kiss kiss, pom pom

my husband was out of town last night. all the better for me to indulge in one of my guiltiest pleasures: watching DVR'd episodes of the rachel zoe project. slowly i watch, frame by frame, so as not to miss a single fashion nanosecond. in between multiple pause-asms over taylor's thigh-high louboutins, i find myself strangely intrigued by the hat rachel tries on at diane von furstenberg.



the hats top off DVF's fall 2009 "nomad" collection. it's a look intended for a woman who likely lives nowhere near a kazakh pasture, though that is precisely the inspiration behind it.



DVF reinterprets the ubiquitous russian hat, or ushanka, without a single follicle of fur. instead, she uses a medium more dear to my inner child than silly putty: pom poms.



and that is exactly the genius behind it.





of course, not everyone can pull off this look. but then again, it takes a special kind of je ne sais quoi to pull off any kind of look that truly stands out from the crowd. some may say it takes balls. giant balls of yarn.



inspired to make your own version of DVF's gallinet pom pom hat? there's no better way to use up leftovers from your stash while creating one of fall's most coveted accessories (really, RZ almost walked out the door with hers!) to begin, knit a close-fitting cap. then rock out about 25-30 pom poms. they should be a mix of sizes and mix of solids and multi-colored hues. the first trick is placing them on the cap. (one false move could take you from "how'd she do it?" to "oh no she di'int!") the second trick is growing the kahunas to place the cap on your head and walk out the door in broad daylight. as DVF says of the nomadic woman, "wherever she goes, she belongs. her clothes are her friends." maybe frenemies is more like it.