Hats and suits that fit with those little added touches to make it all that much better.A few posts back I mentioned my dislike of the undersized fedora.
The undersized fedora is the one you see those - 'dudes' let's call them - wearing in Hollywood. Personally, I think they look like Fozzie Bear.
The other night I saw a gentleman standing in the rain in a long black overcoat and a perfectly fit hat. Boy, did he look sharp. I pointed him out to my husband and he asked me why I thought he looked so sharp. Well, both his hat and his overcoat fit him properly and were very flattering for his figure type. Henceforth, this post on hats.
The first step to wearing a hat is to measure your head. Take a measuring tape and wrap it around your head just above your ears. Take a look at the chart below. The average man's hat size is 7 1/4 US.
Deciding which hat style suits you:
Don't worry I'm not going to post any pictures of Johnny Depp.
First you have to know what shape your face is and if there are any significant facial features such as a long nose or prominent jaw. Ask someone else to tell you.
- Deep full face - Wear a medium height full crown hat, narrow to medium width band and a wide brim snapped fully across. Slight side tilts are good. Avoid wearing the hat too far back, both too high and too low crowns and tapered crowns.
- Short full face - Wear a medium crown hat with a slight taper, contrast hat band and wide brim. Avoid full crown hats, extreme tapers, extreme snaps or tilts and matched hat bands.
- Long Slender face - Wear a tapered moderate height crown, wide hat band and moderate width brim. A side tilt with a back tilt looks good. Avoid wide turned up brims and brims that are too narrow.
- Square face - Wear a medium full crown that is rounded with a full snap wide brim. Side tilts look good on a square face. Avoid both tapered and square crowns, short snaps and wearing the hat too far back on your head.
- Pear Shaped face - Wear a full crown with a matching hat band and extra wide brim snapped fully across. Avoid narrow brims, and tapered or low crowns.
- Top Heavy face - Wear a medium height tapered crown with a narrow or medium width band. The brim should be medium wide with a good roll. Avoid wearing the hat too far back off the face. Colorful or wide hat bands are not recommended.
- Short Slender face - Wear a low or medium taper crown with a turned up brim. A contrast band looks good with a low crown and a matched band looks good with a taper crown. Avoid everything that gives too much attention to the hat. Avoid full crowns, high crowns with self bands or a snap brim too far over the face.
- Long Nose - Wear a crown of medium height that's not too tapered or pinched too tight at front. Tilt the hat to the side. Avoid a high taper crown and a very narrow brim.
- Heavy Eyebrows - Can wear most hats. Turned up brims look good. If you have a unibrow wear a hat with a wide brim and low front tilt to cover it.
- Prominent Jaw - Wear a moderately low crown with a slight taper and medium brim. Avoid a big crown and big brim, small crown and brims, and wearing the hat too far back.
- Receding Chin - Wear a low crown with a slight taper to balance off the chin. The brim can be medium sized or flat. Avoid high full crowns, extreme brims, snap brims and tilting the hat too far forward or too far backward.
- Big Ears - Wear the widest flat brim your face can handle to make ears look smaller. Avoid turned up brims, narrow brims and tapered brims.