Headwear is definitely heading upwards and high street shops are full of caps, baker-boy hats, cloches, trilbies, wide brims and eyecatching feathered headpieces or for the ones playing safe: fascinators. Adding a headpiece to your outfit will always add personality, an edge, drama or glamour.
Therefore there are a few things to consider before choosing your perfect hat type and shape in order to achieve visual balance, harmony and the wanted impact!
- Face shape
First of all: Your hat has to match the proportion of your face! Important here is that you don’t follow the shape of your face as you do with your body shape, but instead you have to go opposite! Meaning if you have a round face you don’t want make it look any more rounder by choosing a round shape but you want to balance it out with a more “squarish” style.If your face is square instead you need to choose styles that are “softening” the edges in shape and style. Choose round or asymmetric shapes and maybe feathers, flowers or bow accessories that add as well a visual softness and movement to your square face shape!
Round Face shape:
Square Face shape:
Secondly the size of your hat matters for the size of you head in order to create harmony and visual balance!
You will be wearing your hat quite close to your face and so the hat will draw attention to the features of your face. If your face is small, you should wear a small hat otherwise as it will be overpowered by a big hat. If your face is wide/ big, your hat should have a wide brim to match its size. Otherwise a small hat on a wide face will make the face just look wider and bigger.
- Body size
Keep your body size in mind when choosing your hat. If you are short then stay away from wide hat shapes since they will make you look even shorter. You need to opt for styles that will give you visual height. Therefore choose ones that don’t have a dominant brim to the side or to the front but have “ height” on top of the head. Also, stay to solid colour rather choosing patterns in your hat, because the busy style on your head is adding volume and shortens your height visually.
If you are tall the complete opposite applies. Avoid any style that make you even taller, but choose styles that are wide and/ or busy with colours and patterns.
If your body size is plus size avoid any styles and patterns in your hat that look petite, because it will create an unwanted contrast and will emphasize your body size. Choose chunkier styles, shape and patterns.
If you are petite in your size the opposite will be here the right choice.
But having said this “ an oversized” look is right now very much on trend, so petite will be getting away with it as well. Just be careful that the hat is not to overpowering your look, shape and size where one feels you need “ grow into it!.
- Dominant Colour
A hat is close to your face, so the right colour or colour combination is important. So, make sure it is matching your dominant colour. Also, you need to remember that large brim will reflect the colour of your hat on to your face. So, make sure that it doesn’t clash with your skin colour.
- Neck size
If you have a short or short/wide neck then keep in mind that hat styles such as the cloche, summer hats with long wide brims or hat details like e.g. ribbons or feathers will make your neck look “visually” even short because it will pull your face down right on to your shoulders!
- Match your outfit
Matching the style of your hat to the style of your outfits is just as important, because it is pulling everything together. Nowadays you don’t need to go matchy matchy in style or colour but it has to sum up or add personality to your outfit.
Click here for hat types and shapes
So, let’s say the following:
1. Try to avoid to match exactly your hat’s material with the material of your outfit. You may end up overdoing the look. Important is that it is “picking” up on it either in colour, pattern or style!
2. If you are wearing solid colour or a classic style in your outfit then it gives room for e.g. a printed, patterned hat that combines together the colours you are wearing. Or you could as well opt for a hat that creates contrast to the colours of your outfit.
3. Playing with contrast in style is as well a way to go by e.g. wearing a “ man’s hat” like newsboy, trilby, panama or fedora hat.. You can soften the look by choosing this hat in softer colours, choosing a more feminine outfit or accessorising it with feminine earrings or necklaces .And of course, a dash of lipstick and lengthening mascara will do as well the trick.
4. Going for a casual look with just jeans and a plain T-shirt? You can dress up your denims by wearing a hat but remember the style of your hat type needs to be either casual or “ man type of hat” You can’t really combine it with a cloche, pillbox or a top up.
5. Before you are sure of your style play safe in order not attract the wrong kind of attention. But please do experiment with the kinds and styles of hats that you may want to match up with your outfit before, because it is absolutely crucial and of essence that you feel comfortable in wearing your hat. Meaning you should not only be comfortable wearing the right shape, colour and shape but also it has to fit your size and the occasion! Wear it in (at home) before wearing it out for the first time. Walk around the house in it – and into the garden. You can also check for problems. Does it fit well? Is it going to blow off? If you’re worried, sew a comb in the back which can attach to your hair or use hair grips.
- Wear it right
There’s no right or wrong way to wear a hat. However when women push their hat right to the back of the head it doesn’t always look the most flattering. So, experiment not only with the right fit in shape and comfort but also where to place/ position your hat on your hat before stepping out. Place your hat on in front of the mirror then move it around until you get the most attractive and most comfortable angle.
- Little things to keep in mind
1. Greeting
If you are attending an event where you need to greet a lot of people because e.g. you are the host or the mother of the bride a wide brimmed hat can make kissing tricky!
2. Consider the weather and the season
If you attend an event outside and you can expect windy condition a wide hat is not the wisest choice here since it will be harder to keep in check even with the most sophisctated tricks in the box to keep it put.
3. Don’t over accessorise
If you wear a statement hat don’t overplay it by wearing everything you got in scarves, earrings, necklaces. Remember that you need space, so that styles and details work altogether. Otherwise you look just too cluttered on top.
4. Occasion
We have been all there. Attending a sit down meal and having our neighbours hat banging against our face, or being at church and getting other people’ feathers in your face or attending an event and being prevented of any view in front because the woman in front of you is wearing such a big headpiece. So, after all the effort choosing the right hat you don’t want to turn it all to nothing by getting it wrong for the occasion, because it is nuisance to others. Consider always the circumstances- and make sure you are prepared either by being able to take it off- with the thought in mind your hair style is not going to let you down or your outfit is going into pieces, because it is loosing its “ wow effect”. If the hat is an essential part of your look that pack always 2nd smaller option for the more trickier times- just swamp back and forth.
5. Glasses
If you wear glasses make sure that the hat is not overpowering it.
Choosing the style, colour and shape that’s right for you and your outfit, isn’t difficult if you know how – but it takes time and strategy!
Easier options are the headbands and facinators. In short make sure that they suit your hair colour, complement your outfit and look proportional to your body size.
Michaela
