Medieval Felt Hat

This tall hat, now looking a bit crushed was used roughly between 1320 and 1590, although apparently not worn in the early Tudor period, it did reappeared during the Elizabethan. 

This is felt hat made by shaping felt with hot water or steam.

Rice Paddy Hat With Danglely Bits

The Vietnamese conical rice farmers hat or Non La can be made of straw, palm leaves, bamboo or matting.

What makes the Vietnamese style stands out from other Asian straw hats is its it perfect cone shape, tapering smoothly from top point to rim.

Like all straw hats they are used as protection from sun and rain, but can be soaked/dipped in water and used as a cooling aid as the water evaporates.

Many of these hat have hand stictched words on them or poems, this one has ribbon dangling from its brim, which are purely for decoration.

Buddhist Ceremonial Hat

This is a Buddhist Lama Monk Ceremonial Hat which is worn by Lama or Monks during Buddhist ceremonies or other ritual celebration.

 It is made from brocade material over board. Its inner surface has got cotton lining.

You can see images of Dalai Lama wearing a very similar hat.

In this image the top is pointing forward but works equally well pointing backwards

Scary Clown

This colourful Kufi hat is worn the image below with colourful dreadlocks when I played a freaky clown at a recent event.

Hats like this come in many varieties, the shape is what puts it in the pill box group, the colour and decoration is what determine other things such, decorated with sequins and embroidery would probably make it a smoking cap, made of felt might make a medieval cap, in this case the fabric colours/pattern means its a kufi hat.