Clothes Minded: Hat-Stravaganza

I firmly believe that there is no reason that people should not look put together on a daily basis (at the very least). This series is designed to outline basic steps anyone can take to improve their everyday wardrobe easily. I love clothes and am often asked for help in the style department by my friends and family. Over the years, I have developed some fairly basic principles regarding fashion that can help anyone improve their style. These are tips to help you develop your own style; they should give you the tools to assess clothing and make choices that will work best for you, whatever your income, body type, or personality.

With summer on the horizon I have noticed an influx of hats, and I am very excited about the prospect of the weather being gorgeous and sunny and thus requiring some sort of fabulous hat to hide my pasty skin from the sun. While hats are a functional piece, there are some general things that should be considered for the style end of deciding which hat will be the right one for you. It also must be remembered that a hat is an accessory and needs to match your outfit both in tone and style. When I speak about hats, I DO NOT mean baseball caps, or even worse, visors—these are not fashionable and are barely acceptable as a functional piece, because there are almost always better, more attractive options. Your hat should have the same level of elegance or casualness as your outfit as a whole. The hat should also generally coordinate with the color palette of your outfit, and so if you are buying a hat, look for one that has a generally similar color as the clothing you most often wear.

I personally wish that we lived in the time of Hello, Dolly! and My Fair Lady where all women had to wear fabulous hats that perfectly matched their outfits. Alas, our society allows much more casual clothing and so my dream of fabulous hats on a daily basis will have to remain as such, but there are ways to incorporate hats into your wardrobe as a fun accessory that can add a lot to your look as a whole. By coordinating your hats with your wardrobe you will be able to more easily wear them on a more regular basis. Your hat should accentuate your outfit in some way, and complement your look as a whole. Hats are bold accessories, so use caution to make sure the hat doesn't overpower your look as a whole. If you want to wear it as the statement piece of your outfit, that is a different story, but this doesn't usually work for daily wear. A statement piece hat, like a large brimmed straw summer hat, needs to be worn in a contextually appropriate situation; these are not hats that can be incorporated into your usual rotation of your clothing. On a similar note, if you are going to Ascot, do not wear a brown fedora á la Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady, you absolutely have to wear your top hat in black or grey! If you "pull an 'Iggins", you will look an absolute fool in this crucial fashion situation. Also, in general, make sure your hat fits in with the social setting, do not go too fancy or too casual, if you require a hat at an event.

Trends in hats come and go quickly, and they can become dated rather quickly, so for pieces you want to wear on a semi-regular basis, try to pick hats that can extend beyond one season. If you are picking a style that is particularly trendy, try for a more neutral color or vice versa, if you are picking a color that is trendy, look for a hat that is more of a timeless style. However, if you are buying a hat for a special occasion, like a sunny vacation, I recommend committing to the format, and get something perhaps a little more trendy and festive (the upside being, if you look a little crazy, in a week you will be gone and you will never see the locals again). Also, don't buy a hat if the style doesn't fit in with your personal style. As with any article of clothing, avoid trends that are unflattering and that don't match your sense of style. Because hats are not an everyday occurrence in today's world, they make a much larger statement and so must be carefully considered to ensure that you are making the visual statement you intend to. It is easy to look like that crazy bag lady who is somehow always on the bus by wearing a hat that doesn't quite work on you, is from a completely other time or doesn't coordinate well with your outfit, so be mindful of your look as a whole when you are wearing a hat.

As a final note: I fully condone wearing a hat to hide a bad hair day, just be sure that the hat matches your outfit and doesn't look like you just threw it on to hide your hair. It is much more effective to pretend like you planned on wearing the hat the whole time, rather than a last ditch effort to hide the fact you woke up too late and didn't have time to do your hair.

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