ABSTRACT
The streets of big cities north of the Mason-Dixon line were liberally interspersed with a new form of headgear during the winter months of 1961-1962: shapkas, or fur hats worn throughout Scandinavia and the former USSR. It became fashionable on a minor scale as far back as 1959, when Great Britain's Prime Minister was photographed wearing a white lamb's-wool version during a state visit to Moscow. Women also followed suit; the most conspicuous new hat style on female heads that year was a high-fashion version of the shapka. Less squat and masculine than the styles worn by men, it looked like a furry coal scuttle. The hat suffered a lapse in popularity the following year on the heels of the bad feelings toward all things Russian engendered by the Cuban missile crisis. Nevertheless, it has remained a relatively visible form of alternative headgear for men in the Northern states, particularly in wintertime, up to the present day.
