harbinger; although New York usually initiates fashion trends, the big town is not as big a hat town as St. Louis, San Francisco, Boston, Washington or Chicago.

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