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Guide three

What it is made of, and how it behaves.

Six materials do nearly all the work in this category. Knowing how each one handles light explains most of the conventions people find arbitrary.

Macro photograph of open abaca sinamay weave, backlit

Abaca sinamay

An open woven grid stiffened with sizing. Light passes through it, which is why it photographs as texture rather than as a flat colour. Reads as daytime almost anywhere.

Keep dry. Damp softens the sizing and the shape relaxes; it can be re-stiffened but not by you.

Macro photograph of satin weave catching directional light

Polyester satin

A closed weave with a directional sheen. It returns light as a broad band rather than a texture, which is why it reads as an evening material and can look heavy at noon.

Marks show. Keep make-up and hairspray off it — spray hair first, then put the piece on.

Macro photograph of two layers of birdcage netting producing a soft moiré

Birdcage netting

Fine polyamide mesh. Layered, it produces visible depth and a soft moiré under raking light — the reason a small veiled piece photographs as more formal than its size suggests.

Catches on rough hair and on jewellery. Smooth the section before fitting, and lift it over earrings rather than through them.

Macro photograph of glass beading worked over satin

Glass beading

Returns light in points rather than sheets, which is what holds up under the mixed lighting of an evening room. It also adds real weight: beading is the difference between a 60 g piece and a 92 g one.

Store flat so the threads carry no tension. A dropped bead can be replaced; a pulled thread takes the row with it.

Three swatches of one colour from different dye lots laid side by side

Dye lots

Colour is applied in small lots. Shade shifts slightly between lots and against a screen. It is a property of the material, disclosed on every product page rather than argued about afterwards.

Order matching pieces together, in one order, if an exact match between them matters.

Macro photograph of a covered wire armature and buckram base inside a hat

Wire and buckram

The armature under the surface. It is what holds a brim level and a sculpted form upright, and it is the part that fails first if a piece is crushed.

Never fold a wired shape to fit a bag. A kinked wire prints through the covering permanently.

Cross-section diagram of a wide brim seated crown-down inside a rigid hat box

Storage and transport

  • A wide brim travels crown-down, resting on the inner rim of a rigid box so nothing bears on the crown.
  • Never lay a brim flat on its crown on a car seat. The crown collapses and the brim takes a permanent wave.
  • Fascinators, pillboxes and headbands can travel in a padded carton. Tape the fixing so it cannot press into the material.
  • Store away from direct light. Dyed sinamay and satin both fade, and they fade unevenly.
  • Keep the tissue. It holds the shape of a drape or a fold better than anything you will improvise later.
The rigid box

One thing we do not claim

Nothing on this site is offered as protection against sunlight or ultraviolet radiation. A hat marketed that way becomes regulated personal protective equipment in the European Union, with conformity assessment and CE marking behind it. We describe brim width, weave and shape, and we leave it there.

Full material and feather disclosure