Women Hat

Let's talk about the Cloche hat style. The Cloche hat is a fitted, bell-shaped hat that was very fashionable during the 1920s. (Cloche is French for Bell; thus the bell shape.) By and large, Cloche hats were made of felt so that they conformed to the head. The hat was typically designed to be worn low on the forehead, with the wearer's eyes only slightly below the brim.

Normally, different styles of ribbons affixed to the hats revealed various messages about the wearer. A number of popular messages contained within: An arrow-like ribbon which indicated a girl was single but had already given her heart to someone, a firm knot which indicated marriage or a flamboyant bow which signified the wearer was single and interested in mingling.

Superlative, incomparable Cloche hats' popularity and influence were overwhelming. Couture houses like Lanvin and Molyneux opened ateliers to join milliners in manufacturing the hats. The hats even shaped hairstyles: the Eton crop (the short, slicked-down cut worn by Josephine Baker) became popular because it was perfect to showcase the hats' shape.

In the late 1980s, inventive models of the cloche, such as Patrick Kelly's version with a buttoned brim, made a minor resurgence. Cloche hats were also featured in many designers' Fall 2007 collections; Elle magazine called the cloche hat the "haute accessory of the moment" in its September 2007 issue.

As for nowadays, a classy and elegant flapper cloche hats are very popular. This trendy cloche hats are perfect to wear with your summer, autumn, winter or spring outfit, to church or wedding or even to a flapper event. The cloche hat style is ageless and just as modish today as it was in the 1920's.

The most uncomplicated of hat styles for both sexes is a pull on or beanie hat closely followed by a beret shape. Both types are easy to make yourself by either sewing, knitting, crocheting or felting. The Beanie model looks great and the outfit is as always for Dorothy Perkins, value for money and is inexpensive.

Beanies are commonly worn during the winter and other colder months of the year to keep one's head warm. There are plenty of beanie hat, beret or tam o'shanter varieties to choose from in the stores. The construction of beanies varies. They can be structured from triangular sections of twill, leather or felt, joined by a button at the crown and seamed together around the sides. Less often, like a yarmulke, the cap is simply a flat circle of cloth with a section cut out to the center and then sewn into a three-dimensional shape. A "technical beanie" is thin and seamless for comfortable use with a helmet, thus is popular among cyclists. Beanies are often constructed from yarn, using knitting or crochet techniques. While the beanie is considered a fairly humble piece of clothing, it has been elevated to the status of regional art in Alice Springs, Australia - which is claimed by some to be the Beanie Capital of the world. In the Southern American English, the beanie is also referred to as a toboggan. In Canada, where such hats are almost ubiquitous, they are called a tuque (or a toque). The term beanie is used mainly in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. Some English-speakers, especially military, refer to beanies as watch caps. In the United States, this kind of headgear is variously known as a beanie, knit hat, knit cap, sock cap, stocking cap, toboggan, boggan, skull cap, skully, warm winter hat, ski capor, or ski cap depending on the region. Among the Amish, it is sometimes referred to as a sipple cap. It is worn low on the head, covering the forehead, and can be pulled down over the ears as well, though normal usage keeps a turned-up cuff. There are two main varieties of beanies, those that hug the top of the head, and those that leave the top couple of inches of the hat unstretched on top of the head. In India it is usually called a monkey cap.

They are also called woolen or wooly hats, or bobble hats if they are topped with a pompon, which is common. A variation of this type of hat, which is pulled down and worn over the face, with appropriate holes for the eyes and mouth is called a balaclava (or a ski mask in the U.S.). A visor beanie is a relatively new variety which foregoes the cuff for a cardboard-spined brim.

But modern beanies have larger variation. They can be very close fitting jersey knits, textured cable yarn knits, fleece hats, felted wool hats, thicker fuller rib hats and also made of special thermal insulation fabrics like Gore-Tex.

Once the ladies hat was an essential accessory and no one dared go out of the house without a hat. Now, once again, a woman's fashion hat is an essential accessory. Good winter warmer hats perform not only a fashion function, but a utilitarian one too.
Heat Loss and the Need for a Hat. Almost 50% of body heat loss is through the head and neck area. In our world of heated cars and centrally heated homes many people have simply forgotten that hats are a marvellous utilitarian fashion. If the skull region is kept warm, then the blood in the brain circulates properly to all parts and therefore makes our brain function much better. With a blood supply freely moving through the brain, we are able to continue performing tasks and go about our business. When we become very cold, especially when the wind chill factor is high in winter this activity slows down and all we can think about is how cold we feel. Concentration is lost and getting warmer is all that matters.

Without a protective covering, the head and neck becomes a very exposed area. In freezing weather up to 50% of body heat can quite rapidly be lost just in this area alone. Adequate headgear does not prevent heat loss, but because trapped air is a poor conductor of heat the hat helps provide an insulating layer. The trapped air keeps the head warmer. Without a hat in the wrong climatic conditions, hypothermia will occur much faster than when wearing a hat. In fact when someone does have hypothermia the first thing you should do is make sure their crown and neck is covered to prevent further heat loss which can be as much as 50% of body heat.

Trilby Hats.
the Trilby is the fashionable hat style to complete either the mannish fashion look or understated fashion look. On the left we see a black Trilby hat topping off a black fifties suit trimmed with a mink collar and by Conran. On the right we see the Trilby hat by high street retailer Laura Ashley.

The trilby was first seen in the Victorian era when millinery supplies were big business. In the Victorian era if you wanted to get ahead you got a hat. The Trilby gained prominence as the hat of choice in the 1920s when it supplanted stiffer styles. It was an all purpose narrow flexible brim hat that was much less rigid than earlier more sombre stiff designs. The name Trilby is from the style of hat selected for wear in 1894 at the first London performance of the play based on George du Maurier's novel Trilby.

The style was worn especially for sporting and country wear. But soon it looked more formal than any other style of hat as casual wear or no hat became the norm. Ladies hats had a revival in the 1980s when a youthful Princess Diana helped popularize a woman's hat. The Trilby and the beret were both popular hat styles around the mid 1980s.

The large number of fashion companies are producing variations of the Trilby. Expect to see it in a wide range of materials from angora to classic wool checks.