Aretha Franklin's Inauguration hat sales are at a steady growth

Orders for ‘Aretha’s Hat’ Still Going Strong
By MICHELINE MAYNARD

DETROIT — The vacant lots and hollow buildings abound across Detroit. But walk into Mr. Song Millinery on Woodward Avenue, north of downtown, and you are hit by two impressions: a riot of color and a constantly ringing telephone.

The color comes from row upon row of custom-designed ladies’ hats, from unassuming berets to the kind of lavishly decorated headgear seen at the races at Ascot. The sound of the phone is thanks to Aretha Franklin, who stepped to a microphone at President Obama’s inauguration in January wearing an eye-catching gray fur felt hat trimmed with a huge sloping, rhinestone bow.

Now, the hat’s creator, Luke Song, has more than 5,000 orders for the spring version of the Aretha Hat (he declines to make a replica of the actual model), available in a variety of pastel colors and selling for $179 apiece.
And more orders are bound to pour in because Mr. Song learned this week that Ms. Franklin has decided to lend her hat to the Smithsonian, where it will be on display until it moves to a permanent place in Mr. Obama’s presidential library.

While the nation had no idea what would be on Ms. Franklin’s head, Mr. Song knew it would be one of three models she had picked out. He learned which one only while watching her sing at the inauguration on the television in his crowded workroom.
nytimes.com
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