Susannah Barron and Charl Blignaut : Style
What links … DJ Bob Mabena and your granddad? Supermodel Naomi Campbell and the mother of the bride? Kwaito fly girls Aba Shante and the golfing fraternity? Yes, they all wear those hats with the cute kangaroo logo.
Hat company Kangol has come a very long way indeed since it was set up in 1938, when French beret-maker Jacques Speiregan received a business grant to develop his trademark headgear.
Today, in the Nineties, his empire of hip has spread through the world, washing up on South African shores last month in a business structure of 10 licensing deals to distribute each of Kangol’s products – from caps to underpants. Of course, it’s not like Kangol wasn’t already huge on South Africa’s city streets – walk down Rockey Street in Johannesburg and every second hipster is sporting something bearing that little logo.
It’s just that now you can find Kangol products in all the big fashion stores. And now you can see Kangol adorning a whole clutch of local celebrities, courtesy a below-the-line sponsorship campaign. Headgear is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
In Speiregan’s day, it was easy to see what Kangol was about. The company specialised in traditional men’s headwear: caps and felt hats. During World War II it supplied berets to the armed forces and schoolchildren were also kitted out in Kangol hats. Today, Kangol’s managing director Philip Pass points out: “Lots of people say: ‘I know you! I had to wear your beret to school!'”
But if one generation associates Kangol with the sort of traditional, non-glamorous hats worn by people whose sole concern is to keep their ears warm, there’s a whole new generation that would be surprised to hear it. In the early Eighties, rappers, including LL Cool J, started wearing Kangol hats – and the company hasn’t looked back. Kids in the United States followed in their super-cool role models’ footsteps and suddenly Kangol was a fashion factory.
Never one to miss a trick, the company welcomed the kids into the fold. When they marched into shops asking mistakenly for “kangaroo caps”, Kangol responded by creating the kangaroo logo. And while we’ve come a long way in the style stakes since the birth of rap, Kangol has worked hard at keeping the kids loyal. “There’s an element of volatility,” Pass admits, “but I think we’ll weather the ups and downs. We’ve got a very expensive design team!”
They have obviously been doing their job because a Kangol hat is still the headwear of choice for Nineties style-setters. Britpop superstar Liam Gallagher has been snapped in a Kangol classic (the Lahinch); Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss swanned around last year in a leopard-print, Seventies- style Kangol floppy hat; and Samuel L Jackson wears Kangol caps all the time – and you can’t get much cooler than that.
It’s all a far cry from the traditional felt caps, but Kangol has more to offer besides cool street apparel, including golfing hats, which have a huge following, and traditional ladies’ millinery.
That’s why, in South Africa, Kangol is endorsing everyone from Radio 702 talk host Jenny Crwys-Williams to distance runner Hezekiel Sepeng to kwaito and rap bands. They dress the presenters on the wildly popular adult entertainment show Ezimtoti and also the kids on K-TV. Pick your role model.
If you love the logo, you can now find it on shoes, clothing, bags, watches and stationery, all aimed at the more streetwise end of the Kangol market and featuring, of course, lots of kangaroos.
New for this summer are Kangol sunglasses and if you nip over to Japan, you can enjoy such treats as Kangol umbrellas, liquid eyeliner and floral-fresh cologne.
When a brand goes shooting off in all directions like this, it is often difficult to keep believing in it.
Yet there is something resolutely trustworthy about Kangol: you can pull on a beret, or a classic 504 cap, and feel sufficiently fashionable to walk the streets. Hell, with Kangol there need be no such thing as a bad hair day.