HIGH-FASHION WORLD'S HEADING FOR HATS.

Byline: Suzy Patterson

Associated Press

Hats seem to be more runway gadgets these days than essential parts of a wardrobe, with design inspirations for today's headgear ranging from flying saucers to plumbing parts.

Remember when a lady hardly ventured out of the house without a hat on? You might not, because - except for rain hats and snow caps - they stopped being popular about 30 years ago.

Now just about all you see in the streets, especially in France, are bare heads, whether the hairdos are good or not.

But the hat is not dead. At least a few creative milliners are turning out hats to make heads turn, if not swim. Besides the conventional shapes, they do outer-space objects, mad-hatter oversized chapeaux, corkscrews, playing-blocks or other forms that take their fancy.

Yves Saint Laurent believes in hats, especially boater or conical hats, to dress up an ensemble. Ditto Givenchy, who is big on sun hats. Claude Montana goes into outer space for weird, pointy shapes. Jean-Paul Gaultier is among those known to show plumbing and kitchen utensils as hats.

Karl Lagerfeld gets creative with everything from huge puffballs of feathers and fur, to a funny pastiche of a chair.

Hats undoubtedly started out as utilitarian objects for prehistoric people hooded by skins. But by the time of the Greeks and Egyptians they were ornamental, signifying status.

As decor, they've had glorious moments.

In our own century, we've seen the big Edwardian hats and sun hats, the '20s cloches, the '30s mannish hats, and some outlandish creations, especially by Elsa Schiaparelli, who started madcaps and even set a shoe upon a head in lieu of a hat. But since Jackie Kennedy's pillbox, women, even presidents' wives, have tended to eschew hats as decor.

Today's big hat moments rarely go beyond weddings and major horse races.

"This is definitely too bad," said Christian Lacroix. "It may have to do with the automobile, and with beehive coiffures that made hats impossible, or not liking to feel conspicuous. So they just petered out."

He admits, however, that hats are surviving better in America and England than France as street or ceremonial wear. He finds the situation in France deplorable. "My wife was ridiculed recently for wearing a cloche," he said. "And that's really sad."

"American women, especially in cities, are less reluctant to wear hats," ventured Carol Mongo, executive head of the Parsons School of Design in Paris.

Edith Kunz from Phoenix, Ariz., and Paris loves hats and wears one nearly every day. "I got in the habit of a hat in Arizona to shield against the beating sun and in Paris as rain protection," she said. "Now I hardly feel dressed going out without one." She favors all kinds of discreet shapes of straw or cotton for summer, felt for winter, and vintage hats in pliable felt from the '20s or '30s for feeling original.

Lacroix favors oddball hats and glamorous chapeaux to dress up his runway shows, giving a real cachet of fun and style to the outfits.

One of his most creative milliners is Regis Lenne, who treats hats like sculpture, working out of an overcrowded (with headgear) atelier in a Paris suburb.

"There are only a handful of true couture milliners," said the 31-year-old, who models by hand, using steam on felt, water on straw, making horsehair hats by sewing bands together on the machine.

He even uses chicken wire once in a while, sticking it with feathers, or swaths of stiffened rope on a flattened cone or turban shape.

"Hats now are a sign of individuality," said Lenne, whose headgear sells for anywhere from about $180 to $1,000 or so.

Another creator is a diminutive but strong-minded Japanese woman living in Paris, Akemi Tajima, 38, who designs her own line called Michou Petite et Grande in a colorful workshop near the Bastille.

"I get ideas just anywhere," she said. "On the street, in the kitchen, in the wardrobe."

One of her most admired compatriots is Akio Hirata, who designs for Japanese royalty; he recently celebrated 50 years in the business with a show of his elegant hat shapes, paying a special tribute to Jean Barthet, Paris's premier milliner.

Barthet, in the business for over 40 years now, has no personal worries about his couture hat status. He has designed for the royal family of Monaco, Brigitte Bardot and Jackie Onassis. His recent huge hat nearly hiding Sophia Loren in the Robert Altman movie "Ready to Wear" was a newsmaker by itself.

But he bemoans a lack of interest among average women, especially in France.

"Paris is a revolving disc of fashion. Hats absolutely must come 'round again," he said. He recently noticed bare-headed wives of the present and past heads of state, Mesdames Chirac and Mitterrand, conspicuous on a much-photographed podium.

"They could have set a good example," said Barthet. "My suggestion would be for the government to encourage hats through appearance, and incidentally to lower charges on employers for workers in our industries. Perhaps a demand for hats and enthusiasm among creators would promote new employment in the industry."

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Photo (1--3) Hats off to ... horrors A haberdasher's worst nightmare, from top Be careful out there, Chip 'n' Dale; fan dancing takes on a different form; new life for those worn-out pastry bags. (4--8) Audrey Hepburn ... the queen of hats Award-winning actress, Audrey Hepburn is incomparably stylish in, from left "Paris When It Sizzles," left, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "My Fair Lady," and multiply so in "Charade." (9) The '70s are alive in this floppy-brimmed white hat from J.C. Penney. (10) DKNY goes retro with this little red hat sporting a grosgrain bow and cherries. (11) The French artist's beret is back - again - this time from A Line by Anne Klein.