Forties Hair Returns - NYTimes.com January 23, 2012, 7:00 am For anyone who needs visual inducement to see "Richard III" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, there is Haydn Gwynne's hair. Coiled to perfection in a manner reminiscent of Wallis Simpson, it lends authority to Queen Elizabeth, Ms. Gwynne's steely character, and provides the production with a moment of chic. It doesn't hurt either, that Ms. Gwynne's coif is on trend, an elaborate echo of the runways. A wartime-inspired fall collection at Miu Miu, complemented by spooled 1940s hair, was followed by spring shows that breathed new life into this retro-futuristic look. The "30s- and "40-style sausage rolls gracing models" napes and temples at Jean Paul Gaultier and Preen, were an evident homage to Mrs. Simpson. She was memorialized as well by Roland Mouret in his fall line, by Madonna, the director of "W.E," a film bio expected to arrive in theaters next month, and in Anne Sebba's new biography, "That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor." Clearly, as Mr. Mouret observed, "The world is still obsessed by that woman." Backstage at Karen Walker, the Bumble and Bumble styling team offered a mussed variation on Mrs. Simpson's baroque waves, a kind of punk/Victorian hybrid. Others made reference to the war years with updates on the pompadour, a style resurrected in the "40s and again during the early "80s, popularized by Sean Young as Rachael, the sleek replicant of "Blade Runner." Infused with hints of rockabilly, more recent versions of that puff pastry look have turned up on the concert stage, the brash tonsorial signature of pop artists like Rihanna and Janelle Monáe. Here, a gallery.