Hats Off!

After only 2 years in the millinery trade, 27-year-old Monica Mahoney has already designed hats for Barneys and Henri Bendel in New York, and Theodore in Los Angeles. Her label presses against the foreheads of Annette Bening, Barbra Streisand, and Cher. One of her creations was featured on an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. "It was a nice surprise," she says. "But seeing Ann Magnuson in my beret on Anything but Love was even more fun." How does one get ahead in hats? Mahoney, a Beverly Hills native, feels the crushing failure to land a job on Regis & Kathie Lee forced her to try crushed felt. First she made variations on a Woody Allen—esque fisherman's hat. "I sold tons at street fairs, but it was grueling." Then she took to phoning buyers every day until they returned her calls. Now stores can't keep her leopard-print toppers in stock. And when she crows "I'm a success," she's no longer talking through her hats, but about them.

VALERIE FRANKEL