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 for this autumn 2006 and Winter 2007. Good winter warmer hats perform not only a fashion function, but a
utilitarian one too.
You can see women's fashion hat and hair fashion history from other eras here at
hats 1900+.
Special occasion and wedding hats for 2006 are shown and discussed on the
occasion page.
Scroll below for lots of images of women's fashion hats for autumn 2006.
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.
This Autumn 2006, women's fashion hats range from simple berets, Aran knit cable
patterns, rib knit hats, cloche hats, felted hats, beanies, baker boy caps,
Dr Zhivago fur hats and trilby styles. With
layering
all the rage this fall then hats are a great way to slip on another layer.
Let's look at both the designer hat versions and the high street headwear equivalents.
This
coming winter 2007, 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.
This winter
many fashion companies have produced variations of the Trilby. Expect
to see it in a wide range of materials from angora to classic wool checks
like this fine example right from Accessorize.
Image courtesy of Accessorize -
Pink plaid upturn brim trilby
£20 €14.90.
Most ordinary ladies hats are
everyday, pull-on functional and easy to wear hats. They are also small enough to keep in
your
capacious handbag when not on your head. On chill winter days a
hat like a beanie, a beret or a Baker Boy cap should keep you warm and safe.
The most
simple 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. But this season there are plenty of beanie hat, beret
or tam o'shanter varieties to choose from in the stores.
When I think of a beanie I think of a plain close fitting hat that
probably 50 years ago was more like a bobble hat or ski cap. Once
bobbles and tassels are removed you are left with a close fitting basic
cover for the skull like this beanie hat shown left. This great easy to wear
beanie is from Dorothy Perkins and is teamed with an on trend grey jersey
top, wider trousers and all finished off with a contrast bow belt.
The model looks great and the outfit is as always for Dorothy Perkins,
value for money and is inexpensive
But modern beanies have great 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. You may also call a beanie a beany.
This ivory white cable knit beanie to the right is by Burberry. The
rust knit beanie by Principles left is a very good high street
version.
This fine pull-on version of a beanie hat with a bow by Marks and Spencer is
wonderful value at £8 and is so stylish it's almost a brimless
cloche hat.
Beanies
are literally big this winter, when you look at this olive green version of
knit rib beanie hat by
Marc Jacobs. It certainly is a chunky piece of knitted headwear, but still a beanie at
heart.
This
dusty teal grey beanie right is from Topshop and is also knitted as a wider rib. It reminds
me of an updated 1950's bobble hat and of old hand knitting patterns of hats. I
love it and I want one for country walks! Maybe it's even time to get out those
knitting needles or my knitting machine and dash off some ladies hats!
Topshop have a similar design in women's headwear.
Last year I featured Constance Willems and her hand made felt and knit
hats. She has an interesting selection of headwear for women and for men. Some hats are very suited to cold weather. You can see some of her
hats here in
the hat section at
Fashion-era or visit her website
here. She features several modern beanie styles and capacious
felted hoods that have a medieval quality.
These multi colour berets are from
Benetton, but expect
to see coloured and patterned or check berets in every store.
This grey beret from John Lewis is in angora so has a softer, fluffier
more gentle look. The purple angora Baker Boy cap in the header is
also from John Lewis.
This Prince of Wales check baker boy cap (also called bakerboy hat) is from Accessorize and is £15/€23.50.
Baker boy hats have a slightly more rounded crown like a sectioned
schoolboy hat rather than flat workman's caps of the 1900s, but they are
usually puffier than a baseball cap. A baseball cap also has a much
larger sun protecting visor peak.
Baker boy hats are also known as schoolboy caps.
The crown of a Baker boy hat is divided into segments which helps achieve a good round
shape and this is one of the easy hats in the field of millinery to sew yourself.
Some people call these
caps John Lennon caps, but
Lennon caps are flatter like a
workman or seaman's cap. The Beatles made such hats popular at the time, but
the wearing of hats by men was already in decline in the 1960s. Less
rigid social attitudes, better transport and hooded garments like duffle
coats and anoraks all helped in the demise of the hat.
The image left is a woman's hat from Gil Bret's Autumn 2006 winter 3007 range.
When combined with a fine black polo neck jumper and casual dark denim
jeans, the long luxurious jacquard jacket in midnight blue and brick red with a
fake fur collar, is a real eye-catcher. Long jacket
8045/6484 - UK £235.00/IRL€320.00. Jeans 8248/6515 - UK £90.00/IRL€120.00. Material: 97% cotton, 3% elastane
and Polo neck jumper 8654/0619 - UK £90.00/IRL €120.00. Material: 70% silk (mulberry silk),
30% cashmere - all teamed with a hat.
Designers everywhere used luxury furs to make headwear up as large Dr Zhivago hats.
Also expect to see faux fur versions of women's fur hats in the high street.
Hoods are particularly good at trapping large amounts of body heated air
helping to keep you warm. The modern hood can be loose or attached to
a knit or on a posh parka. A hoodie
(despite the criticism of them) can be just the answer for days when you
want to cocoon. But if parkas are
not your style then there are many hat types to select from this fall.
Read more about hats in
main looks for Autumn 2006/7 and in
wardrobe tips for autumn winter 2006/7.
If you wish to read more about millinery choices for special occasions
including some wedding
fascinators of 2006 then visit the
occasion hat
page.
Images courtesy of Dorothy Perkins, IFTF,
Topshop, Laura Ashley,
Vera Mont, John Lewis,
Marks and Spencer,
Accessorize and
Benetton. Header
image
courtesy of John Lewis.
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