Morning
Before noon
Open weaves and matt finishes. Sinamay reads correctly in daylight; satin tends to look like an evening material that arrived early.
Occasion headwear · Organised by dress code
Tell us thedress code.
And the time of day, and whether you will be sitting in a row. We narrow thirty-nine pieces down to three, and we say which rule each answer came from.
Two — the time decides the material
A hat is
a clock.
Nobody writes this on an invitation, but it is the most reliable rule in the category: what a piece is made of tends to follow the hour rather than the season. Get the hour right and most of the remaining choices fall into place on their own.
Afternoon
Noon to five
The widest range of anything on this site. Brims still work, veils have started to, and nothing is out of place either way.
Evening
After dark
Convention narrows sharply. Small, close to the head, and light-returning: satin, beading, netting. A wide brim after dark reads as a mistake in almost every room.
Three — the thing nobody else will say
Sometimes the
answer is no hat.
Every occasion-wear site in this category funnels towards a purchase. Ours does not always. Answer “after dark”, “indoors” and “nothing stated on the invitation”, and the advisor returns this, before it returns any product at all:
For evening indoor events with no stated dress code, most guests don’t wear headwear. If you’d still like something, these are the lightest options.
The lightest options
Dress codes vary by venue and host. If the invitation is specific, follow the invitation.
Four — how it works
Four
questions.
No account, nothing stored beyond the session unless you ask us to keep it. Occasion and date are used to choose pieces and for nothing else — never to send you anything as the date approaches.
Begin- 01What are you going to?Wedding, races, luncheon, graduation, christening.
- 02What time does it start?Morning, afternoon, or after dark.
- 03Indoors or outdoors?Or both, which is the hard one.
- 04What does the invitation say?Type it in. We read it literally.
Five — six lines, thirty-nine pieces
Sorted by what
the room allows.
Not by shape, and not by season. A 13 cm brim and a 22 g headband are not two styles; they are two different answers to how much room you have.
A · 8 piecesWide Brim Occasion
Daytime, outdoors, wide sightlines
Brims from 10 to 18 cm. The width is the whole decision: it sets how far you can stand from other people and whether the piece will read at all in an outdoor photograph.
B · 8 piecesFascinators
Indoors, late afternoon, seated rooms
A small base carried on a comb, a band or a clip. Nothing projects past the shoulder line, so it survives a table of eight and a low doorway.
C · 6 piecesPillbox & Cocktail
Formal, compact, worn forward or tilted
A closed crown with no brim. Sits high and forward, or tilted to one side. The most conservative shape here, and the easiest to wear for six hours.
D · 6 piecesHeadbands & Combs
The lightest thing you can wear
Under 60 g. For dress codes that say nothing about headwear but where you would still like something, and for anyone who has never worn a hat and would rather not start with 13 cm of brim.
E · 5 piecesVeiled & Netting
Where a veil is expected, or wanted
Birdcage netting, short or full. Reads as more formal than its size suggests, and photographs with a depth that flat trims do not.
F · 6 piecesSets & Services
Boxes, fixings, colour matching
The parts nobody thinks about until the morning of. A rigid box so the brim survives the car, the grips that actually hold, and a colour-matching service for when the dress has already been bought.
Six — what it is made of
Every feather
is named.
Where a piece contains real feather we state the species, whether it was farmed, and where it came from. Where it contains a man-made one, we say that too, and name the material. Nothing here uses fur, and nothing uses a species covered by international endangered-species trade controls.
Two pieces share a silhouette on purpose: one built from farmed goose feather, one from synthetic polyester feather, so the choice is a choice and not a guess.
Full material disclosure
Seven — the measurement that matters
A 13 cm brim will bump the person next to you in a church pew.
Under 10 cm sits better indoors. It is a seating-plan problem before it is a style problem, and it is the single thing most people find out too late.
Brim width and venueThree weeks
is enough time.
Standard delivery, a rigid box where the shape needs one, and a colour match against your own swatch if the dress is already bought. Free standard shipping over $179.