It is a truth universally acknowledged that the early 2000s were a terrible time for fashion. And considering Gilmore Girls aired from 2000-2007, Lorelai and Rory bore the brunt of some questionable sartorial choices. So Mashable took it upon itself to document everything the two Gilmore girls ever wore on their heads across all 153 episodes of the series. That includes hardhats, fake wedding veils, and, yes, leopard print cowboy hats.
The list examines over 60 pieces of headwear and, to be fair, most of the hats actually aren’t so bad. Lorelai is partial to knitted winter caps, which are pretty timeless, even if it is odd that a woman who claims to be constantly strapped for cash owns an endless supply of hats. But there’s a brief misguided time during season three where she decides bucket hats are her thing:
And the newsboy caps haven’t aged too well either:
Rory, meanwhile, fares a little better. Unlike Lorelai, who just has eccentric fashion taste, Rory’s strangest hats tend to be plot points rather than mere fashion choices. Like this hat her grandmother gifts her before she goes golfing with her grandfather:
In fact, given creator Amy Sherman-Palladino’s real-life love of kooky hats, the Gilmore girls actually got off pretty easy. This is Mashable’s pick for Lorelai’s worst hat and while it’s certainly bad, it’s also an outlier:
Most of the hats just look like this:
There’s a strong argument to be made that the show’s fashion downfall was never weird hats, but useless skinny scarves: