Give yourself a head start – as winter approaches, what headgear should you opt for?
Allow me to paint you two opposing vignettes.
One is of an Italian man of a certain age cutting a dash through frosty Milan earlier this week, classically patrician in his style, a handsome windowpane check suit and a camel coat draped over his shoulders like only an Italian man of a certain age can, topped off with a pristine fedora. The effect was pin-sharp and utterly polished; a masterclass in continental refinement.
The second scene that springs to mind, whenever I attempt a foray into the world of hats, is of me, seduced by the winsome thought that I would look good in a Greek fisherman’s hat (a sort of more structured flat cap) staring into the mirror to find Blakey from On the Buses staring back at him.
Hats are a tricky beast to negotiate; some seem to have a natural knack for wearing them, others – myself included – not so much.
The bi-annual trade fair Pitti Uomo in Florence is a showcase of some of the world’s most flamboyant sartorial peacocks, with hats a key component of their meticulously studied “looks”. Yet for every David Beckham in a sharp fedora or cosy beanie hat, there’s… well, David Beckham in a questionable flat cap looking like an extra from Peaky Blinders. The difficulty with hats is that they can veer into costume territory, and all too often make the wearer a tad self-conscious.
Which is a pity, because certain hats can be an object of beauty in their own right; take in the sculptural form of a Borsalino, for example, or the weighty elegance of a Lock & Co Hatters bowler in inky felt. The craftsmanship that goes into making such models is astounding in itself; that particular British institution boasts the title of “oldest hat shop in the world” and still operates from its original St James’s site, which make the process of trying one on a veritable experiential history lesson.
So which hat style to plump for as temperatures drop? A hat enthusiast friend (he commissioned the costume designer behind Tom Hardy’s period drama Taboo to make him one of the “informal” top hats) advises that a hat should balance the shape of the face – long and thin faces need a wider, shorter shape, rounder faces need something with more structure (perhaps this is why I fell at the first hurdle with my collapsing mushroom of a hat). Stylistically, despite efforts by Gucci to add a high-fashion gloss to the trapper hat, anything that’s too rustically “outdoorsy” can look a tad “gap year ski instructor’’; opt for a beanie by all means but forgo the long, floppy shapes for one that’s shorter and more neat, and, unless you are attending a festival or are under the age of 12, avoid bobbles and buckets. Our Milanese gent would never stand for such sloppy affairs.