The end of the year/beginning of the new year is almost always a great time for movie-lovers, and this year is no exception. Even with the releases of critically applauded, “Lincoln”, “Argo”, and “Skyfall”, the end of the year was not a letdown for cinema. December saw the releases of the anticipated “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and the classic story of the downtrodden, “Les Miserables”.

Arguably, the film sparking the most conversation this season is Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”. The movie is an homage to twentieth century spaghetti westerns, but has much more controversial and dense content than early films of the genre, namely the violence surrounding slavery and racism in the antebellum American South.

The film tells the story of Django (Jamie Foxx), a slave turned emancipated bounty hunter with the help of a charismatic German immigrant (Christopher Waltz), who is also a bounty hunter. Django seeks to save his enslaved and abused wife (Kerry Washington) and get revenge against a depraved plantation owner (Leonardo Dicaprio) and his trusted house slave (Samuel L. Jackson).

With talented actors under the direction of expert writer and director Tarantino, the casting and production of the film is drawing few complaints (although the shocking content is definitely drawing some criticism). The icing on the cake for the movie is the fantastic costume design of Sharen Davis. The sprinkles on top of the icing are the hats that were used to complete the costumes. Although the actual hats used in the movie were custom one-of-a-kinds, hats.com has some awesome styles that are incredibly similar to some of the hats in Django Unchained. Check these out!

You can click on each hat to find out more about that specific style.

Find other bowlers and derbies here.

Find other western/cowboy hats here.

Recently, Ne-Yo released his fifth album “R.E.D.”, which is an acronym for the phrase “Realizing Every Dream”.  He has a great reputation for having both a silky voice and an impressive catalog of albums.  He lives up to his reputation with a quality album that offers an array of tunes that show off his skill set.  Tracey Garraud reviewed the album on the Rolling Stone website, while Andrew Hampp provides some more in-depth analysis of individual tracks on Billboard.com.  Below, I’ve written about my two favorite songs on the album.

Should Be You – This one is a dense R&B song with a thick bass bump layered with gentle synthesizers and keyboard accents.  It has a hip-hop feel to it, bolstered by verses from Fabolous and Diddy.  “Should Be You” dwells on an intense longing for a lost love that just can’t be replaced.  The verses from the rappers flow nicely in the song because they don’t try to do too much.  Too often, verses thrown into R&B songs don’t really seem to mesh with the actually content of the song.  They work pretty well here.

“Don’t Make Em Like You – Ne-Yo and the producers he works with seem to always have a knack for taking standard song structures and adding in some extra flavor to set it apart from other artist’s tracks.  “Don’t Make Em Like You” has the power to be a club-banger that people will love to hear when they are out partying.  Still, there is obvious attention to the production of this song that makes it much easier to appreciate aesthetically.  It’s definitely more than just a passing beat that get people wound up.  It’s also cool that it’s a shout out to classy women.

The pre-chorus of “Don’t Make Em Like You” rides in on the strength of a clever vocal progression by Ne-Yo and a nice little bassline underneath it.  The bridge has an interesting cutting and swirling sound like its being manipulated on a turntable.  It also features popular lyricist Wiz Khalifa adding in a verse with his trademark casual delivery.

Ne-Yo is famous for almost always wearing a fedora when he’s in the public eye.  He brings his trademark R&B smoothness to the hat world with the Francis Ellargo line of fedoras that he designed with the Bollman Hat Company.  We are lucky enough to offer them on hats.com.  One of our customers left these positive reviews on hats from the Francis Ellargo line:

Pinch Fedora

“The quality of this hat is terrific. Definitely great to wear with a suit or when going out on a chilly night. Overall, a well-crafted topper!”

Closer Fedora

“Nicely made hat. Great for going out and definitely sets you apart from the rest of the herd. I’m planning on buying another F.E. hat!”

-Fedora Lover of La Verne, CA

Check these two out, along with the six other styles, to find your favorite Ne-Yo look!

The HBO television drama “Boardwalk Empire” was recently honored with 12 nominations at the 64^th Primetime Emmy Awards in late September.  Some of the nominations the show received were Best Series, Outstanding Lead Actor, Outstanding Casting for a Drama Series, and Outstanding Costumes for a Series.  That last nomination is of particular interest to us here at hats.com.  A very important part of the costumes on Boardwalk Empire is the hats that costume designer John Dunn selected for characters on the show.

The prohibition era in America was an interesting period in history for several reasons; one being the types of headwear that were popular at the time.  A hat was, and still is symbol of status and personality, and the 1920’s represented this idea well.  “Boardwalk Empire” captures character personas with a mix of hat styles like fedoras, homburgs, and newsboy caps.

Fedoras:

Newsboys:

Homburg:

With actors like the great Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson, Shea Whigham as Eli Thompson, Jack Huston as Richard Harrow, and Stephen Graham as Al Capone, it’s no surprise this series has gotten some serious critical acclaim.  Check out the show for yourself, if you haven’t already, and keep an eye out for the hats they use in the costumes.  If you see something you like, visit hats.com and you’re sure to find something comparable that you can pick up for yourself!  Also, don’t hesitate to leave comments or visit our Facebook and Twitter if you have questions about certain styles you’re looking for.