adminTawanda Matanhire Lifestyle Reporter
Hats are slowly becoming a daily accessory for more and more modern gentlemen. Hats come in many shapes, sizes and fabrics. So to make it easier for you, we’ve broken down the basic hat styles, offered a little background history, and provided some pointers for adding them to your wardrobe. These are just few trends.
The Wide Flat Brim
This has become a recent favourite for many Zimbabwean men as well as women.
A walk around the city of Harare will confirm for you especially during the weekends that it is the widely won hat of the time.
Go to parties and many other non-formal functions you will realise how popular these have just become.
A cross between a wide-brimmed fedora and a western country hat, the large, stiff, flat brim is the trendiest hat in menswear right now.
They are stiffened and made to hold their artistically flat shape, no matter what.
The Fedora
It’s a soft felt hat that is creased lengthwise down the crown and pinched in the front on both sides. Also, the brim goes all the way around and will include a band as well.
You can find them in all kinds of stylish and modern designs which can be found male and feminine ranges.
From the light and summery straw fedora to the classic black Michael Jackson hat.
Not mention different cute bands like print, silk, braided or ribbon bands which give the hat a whole new, look.
A good felt (or straw) fedora has a sturdy but flexible brim that can be “snapped up” or “snapped down” in the front or back, allowing you to mould the brim and achieve the perfect, slightly-askew shape.
My favourite are unlined and crushable.
The Homburg
The fedora’s dressier cousin, the homburg, also made primarily of fur felt or straw, is a good choice for a formal business look.
It has the same centre-creased crown as the fedora (although sometimes not the side pinches), but the brim is stiffer and has an upturned lip all the way around (which usually cannot be moulded or “snapped down”).
The Trilby
The trilby has a shorter (thus narrower) brim which is angled down (“snapped down”) at the front and turned up at the back, versus the fedora’s wider brim which is more level and flat.
The trilby also has a slightly shorter crown than a typical fedora design.
The Panama
The Panama hat is a traditional brimmed straw hat of Ecuadorian origin.
Similar in shape to the trilby (down in the front, curled up in the back), but with proportions more similar to the classic fedora.
Traditionally Panama hats were made from the plaited leaves of the Carludovica palmata, a palm-like plant rather than a true palm.
These hats are known as Montecristis, after the town of Montecristi, where they are produced.
The Montecristi Foundation has established a grading system based on a figure called the Montecristi Cuenta, calculated by measuring the horizontal and vertical rows of weave per inch.
A “superfino” Panama hat can, according to popular rumor, hold water, and when rolled for storage, pass through a wedding ring.
The Boater
The boater is a men’s summer formal hat made of stiff straw.
It’s characterised by its inflexible brim, flat top, and wide grosgrain band (which is often striped, or solid black for traditional summer formal occasions).
Similar in formality to the homburg, a boater is correctly worn with a blazer, smart lounge suit, or even with black tie
These are just some of the trending hats on the market and on the streets however there are other style that one can make good use of as long as they know how they can make them look good and add some style. – Extra information from various online sources.
Online Reporter