Houngan Hat

 This small top hat was a Christmas gift

The hat is decorated with bones and feathers giving it a distinct theme.

The theme in mind is Houngan Priest for the undead or Voodoo religion

I think it might look better with a more colourful headband, red maybe, so may swap this out in the future.

Fancy Posh Hat

 This brown hat has lots of decoration

In the style of a muffin cap, i.e. a headband with baggy loose crown.

The hat includes a decorative fabric headband, decorative badges/beads around the headband with a large broach badge in the same style at the front.

a bunch of orange feathers behind the main badge and a lace-like fabric decorating the join between the headband and loose crown.

This feel like a posh nobles hat or at least the hat of someone who wants to appear wealthy.

It's even comfortable to wear.

Bycocket Shaped Hat

This hat is shaped like a bycocket or robin hood hat, made of patterned fabric, lined and decorated with a button and feathers.

The hat is made of soft fabric which makes it sit very differently on the head, it flattens out spreading outside the circumference of your head. Without that stiffness or a band to grip the head, it also feels more insecure than it should.

This is one of those awkward hats which I'm not sure where I will use it, it's not general-purpose to go about walking in, does not fit in a fantasy or historical use, not silly enough to be a novelty hat.

Currently thinking it may get used for some sort of drippy nobleman character

This was a Christmas present, much appreciated even if unsure of use yet.

Floppy Felt Hat

This is a felt hat with an oversized brim.

Not really much more I can say about it.

I folded the front of the brim up to give the brim some support via the crease.

Uses 

Useful to protect your shoulders from the sun.

 You could fold the brim upfront and back so it meets in the middle forming a nice bicorne.

or fold in 3 making a an oversize tricorne.

A Hat for a Medieval Steward

While this style of hat is mostly considered peasant wear, even a single small feather can enhance it, this cap as also been enhanced by fur trim around the headband.

Not quite posh enough for royalty, this is the short hat that could be worn by castellan, steward or wealthy merchant character.

Outrageous Hat

I had to crouch down to get all of this hat in the photograph

This outrageous hat is possibly from an opera, purchased at a second-hand stall at a lrp fair by a friend and then donated.

This hat is an example of how a bunch of feathers can give your headwear volume and height and get you noticed.

This hat looks no other, is not from a historical period, not got any practical use other than to say look at me.

Hollywood Red Indian

This simple headband with feathers came to me when I purchased a job lot of ex-theatrical hats.

Half of the hats were useful, some really great, but the other half I gave away to the kid's school dress up box.

Feathers, eagle feathers to be accurate were awarded in some native American tribes as badges of honour, one or two might be given in the whole lifetime of a warrior, these were usually displayed headressess.

Ordinary feathers were also tied in the hair, mixed with beads around the neck and also tied around the head in bands of leathers

The coloured feathers and headband I'm wearing are probably from a fancy dress pack. 

Sultans Hat

This hat takes on a look of Ottoman sultans headdress

I would like to be more precise with its origin but I failed to find a contemporary image that matches, in the long run, it's a theatrical hat so could be pure fantasy.

Most images of Ottoman headwear are of oversized turbans, but particular later 16th/17th C period headwear starts to include headgear that looks similar to this.

Anyway, this hat is all about the accessories, the tall forward leaning feathers which ultimately make this hat stand out.

Feathers - Hat Accessories

In the next few posts, I'm going to select a few hats that have feather used as decorations.

Starting with this basic wide-brimmed felt hat which has been accessorized with feathers, braiding and nice broach.

By the way, depending on the lighting and background this hat much redder than it appears in most of the photos see the photo below.

Hats were often an indicator of social status, so extra accessories make them look much grander.

 Feathers add volume and height, certain feathers are rare and exotic so indicate wealth.

This particular hat given to me as a gift is intended to be a musketeer style hat from the 17th century.

General Plumage

This Shako hat is another theatrical hat

A Shako is a tall cylindrical military hat with a visor, the cylinder can be parallel or tapered in or out at the top.  

They are usually decorated with plumes and a plate or badge on the front of the cylinder.

The Shako was popular in the 19th Century, initially, it was a practical improvement on the military hats of the time offering a little bit of protection, but by the end of the Napoleonic wars, it became a showy parade ground hat.

In the UK a stovepipe version of the hat was first worn by military units from around 1799 but by the mid 1820's it's importance to show off the unit took over from its practicality, attempts were made in the mid-century to return it to practical use, but by 1870 it was no longer considered for actual battlefield use at all and in the UK by 1905 it was no longer worn by units for any use.

Some countries continue to use Shako for their showy military parades even today.

This hat comes from a theatrical production and is not a reproduction of an actual Shako worn by soldiers.