What Types of Hats There Are

Whether you consider them a simple fashion item or a necessity, hats have become an important part of people’s wardrobes. Changes in fashion and in people’s lives drive them to evolve and cover their needs, so today, we find ourselves with a huge variety of different hats (and caps) to wear.

5-Minute Crafts made a list of many different kinds of hats and caps. While we’ve made a compilation of the most popular ones, our guide doesn’t and couldn’t include all the different models out there, so this article only serves as informational.

Winter hats

• Beanie: a head-hugging felt cap with no brims. It can be cuffed, slouchy, or have a pom-pom on the top. Typically, 4 or 6 triangular panels of stretchy fabric pieces are stitched together and joined at the crown. The term beanie is also used to denote a close-fitting knitted cap, more like torque, made of wool, synthetic materials, or fleece. It is a unisex hat popular among men and women alike.
• Aviator/trapper: worn by frontiersmen and mountain climbers as they hiked terrains like the Appalachians. In World War I, pilots also wore aviator hats as protection against biting winds. The aviator hat is a leather cap with large ear flaps and a chin strap. Usually, there is a short bill at the front. This bill is turned upward to show the lining made of fur or fleece. Originally, it was used as hunting gear, protecting the ear, chin, and nape in harsh weather conditions.
• Santa: Officially called the pileus hat, this droopy fleece accessory was made popular by Coca-Cola ads from the 1920s but has existed since ancient times. In the ads, a happy, chubby man drank his soda while wearing the red suit and hat.
• Fur: Hats made of fur (original fur or fake fur) are very popular as a winter fashion accessory.

• Cossack hat: a big oblong visorless fur cap. If it has a tail made from the fur and tail of a raccoon, known as a coonskin hat. Similar to these is the ushanka, a Russian fur cap with ear flaps.
• Balaclava: also known as a ski mask. It’s a knitted headgear covering the head and neck with an opening for the eyes and mouth. You can choose which part of your face will be exposed — the whole face, eyes only, eyes and nose only, or eyes, nose, and mouth. It can also be worn like a toque or rolled down and worn like a neck scarf.
• Knit cap: a casual head-hugging cap.
• Snood: a tube-shaped scarf designed to hold in the hair. Similar to a hairnet, snoods have a looser fit, coarser mesh, and thicker yarn. It is worn by pulling it over the head like a collar, though snoods can be made with a variety of materials.

Summer hats

• Baseball cap: a baseball cap with a softly rounded crown and a deep, curved, and often stiff visor. It’s worn by men, women, and children alike. It can sometimes come with an adjuster at the back, but not always. There are mainly 4 types of baseball caps, including the snapback hat, an adjustable hat, a flex fit hat, and a fitted hat.
• Boater: though it’s associated with sailing and boating, this very popular semi-formal hat is known by many names. It’s originally made of sennit straw, it has a stiff flat crown and brim and a ribbon around the crown.
• Bush: wide-rimmed hats suitable for hunting and other outdoor activities. They usually come in neutral colors or a camouflage pattern. Other names for it are boonie hats or jungle hats.
• Cowboy: a high crown hat with a broad, often curled brim, usually associated with the iconic cowboy image. It can be made of felt, straw, and sometimes leather. There is a simple sweatband inside the crown for a better fit. The first western model was the open-crowned “Boss of the Plains.”

• Safari: Today, any wide-brimmed hat can be used as a safari hat, which will give you adequate sun and wind protection and can keep you stylish at the same time.
• Sun: A sun hat shades the face and neck from the sun with its wide brim, ranging from 4 to 7 inches. They are made of a variety of materials, like cloth or straw. A sun hat is often held in place by a chin strap.
• Crocheted: made by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn. These hats come in various styles from close fitted to wide-brimmed.
• Panama hat: made of woven straw from the South American toquilla palm plant. It comes in 2 styles (fedora and Optimo style) and 2 patterns of weaving (Cuenca, and Brisa). Cuenca has the appearance of a herringbone weave, and Brisa, with small diamonds or squares.

Other hats

• Beret: a round, flat visor-less cap made of circular pieces of woven, knitted, or felted cloth attached to a band or leather thong to fit around the head. It can be worn in a variety of styles, including halo style, which is set back on the head; pancake style, which is flat on the head; or even winter style, which is pulled down, covering the ears. Another common way to wear it is fashion style, dipping it diagonally to one side.
• Bucket: a simple, soft cloth hat with a wide, downward-sloping brim that looks as if a bucket has been placed upside down on your head.
• Cloche: a fitted, bell-shaped hat for women. Cloche hats have variations in the brim and seam styles, as well as things used for decoration, like appliqués, brooches, feathers, beads, and the type of fabric used to make it.
• Cocktail: Typically brimless, this hat’s portion that attaches to the head tends to be small. It generally has lots of embellishments.

• Derby or bowler: a stiff felt hat with a narrow brim and a dome-shaped crown that sits low on the head. It can also have a ribbon or a hatband. It was made popular by characters like Charlie Chaplin.
• Fascinator: a stylish millinery for women that has no crown. It’s actually a small adornment attached to the head by a clip, comb, or wire. You’ll often see royals wearing it.
• Fedora: a soft-felt hat with a lengthwise crease on the crown that is adorned with a ribbon or hatband. The fedora hat also has a wide brim.
• Flat or newsboy cap: a rounded cap with a small, stiff brim in the front. Its use was imposed to stimulate domestic wool consumption in Britain and general trade. Another name for this type of hat is a driving cap.

• Homburg: a felt hat with a heavily indented crown and a slightly upturned brim.
• Mushroom: a famous millinery style that resembles a mushroom with a drooping brim and a mushroom-shaped crown.
• Pillbox: a flat crown, straight sides, and no brim. In its basic form, it was worn without any other adornment. It was often made from wool, velvet, furs of mink, lynx, fox, or leopard. It’s a style most commonly worn by women.
• Porkpie: a flat crown and turned up brim. It has been especially popular among men from the mid-nineteenth century on. It was also a favorite with American jazz and blues musicians.

• Top: a tall, flat-crowned hat often made in black or gray colors. It is a men’s hat worn with formal wear in western attire. The top hat is worn for formal functions, like weddings, funerals or balls, horse racing events, or royal functions.
• Trilby: a felt hat with a crease on the crown and a ribbon around it. It is very similar to a fedora but it has a less wider brim.
• Breton caps: caps often worn by police officers or army sergeants. They sit low on your head and are fitted on the front with a sun-shielding visor.
• Deerstalkers: worn by hunters in Scotland, this hat was made popular by Sherlock Holmes.