It’s always the most basic of ideas that enjoy stellar success. Think Facebook: tap into people’s vanity and voyeuristic tendencies (ie let them spy on exes with their current partners – and vice versa) and you have a multi-billion dollar, society-shifting sensation. Or try wheels on suitcases. Or wheels on kids’ shoes. Or, indeed, hosting parties where all guests simply have to wear hats – as is the idea behind international cult clubbing phenomenon Hat Club. Think it sounds silly? Not at all – Hat Club is now enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of members in venues across the world, including the UK, Shanghai and – of course – Abu Dhabi. Of course, all mighty oaks were once acorns…
‘It all started back in November 2003,’ recalls Dave Mitchell, the London-based founder and promoter for the club nights. ‘We were putting on our own night, so that a friend of ours could DJ. We couldn’t afford any big DJ names or promotion at the time, so we tried to think of different ways to attract the punters.’ Dan had already noticed the attention – both disagreeable and desired – that his trusty trilby fetched whenever he wore it in London’s clubs, which led to the lightbulb moment. ‘I suggested we get people to dress up a bit – but without the usual cheesy fancy dress element. So we decided to just get people to wear hats.’
The inspiration took off (or, rather, got put on) instantly and hasn’t stopped since. Exactly 160 friends and cap fans rolled up to the first ever Hat Club in London. And exactly 16,000 hat heads attended the most recent London night. So is the club’s catchphrase – ‘Don’t talk about hat club’ – slightly misleading, then? ‘In the beginning, we tried to make it an underground sort of club thing,’ Dan explains, ‘one that required membership, with the hat acting as the membership card.’ Evidently the reverse psychology worked, and people talked and talked (and wrote) about the enigmatic society.
As to the secret of the club’s popularity, Dan believes it’s all about eroding inhibitions. ‘The biggest strength about the night is the way the hats break down the whole clubby attitude. They seem to stop people getting so moody and standoffish. I’ll walk around the club and spot strangers commenting on each others’ hats. It’s as though, as soon as they put a hat on, a whole other person flourishes beneath the brim.’ But Dan’s quick to reiterate that Hat Club is most definitely not fancy dress. ‘A hat is a fashion accessory that you might already have in your wardrobe, but I wouldn’t have a gorilla costume, hanging in there, for example.’ Where does that leave those who claim to ‘just not be hat people’? Or those who get particularly hot in hats? ‘People can come along without hats – we’re not going to stop people having fun,’ he says. ‘What we normally do is take the friend that’s refusing to wear a hat inside on their own. We show them that every single other person in the club, including the bar staff and DJ, has got a hat on. Nine times out of 10, that person then realises they’re going to look stupid without one. We always have hats on standby for these types.’
The hotheaded, however, don’t get such an easy ride. ‘It’s a club, people are going to get hot. Although in the summer we do a lot of outdoor parties, when people come up with some amazing cooler alternatives.’
Indeed, Hat Club is all about using your head to come up with something different. At every party, the person in the best hat wins champagne as well as a clubful of respect. Previous winners include a man who wore a hollow bowler topped up with a fish tank, a man in complete Indian head dress and a girl who’d adorned her New Year’s Eve hat with a mini-Big Ben, complete with flashing lights spelling out ‘Happy New Year’. A man who wore a breakfast tray with an entire breakfast on it – including orange juice – all crafted from polystyrene, also bagged the magnum. And the most popular look? Why, the one that started it all off – the trilby.
‘Considering the clubbing scene is still growing in the UAE, I’m impressed,’ Dave concedes. ‘Everyone gets the idea, and there are some really creative looks going on.’ Of course we get it. The simple idea works because we’re all simple people who want as many reasons as possible to have fun, a party and a fresh look at each other.
