I don’t follow sports much (though they are always playing in my house thanks to my husband), but every four years when the Olympics roll around, it’s go time. I watch almost anything that is on, and I develop instant fandom for individuals and teams based on completely arbitrary things that I see on the TV, hear from the commentator, or discover while doing a wiki dive. Women’s water polo is my new obsession, after seeing the USA play Spain a few nights ago. Spain won 13-11, but at the end of the game the American goalie Ashleigh Johnson scored a goal, throwing the ball with such force that it was almost weapon-like. “Wow,” I thought, “she seems so cool.”
Last night I got home and saw there was another water polo game, this time the US against Italy. The American team was doing a lot better (they eventually won 10-3), and it wasn’t for Italy’s lack of trying. Johnson, I quickly noticed, is one hell of a goalie. (Later, in my wiki dive, I learn that she is considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world; these are her third Olympic games and the team won gold in 2016 and 2020.)
Now, I am not one of those people that watches sports and thinks, “I could do that.” I can do a lot of things, but I am the least athletic person around, something that I’ve known in my bones since I was literally in elementary school. Still, there is such a pull when you’re watching someone be totally great at what they do—it’s probably why I will watch any sports documentary on Netflix—and as I saw all these women swimming with force, absolutely smashing each other on occasion trying to get the ball, in a way that was truly beautiful, it hit me: I can’t play water polo, but what if I wore a little water polo hat?
Consider it the curse of the fashion writer—everywhere you look, everyone you see, you are always also looking at what they’re wearing, trying to parse if there’s something to extrapolate or be inspired by. I thought about how the hats from Prada’s fall 2007 collection had a water polo cap-like construction, and about how the bonnets that Amy Lawrance put on her models at Australian Fashion Week a few months ago were basically delicate versions of the athletic essential.
The water polo cap differs from a regular swim cap because it also protects the ears, and ties at the chin, it’s basically a bonnet for water, and as such it has appeared often on the runway. Karl Lagerfeld even made a bridal version once, covered in silver paillettes with a veil attached on the back. Soccer jerseys are a de-facto fashion item, and basketball and football jerseys seem to be forever classics. Could the water polo cap be the next step? Seeing Flavor Flav in the audience at the Paris games (he’s become the team’s unofficial “hype man") in his cap and groovy glasses, it seemed like a real possibility.
The more I watched Ashleigh in her bold red cap (the rest of the team wore navy caps), the neat little bow so charmingly tied under her chin, the more I fell in love with the whole thing. Then she blocked a goal from someone on the Italian team and I stopped thinking about hats and bows and fashion and yelled, “WOW!” at the sheer display of strength and skill on screen.
