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!

Ben’s Candidates:

Mel’s Candidates:

Jes’s Candidates:

Job’s Candidates:

Of course, in the spirit of American democracy, we have to give green a chance.  Since green usually gets much less exposure, we just had Chris, our eCommerce Director, choose a single green style from hats.com.  We have to let everybody throw their hat in the ring (wink).

Chris’s Candidate:

If you’d rather remain a moderate, go the safe route with red, white, and blue:

It’s much more fun to choose between colors when it involves hats and not politicians.  Best of all, these hats will actually live up to all of your expectations!

• You’ll be able to use it after Halloween is over
• You don’t want the hat falling apart before the night is over, ruining your costume
• If you get a hat that fits right, it will stay on and be comfortable for a long time
• Authenticity will make your costume rise above the rest

Still haven’t decided what to do on the big night?  Hats.com has an unbelievable selection of hats that you can wear on Halloween and beyond.  Below is a big list of the ideas we came up with in our office.  Under each hat shape, you’ll find several costume ideas.  If you click on the costume idea, you’ll be taken to a hat that we recommend as the best option for that particular costume.  If the costume has several different options, you’ll be taken to a category that you can look through to find the best option for you.

Fedoras

• Gangster
• Detective
• Blues Brothers
• Prince Harry
• Indiana Jones
• Frank Sinatra
• Michael Jackson
• Dixon Hill
• Boardwalk Empire Characters
• Vince Lombardi 
• Green Hornet

Westerns

• Cowboy/cowgirl
• Sheriff 
• Farmer 
• Lone Ranger
• Woody (from Toy Story)
• Jesse (from Toy Story)

Bowler

• Charlie Chaplin
• Droogs (from A Clockwork Orange)
• Watson
• Oddjob
• Sally Bowles (from Cabaret) 

Top Hat

• Magician 
• Undertaker
• Victorian Gentleman 
• Abraham Lincoln 
• Willy Wonka
• Mad Hatter
• Mad Moxxi (from Borderlands)

Fashion Hats

• Lady Gaga
• Kate Middleton
• Audrey Hepburn 

Other Hat Shapes

• Captain
• Amelia Earhart/Charles Lindbergh
• John Lennon
• Dr. Who (11^th doctor)
• Sports Fan/Athlete
• Characters from The Expendables
• Walter White a.k.a. Heisenberg (Breaking Bad)
• Elmer Fudd 
• Jamie (from Mythbusters)

With hats.com, not only will you look awesome on Halloween, you might find a favorite new addition to your wardrobe.

Here at hats.com, we love searching the web for things that make us laugh.  One of the greatest trends in the history of the interwebs has been the creation of ridiculous and hilarious memes.  Here, we take some of the most well-known memes (with hats in them, of course) and add our own captions!

Make sure you don’t get turned into an infamous hat meme like Scumbag Steve.  Hats.com has all the right styles to ensure you don’t see your face floating around the internet inviting strangers to have fun at your expense.

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.

Pick one up in each style and be ready to root on your team the whole way to the championship!

For those who haven’t seen the show, Walter is a suburbanite, high school chemistry teacher who is stricken with cancer in the first season.  He also has the responsibility of taking care of a wife, a newborn child, and a teenage son with cerebral palsy.  Through a series of events involving his brother-in-law in the DEA, Walter is introduced to the New Mexico crystal meth scene.  He decides to use his chemistry skills to cook some high-quality meth to help pay his family’s bills and build up a financial nest-egg for his family in case he passes away from cancer.

The show follows his increased involvement in major meth-amphetamine distribution, to the point that he actually becomes a major player in his region.  Along with that, he undergoes a major personality and lifestyle transformation.  His evolution, starting mildly with the decision to shave his head before cancer makes the decision for him, involves him forming an alter-ego under the alias “Heisenberg”.  White, or Heisenberg depending on how you know him, also wears a black windbreaker, dark sunglasses, and a thick goatee.  But the coolest part of his visual alteration has to be the striking pork pie hat that can often be seen resting on his bald head.

The black pork pie has become a signature part of the show, and a much easier way for fans to emulate Heisenberg than starting a major crystal meth operation.  We have noticed an increase in sales on hats.com for the Bollman Collection 1940’s Pork Pie Hat and attribute some of that to the popularity of the show.  Pick up a pork pie or top off your own alter-ego’s look with one of our many unique hats.