Wearing Full-sized Hats With Lolita


When you think of hats in the world of Lolita, you probably immediately think of mini hats, for better or for worse. But full-sized hats are also frequently worn with Lolita, they just don't get as much attention as their mini cousins. Many people tend to think that full-sized hats aren't worn with Lolita as some sort of unspoken rule, or that no one ever bothers too. But there are actually tons of different hats that you can wear with Lolita, and I'll be going over some of the good ones in this post, as well as some of the ones to avoid.

Hats that work very well with Lolita

Top hats
The big brother of the infamous mini-top hat is, of course, the full sized top hat. You can find a plain men's top hat just about anywhere, from Ebay to the mall, or if you want something a little more unique you can find yourself a fancy one from Baby or from a hat maker on Etsy. Top hats tend to go best with Gothic Lolita or Boystyle.


Bowler hats
Bowler hats are like a less formal top hat, they have a shorter, rounder top and the brim is often shorter and curled up a bit more than most top hats. They are also as easily found as the top hat in pretty much any store that would sell formal men's clothes, as well has being sold frequently by Innocent world. Bowler hats go well with both Gothic and Classic Lolita, the right one could even go nicely with Sweet Lolita, especially Sweet Lolita in black and white or a sweeter Kuro Lolita.


Berets
Berets are a cute choice and can be found just about anywhere during the Autumn and Winter months. You can often pick up cute pastel ones in the children's section. Angelic Pretty seems to be the big brand maker of berets, with Baby and Innocent World making a few of them every now and then. Despite the fact that brands tend to release Sweet styled berets more often than not, they go very well with just about any style of Lolita, provided the beret matches the rest of your coordinate. Metamorphose often even releases berets to match their Sailor Lolita styled dresses. Berets can also be the most casual type of hat, so they are perfect if you are planning a Casual Lolita coordinate that needs a hat, but you feel like a formal hat would be very out of place.


Boater hats
These have been around for ages, but over the summer they became very trendy in Japan and they were often seen coordinated in Lolita outfits. While Innocent World has released a couple, you can easily pick up Boater hats for an incredibly cheap price from Ebay or Bodyline. And if you want the real thing, you can usually find nice vintage ones in antique shops. Boater hats are also very versatile and can go with just about any style, depending on their color and how they are decorated, but the Lolita style it's most seen with is Classic Lolita

Vintage styled hats
These include a few different styles of hats, all of which have a vintage style, or are real vintage pieces. Innocent World, who seems to be the big hat maker in the world of Lolita, releases quite a few vintage styled hats, but so does Metamorphose on occasion when they release Sailor Lolita styled things. Vintage styled hats go well with just about any Lolita style, but are especially easy to coordinate with Gothic and Classic Lolita


Victorian hats
A Victorian mourning hat is, without a doubt, the gothiest thing you could perch on your head. They're gigantic and black and covered just about anything you can imagine, from whole birds, to roses, to veils. While they are indeed Gothic, they are probably best worn only with just the right Gothic Lolita coordinate. While they might look strange with Kuro Lolita, they would go perfectly with a Gothic Lolita coordinate that is definitely on the gothier end of the Gothic to Lolita scale. If you want a Lolita brand Victorian hat, you're probably going to have to look to the indie brand Triple Fortune, but you would have an even easier time just buying from one of the internet's many Victorian wear shops.

How to fancy up your hat
Of course, your hat is probably fine just the way it is, but maybe you have a craft itch that can only be scratched with a glue gun (ow!) and some decorations. If you want to add a little more frills to your hat there are lots of things you can do. This post on Paperlace has a lot of different ways you can decorate a hat, while a boater hat is used in the post, you could really decorate any hat you have! Decorations can be permanent with a little bit of hot glue and a needle and some thread, or you can use safety pins to make detachable decorations so one hat could go with many different coordinates.


Not all hats are created equal
Now, just because it's hat shaped, that doesn't mean it belongs on your head. There are some hats that you really should avoid if you plan on wearing a Lolita coordinate. Of course, there are always exceptions to rules, but putting one of these on your head can, more often than not, can ruin a perfectly fine coordinate.
  • Kawaii character hats. Just because it's cute and you bought it at an anime convention doesn't mean it goes well with Lolita.
  • Cheap party hats. It may be shaped like a top hat, but if you bought it in a pack of 8, don't wear it with Lolita or really with anything outside of a New Years Eve party.
  • Floppy cheap hats. A slightly fancier variety of party hat is the big floppy top hat made out of satin or crushed velvet. Avoid it as you would anything else in Lolita made out of cheap satin or crushed velvet.
  • Baseball caps. Unless you're going for some sort of totally not Lolita fairy kei style, baseball caps are just so not rori, even if they are pink.
  • Hats that just don't match. You really wouldn't wear a black top hat with a Sweet Lolita coordinate, or a pink beret with a Gothic Lolita coordinate, having a matching hat is important.
  • Hats made of folded up newspaper. Now why would you do that?
There are lots more hats that will both work with Lolita, and look completely silly with it, so do a bit of experimenting to find just the right hat that goes with your own personal style. The best part about hats with Lolita is that you can very easily lolify a hat, simply by sticking something cute and pretty into the hat band or changing the ribbon on it to match your coordinate.

What are your favorite styles of hat? Are you strictly a mini-hat type of person, or do you have a hat to match just about anything?

39 comments:

  1. Folded newspaper hats are super awesome for Lolita! HOW DARE YOU lol

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  2. I love it when pirate-style lolitas use tricorne hats in their coordinates. It just adds that over the top pirate-y touch

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  3. i love berets with lolita. it looks cute but formal at the same time. i have one from AP, and i loves it! :)

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  4. I think hats make an adorable addition to a Lolita outfit, I especially love Innocent World's hats.

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  5. I prefer wearing cloche hats, since they were popular in the '20s and I have the right hairstyle for it :3 I would wear berets, too, but my hair gets frizzy very easily... and berets just make it even worse :|

    But if anyone needs inspiration for how to decorate hats or wear her hair, then I recommend browsing through the Village Hat Shop Gallery; they have fashion plates of some of the most interesting hats: http://gallery.villagehatshop.com/gallery/albums.php

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  6. "Hats made of folded up newspaper. Now why would you do that?" I lol'd.

    I adore full-sized hats in lolita! I've actually been working on a collection of vintage hats to wear with lolita. They're some of my favorite head pieces! I also scored a straw boater at H&M this summer for like $6. Win!

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  7. Hey, folded newspaper could be WAY RAD. ;)

    I love AatP's full-sized hats, though. They're one of those things that I just drool over every time a new one comes out.

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  8. The experimenter in me has a tremendous urge to try and make a good looking loli coordinate with either a baseball cap or newspaper now xD

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  9. I love hats!

    I have a rusty orange cloche that I wear when I want to have a more classic, vintage feel (I also have matching orange gloves that I wear) and a vintage black fur hat (kind of like a Russian-style fur hat, I guess?) that I wear when I want a bit of a classier feel. I tend to pair that one with a black faux-fur jacket that I have and put on some pearls, red lipstick, and heels! I also have a big white sun hat with some flower decoration on it. It's a bit fancier than a normal floppy sunhat, and it has wire in the brim to keep the shape, so I like to wear it in the summer to keep the sun off of my face while still looking cute.

    I'm a bit hat picky, since not many look good on me (and some that do I dislike -- why are all the cloches I can find in stores the kinds where the brim comes up in front? it defeats the purpose! you shouldn't be able to see in a cloche. :<). Berets actually look awful on me, but I wish I could wear them since they are so adorable. I had a really hard time finding a suitable boater hat last summer, but I think I will try Ebay this spring (never thought of that -- I feel silly now!) so I can have one once it gets hot.

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  10. Me too! I'm imagining some sort of crazy Alice Deco a la Mode kind of thing with a crazy deco'd out baseball cap.

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  11. I love you for writing this post. Hats are one of my great passions in life *got her closet full of them*, and it's really good to see someone stand up for them since they don't seem to be too hyped up in the lolita community.. <.<

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  12. I love full sized hats and often wear them with lolita.

    Heres a few examples of my coordinates with hats:

    http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x24/Mimi_Elizabetha/Lolita%20lempicka/Sweetheart.jpg?t=1291896329

    http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x24/Mimi_Elizabetha/Lolita%20lempicka/Daily%20lolita/terrible.jpg?t=1291896428

    http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x24/Mimi_Elizabetha/Lolita%20lempicka/Northern%20winter/op.png?t=1291896578

    I also like to decoraate my own hats.

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  13. I think full sized hats look way better with lolita than mini hats, and *ducks* even bonnets. I am not a fan of bonnets, but that's just my personal taste. In ~ye olden days~ a lady would pretty much never go out with some form of haberdashery atop her coif. I just wish I didn't have such a big head :(

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  14. This article kinda surprises me. I didn't know there was an unspoken rule of not wearing a full hat really since there has been many hats especially in classic lolita brands, so it seemed normal to me. I love hats and incorporate them in my loli outfits as much as I can. I prefer them a lot more than minihats which I find kinda costumey. Nice article, i love the selection of hats you posted

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  15. hats are my favorite lolita headwear ♥

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  16. hats made of folded-up newspaper?! who would even think of that! XD I think some character hats are cute for deco/OTT/fairyloli though - I'd love to do a theme outfit with MintyMix's Tenorikuma hat <3 But mostly they're not suitable, yeah XD

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  17. I totally want one of the Innocent World ones you posted. Love them! I love bowlers most.

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  18. Full sized hats generally look better on people than mini top hats - mini top hats just look, for the most part, very costume like. It's not very practical and hard to pull off, imho. I wish I could wear boater hats very well, but I have a fairly long face frame and hats with larger brims go so well. I hope to see more regular sized hats in lolita.

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  19. haha. No, there are no rules about not being allowed to wear full sized hats. Wear what you will with your lolita outfit as long as it looks put together.

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  20. Thats what I thought xD

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  21. I love berets! I've wanted one for such a long time, but I want to wait until I can get one that's of a very nice quality; it seems that whenever I find an inexpensive beret, it looks too obviously of poor quality.

    Under "vintage styled hats", I'm a big fan of bucket hats and their cute, sophisticated look. Walmart is currently selling some cute, suitable-quality felt ones in red, black, gray, and brown -- at least in this area (Florida). If I could actually find them on the website, I'd post a link to them. >_<

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  22. I ruv my bodyline kitty hat, but I would never wear it with lolita! It just wouldn't match. ^^" But, anyhoo, I ADORE big old Victorian mourning hats, and berets, and boater hats, and... I just love hats. HATS OF ANY SHAPE AND SIZE.

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  23. Haha, it seems crazy but I was at a tea yesterday run by my

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  24. errr clearly I havn't figured this out yet...

    I meant to say:

    Haha, it seems crazy but I was at a tea yesterday run by my Mother's Garden club and a lady there was wearing a hat made out of a paper bag. It was a fairly well done paper bag hat, but really?

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  25. I love all those coordinates! I think that Gothic Lolita and full sized hats are pretty much made for each other.

    I find it hard not to decorate any and all hats that I have. There's just something so satisfying about it!

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  26. That's awesome! I don't have nearly that many, but I have a fair number of them. I really don't know why they aren't worn more (outside of whatever current hat related trend passes through Lolita), you can buy cute hats pretty much anywhere for a really good price.

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  27. That sounds fantastic! Matching hat and gloves are just so cute.

    I agree about store bought cloche hats! The whole point of them is to cover your eyes!

    Ebay boaters are pretty easy to find, just don't buy the cheapest one! Those ones are super flimsy. Haha, that's the one I have, I wish I would have just spent the $5 more to get a better one.

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  28. XD Maybe if you add some lace to it....

    Yes! I love their hats! Haha, what I especially love about them is that they seem to be just regular formal hats that I can pick up for about $30 and they're just trimmed extra fancifully.

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  29. That's awesome :D I really love vintage hats and I also have quite the collection of them, I even have one that looks just like a big black velvet bow with a veil, but I mostly just collect them. I can never manage to style my hair in a way that suits vintage hats.

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  30. I love hats so much!

    But I have a larger than normal head, and a lot of them are too small for me. ): There's been so many nice hats online lately but I'm hesitant to buy them because I'm worried they wont fit properly.

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  31. tricorns are lovely too!

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  32. You mean that my newspaper hat is not rori?

    I really want to find a reason to make and wear one now. Maybe yellowed newspaper with a cream and black coord?

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  33. Ooh, sounds cute!
    *now feels the need to put pearls on a baseball cap*

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  34. I also think normal hats look better than mini hats, especially top/bowler hats. I love those two first vintage hats, my grandma has one that I want desperately, it's a deep burgundy/dark wine wool with a plain ribbon... it's quite 30's, but can still work nice with classic lolita. To anyone who pines for a hat, ask your grandmas ;)

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  35. I always wear different hats for my coordinate, I am such a hat person *smiles* Fur berets, tricorne hat, cowboy hat (It takes more effort to pull it off without looking like a costume though XP), pillbox hat & much more *W*

    My favourite hat out of all will be the fur berets, as they are so soft & they will lie according to your head shape (unlike felt which will go off into an awkward shape sometimes) Best of all, it enhances the elegant feel to your outfit ^O^

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  36. Full sized hats are so much more traditional. The small ones look like costume wear, or like something you'd get from Hot Topic. Very put on. Even ridiculous at times.

    But full sized Victorian hats aren't necessarily always goth. Just look how happy these ones look!

    http://www.ladydianehats.com/Victorian_hat.html
    http://www.rrbycresa.com/Victorian-Riding-Hats-.htm

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  37. How do you feel about fez hats?  I recently bought a black one from Morocco as a souvenir.

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