Kufi

This hat was picked up for £2 from Tewkesbury apparently a BBC drama prop, crushed at the bottom of a box it needs a bit of attention to bring it back to shape.

A Kufi hat is a traditional men's hat worn people in Africa or those of African heritage living in the US, the hat has no religious significance can be worn by Christian, Muslim or those who follow The Force.

Kufi hats are usually made of kente cloth, mudcloth, or knitted/crocheted and pill boxed shaped

Basotho hat

The Basotho Hat is the traditional hat of Losotho a country totally surrounded by South Africa, known as the Kindom of the Sky since its almost entirely situated 1000 feet above sea level.

The Hat is also known as the Mokorotlo and is the only hat to appear on a national flag, it appeared until 1986 and was linked to the royal heritage of the county.

Conical in shape and made of straw, its should have 5 rings at the top where the straw ends meet, the 5th centre ring as below joins the others together in a symbolic union.

The shape was possible inspired by shape of Qiloane mountain which is near the fortress of a early Losotho king, called Moshoeshoe I.

I have used this to represent oriental culture, which is totally wrong since its African not Asian, but it works well, since most people would not know much about its true background.

Below my hat being used during a event, by one of the crew.

Colourful Hat

This pill box shaped soft hat is what you might call a smoking cap.

A very simple ring of fabric with a fabric lid, this one is not decorated, covered in sequins, buttons, embroidered or tasselled but does have colourful panels. 

A very comfortable hat mainly for indoor use as it offer a bit of warmth to a balding head like mine.

Makes a excellent hat for a north African/Arabic trader character

In parts of Africa this would be called a kufi, kofi hat.

Fezzes Arn't Just for Comedy

The Fez is either truncated cone or short cylinder sometimes with a tassel on top and made of red felt.

One of the worlds top ten hats, worn by Tommy Cooper, Dr Who, Madness, Laurel and Hardy, wind up or evil monkeys and people from Cyprus.

Heavily associated with people from north Africa and other countries around the Mediterranean like Morocco, Turkey and Greece. 

They were worn back at least as far as the 15th Century and even adapted as part of the German army uniform. Some military fez's even had different coloured detachable tassels to signify rank or unit.

I've have had this fez so long I can't remember were I got it.

A hat for casual use and fez-tive occasions.

The Turban

Turbans or what is a length of cloth wound around the head.

Simple they are not, there are multiple ways of tying them, different lengths of fabric, patterns, colours etc. creating a big variety of looks.

My way of tying a turban was taught by visitor from North Africa but they are traditional headgear all the way through Arabic lands across to India and Indonesia as well as North and other parts Africa some like the Sikhs wear them for religious reason and they all do a far better job than me who just wear them very occasionally to represent some fantasy culture in larp.

Other names for turban I have seen pagri, blangkon, saraki, jamandani, keffiyeh, kufiya, ghutrah, shemagh, ḥaṭṭah, mashadah, sudra, chafiye. cemedanî. 

I have 2 lengths of fabric I keep for specifically for turbans, both about 3 meters long and just under a meter wide you can get away with shorter but you start to loose shape and struggle to tie them, most fabric for turbans is even longer.