To my untrained eyes, this hat, which Sarah Jessica Parker wore to the premiere of Sex And The City: The Movie, and which was featured in our open caption contest yesterday, is distracting and awful. But the Post rounded up a celebrity stylist and Lucky magazine "accessories director" to weigh in, and they declared the hat officially awesome (click through for a larger picture):

"This is the fashion equivalent of getting a master's at Harvard. Seriously. There is no awkwardness, no discomfort. It's costume-y, but it's costume-y in the most fabulous way," says celebrity stylist Robert Verdi of Parker's headwear. "I think it would look crazier in the US than it does there [in London, where the world premier was held]."

Said the woman from Lucky: "I thought it was pretty fabulous of it to take a risk and totally appropriate because the premiere was in London."

So that would be two out of two fashion people — from New York — citing London as edgier when it comes to fashion. London has also been stealing investment banking business from Gotham for several years now, leading to something of an identity crisis on Wall Street. The weak dollar has Britons and European continentals gobbling up restaurant reservations and hogging the sidewalks all over town. The Wall Street Journal is being remade by a Brit in the image of the Financial Times of London.

This hat isn't just a hat. It's a god-damned wakeup call, people.

[Post]