At the head of the trends

Alicia Robinson

Hats have always been a reliable way to add flair to an outfit or to

handle those bad hair days.

People in search of wardrobe or hair assistance can now stop at

ARTH, a store at the Lab in Costa Mesa that’s all about hats.

The new location is ARTH’s first store outside Japan, where there

are about 25 stores.

“This is the next step,” said store co-owner Satoshi Kurihara. “We

want to spread our business to grow our market.”

The store space is a long, spare oak-paneled gallery with a

mirrored back wall and built-in display shelves containing dozens of

men’s and women’s hats, from popular newsboy-style caps in denims and

plaids to bell-shaped cloches in a mixture of printed fabrics.

The store is still a work in progress, awaiting display tables

that will line the center, but business has started to trickle in,

and Kurihara expects it to pick up once people become familiar with

the store.

“There’s a lot of people that will come in and look, then they’ll

come in a second time,” said Kaitlan Crussell, one of the store’s two

employees.

Baseball hats have been popular with both men and women, and a

variety of people have come into the store looking for something

different, Crussell said.

She expects hats to become more popular, but not as a fad that

will evaporate quickly.

“I think hats are going to make a comeback,” customer Cynthia

Clarfield said. “If I had a good hat, I’d wear it.”

She and her friend Andrea Lacy recently stopped in from Long Beach

to shop at the Lab. Lacy said she liked the store but questioned the

viability of a specialty store with only one kind of product.

“I just wonder how long it’s going to survive,” she said.

Kurihara said he chose to locate the store at the Lab because the

“anti-mall” is as original as the hats he sells, and customers agreed

it’s a good fit.

“It works with the Lab,” Clarfield said. “It drew us in.”

ARTH is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11

a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Lab, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa.