GETTING DOWN WITH THE CAUSE, CONTEMPORARY REFERENCES & ...RESEARCH HOMBURG HATS

Images via The Bureau

Don't ask me how, but I noticed that it's been some time since I last wrote about a truly luxurious milliner-made hat, so I present to you the Homburg Hat (available in brown and black) from ...RESEARCH, the esoteric Japanese clothing brand that operates out of a cabin in the mountains outside of Tokyo. The brainchild of designer Setsumasa Kobayashi, ...RESEARCH produces hyper-expensive/crafted/awesome garments in "highly limited numbers". These are the kind of things you want to hear in the pitch for a 570 USD hat. You want to get lost in its luxury, obsess about its quality, and exalt in its exclusivity. You don't want to think about getting really hammered on Miller High Life (The Champagne of Beers; I'm all about Millers and millinery *rimshot*) and forgetting it on the floor of your Tinder date's bathroom. There's a couple of normal, contemporary references for all you people who think I'm a lunatic, capable only of the most abstruse allusions. I told you I'm in touch with the young people (but not bad touch *rimshot*). I understand their Tinders and their Snapchats and their frozen yogurt or "froyo", as the kids say. I'm down with the cause. I don't want to get super specific, of course -- the political environment is extremely polarized right now -- but, whatever cause you're thinking of, I'm down with it. Healthcare? Dope. Poverty? Lame. Save the polar bears? Fuck yeah. Let's join hands and support that thing I agree with you on. We are so on the same page, it's actually crazy. Crazy like that Wu-Tang-affiliated rapper who cut off his own dick and jumped off a balcony crazy. His name is Christ Bearer, by the way. I know that story has nothing to do with beautifully-made hats; I just don't think I'll ever get over how nuts it is *rimshot* ​-RB