While many actresses auditioned for the part of Lorelai, Lauren Graham didn’t know until right before the pilot began filming if she would be able to execute the part. Wanting the role, but unsure of her availability, she recalls, “In life, nothing’s all funny or all dramatic—it’s both. I thought Gilmore Girls didn’t sound like anything else. I had never read anything like it. That dialogue and intelligence really jumped out at me. I felt like, ‘Ooh!’ It was like when you see a great outfit in a store, and you’re like, ‘I’ve got to have it!’ At the time, I was 30, 31. All the advice I was being given was, ‘Don’t play a mom. That’s not a smart thing.’ The network that the show was on, the WB, was just starting out, and TV was so different then. But I didn’t care. It felt like what I had been looking for.” While the casting directors loved her, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino didn’t want to even hear her read because Graham was already tied to another show at NBC called M.Y.O.B. and was waiting to see if it had been picked up. Sherman-Palladino remembers, “When it was clear that we weren’t finding that magical Lorelai to walk in and be everything that we needed, it was like, ‘Fine, bring Lauren in. Let me fall in love with somebody I can’t have.’ And I got lucky because the other show got canceled, and then I got her.” Fortunately for Gilmore fans everywhere, Graham stayed in the role for all seven seasons, and became a fashion role model for many, especially regarding her winter hats.

Every Gilmore fan knows how much Lorelai loves to wear hats! Worked from the bottom up in the round, the hat features a folded brim containing a secret message inside. Stranded colorwork motifs representing Lorelai’s request to Max for a thousand yellow daisies, gently falling snow that only Lorelai can smell, the coffee cup from the Luke’s Diner sign, crisp autumn leaves, and dragonflies circle around the body. Topped with a pom-pom, this cute beanie is an ode to many favorite episodes and icons from the series.