• Beret – a cap with a round flat crown of varying widths.
  
• Boater – A stiff, straight-brimmed, straw hat with a flat crown and a ribbon band.
  
• Bowler – has a low melon-shaped crown and a rounded brim that turns up at the sides.
  
• Breton Sailor – woman’s hat with a brim that turns up evenly all around.
  
• Cap – snug fitting head covering, usually with partial brim or visor.
  
• Cartwheel – Woman’s hat with very wide, stiff brim and low crown.  Usually straw.
  
• Cavalier Hat – Wide brimmed hat, velvet or beaver, trimmed with ostrich plumes on left side or back.  Usually one side of brim is cocked or rolled.
  
• Cloche – Hat that covered the head to the neck in back; it came to the eyebrows in front.
  
• Doll Hat – Small hats in various styles and materials.  Usually worn forward and tilted about the right eye.
  
• Fedora – Men’s soft felt hat with brim and lengthwise crease in crown, adopted by women.
  
• Fez  - Shaped like a truncated cone.
  
• Homburg – Soft, elegant, felt hat with tapered, creased crown and rolled brim that has a bound edge.
  
• Panama – Handwoven straw hat from leaves of the jipijapa plant that grows in Central and South America.
  
• Picture hats – The brim is large and dips at the back and the front.
  
• Pillbox – Small cap that has a flat crown with straight sides.
  
• Top Hat – Tall cylindrical crown in various heights.
  
• Toque – Small brimless hat or cap with full crown.
  
• Turban – Long pieces of cloth rolled and formed over a cap.

Many ladies who come to see me at the Studio or at Wedding Fayres  say,  “hats don’t suit me” or “I don’t like hats because they flatten your hair”.  The reason for this is that they have probably visited department stores or shops that sell commercially produced hats which, for some reason, are all produced to one size, usually at least 23 inches.   In my experience there are not many ladies who require a hat of that size and accordingly the hat falls too low over the face and the inside of the crown sits immediately on top of their hair.

If a hat fits properly it sits snugly around the forehead and the bump at the back of the head with no space over the ears between the head and the hat.  Thus the top of the crown sits about 1 to 2 inches above the hair and so will not leave the hair flat on the top of the head when the hat is removed. 

All hats made for hire  by Diane at The Hat Box are made to 22.1/2 inches which is much nearer the average hat size.  Any bespoke hat made for a client is made to each individual client’s measurements thus giving a perfect fit.

When a hat is hired the client’s head is measured and then the hat is padded down using a new headband ribbon padded as necessary.  Thus the hat fits the head all the round.

To establish hat size the head is measured around the flat of the forehead, round over the ears and round the bump at the back of the neck and is thus between 20.1/2 and 24.1/2 inches or 52 to 63 cms.

Hat sizes referred to as 5.7/8ths or 6.1/4 etc are male hat sizes and this measurement is established by measuring from an imaginary point above each ear in a straight line across the top of the head. 

Many ladies who come to see me at the Studio or at Wedding Fayres  say,  “hats don’t suit me” or “I don’t like hats because they flatten your hair”.  The reason for this is that they have probably visited department stores or shops that sell commercially produced hats which, for some reason, are all produced to one size, usually at least 23 inches.   In my experience there are not many ladies who require a hat of that size and accordingly the hat falls too low over the face and the inside of the crown sits immediately on top of their hair.

If a hat fits properly it sits snugly around the forehead and the bump at the back of the head with no space over the ears between the head and the hat.  Thus the top of the crown sits about 1 to 2 inches above the hair and so will not leave the hair flat on the top of the head when the hat is removed. 

All hats made for hire  by Diane at The Hat Box are made to 22.1/2 inches which is much nearer the average hat size.  Any bespoke hat made for a client is made to each individual client’s measurements thus giving a perfect fit.

When a hat is hired the client’s head is measured and then the hat is padded down using a new headband ribbon padded as necessary.  Thus the hat fits the head all the round.

To establish hat size the head is measured around the flat of the forehead, round over the ears and round the bump at the back of the neck and is thus between 20.1/2 and 24.1/2 inches or 52 to 63 cms.

Hat sizes referred to as 5.7/8ths or 6.1/4 etc are male hat sizes and this measurement is established by measuring from an imaginary point above each ear in a straight line across the top of the head.