Add Some Oomph to Your Headwear with These Accessorizing Tips

A hat, in and of itself, can make a powerful statement about you:

You’re elegant (black, ultra-wide brim hat with a white ribbon or pinstripe fedora)
You’re adventurous (wide-brim fedora with leather hatband)
You’re hardworking (sweat-stained trucker hat)
You’re sporty (baseball cap with New Era sticker)

When you add hat accessories into the mix, you can change up the message you’re trying to send with relatively little effort.

Stickers

New Era is one of the most sought-after brands in the hat market these days, and it’s no wonder because they have exclusive rights to the MLB, NFL, NBA, Australia’s Big Bash League, and the Canadian Football League. One of their trademark accessories is the big sticker that sits on the bill, so if you want to show your devotion to your team and the New Era brand with your custom baseball cap, you need to keep that sticker looking fresh. For more information on New Era hats, visit this article.

Hatbands

Hatbands are a staple accessory in many different kinds of hats, and they’re pretty easy to change out if you want to switch up your look. Originally, the hat band’s main purpose was to keep the hat’s shape so that the crown didn’t stretch out or warp. Now people use hatbands to express themselves and accessorize their outfits. Throughout history, hatbands have been made of the following materials:

• Leather
• Horsehair
• Ribbon
• Fabric (silk, cotton, nylon, polyester)
• Recycled plastic bottles

The hatbands can also be decorated with elaborately beaded designs, semi-precious gems, feathers, bones, and buckles.

Pins

Hatpins used to be used for the specific purpose of keeping a lady’s hat on her head. Let’s start out with a little bit of interesting trivia surrounding hatpins:

• Historians have traced women’s use of hatpins all the way back to the 1400s!
• As women’s hats got larger and more elaborate, pins grew from just a few inches to nine or ten inches in length
• There are actually written accounts of women using their hatpins as self-defense against unwanted advances or harassment in public places
• In the early 1900s, several judges across the world ruled that hatpins could be used as a weapon, so they made laws prohibiting hatpins longer than a certain size
• Defying the law by wearing hatpins that were too long landed women with a fine and even jail time

Nowadays, hatpins aren’t only for women who want to keep hats on their heads. You can find pins that fit any occasion and passion, from slices of pizza to images of endangered animals. Pins are a great way to let people know what you’re about.

Patches

You don’t have to look very long before you find patches sewn onto something. Whether they are reinforcing a toddler’s pant knees or sewn onto a letterman’s jacket, patches are all over the place. One place where patches have a particularly strong presence is on the fronts (and sometimes backs and sides) of different kinds of hats.

Patches used to only be embroidered, but with today’s technology, they can also be screen printed, painted, or made from burned or pressed leather. Patches are particularly popular on trucker hats, baseball caps, and bucket hats because these hats generally have a wide, empty crown space that makes them easy to personalize. The result is customized headwear that is perfect for showing off the wearer’s favorite cause, team, or brand. For more interesting information on the history of patches, check out this article.

Feathers

You’ve probably heard the phrase “put a feather in your cap,” which generally means that you’ve earned some kind of accomplishment. The phrase has its origin in several different cultures where, when you killed an enemy, you were awarded a feather to put into your war headdress. It was set to distinguish the great warriors from the…less great ones.

Wearing feathers on your hat has a long and scandalous past if you can believe it. Somewhere around the 16th century, people started thinking that wearing brightly colored plumage on their own heads seemed like a good idea. It became such a fashion trend and sign of wealth that some birds were even pushed to extinction!

Nowadays, you can get dyed and undyed feathers sourced legally and ethically from a variety of birds such as turkey, goose, pheasant, owl, ostrich, and rooster. In the United States, eagle feathers used to be legal to wear in your hat, but due to overkilling, it is now illegal to own any eagle feathers – even if you find them on the side of the road.

Just in case you are keen on wearing feathers, men traditionally wear their feathers on the left side of the hat, and women wear them on the right side. One of the most recent trends in feather-wearing is to have elaborately painted scenes at the end of the feather.

If you are just getting started with wearing hats and want to customize your look without buying a lot of new hats at once, consider acquiring some hat accessories. They are generally a lot less expensive than a new hat, and they can let you express yourself in all new ways.