Hats, Caps

A hat is an item of clothing which is worn on the head – a kind of headgear. Hats are differentiated from caps by being more elaborate; hats have a high crown, a brim, or both and are larger than caps. more...

A hat may be either placed on the head or, in the case of some women's hats, secured with hat-pins (which are pushed through the hat and the hair). Many hats are intended only for men or for women, while other hats are fashionable on both sexes. Purveyors of men's hats are called hatters and purveyors of ladies' hats are called milliners.

Physical attributes

Hats are made from a variety of materials, including wool and fur felt, twill, canvas, leather and straw. Fabric, leather and straw hats are specially constructed to be a certain shape. Most felt, straw, and some fabric hats differ only by cosmetics, determined by how the hat is blocked, or shaped by a mold or by hand. Blocking the hat shapes the crown by applying steam to the material to soften the fabric and, once finished and dried, fix the shape of the hat. If the hat's material is strong enough, it often can be reblocked to another shape.They also come in many sizes. Felt hats also vary by stiffness, depending on how much shellac is applied to the felt. Additionally, many soft wool felt hats are crushable or packable, meaning that the material can return to and hold its original shape even after being folded and put in a suitcase. Hats that are not explicitly advertised as such should never be folded as they may be permanantly damaged. Some straw hats can also rolled up to fit in a tube. Such a rolling practice was done for unblocked Panama hats, resulting in a distinctive crown with an narrow outward lengthwise crease.

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