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.

Latex Skeleton Mask

There are other things you can wear on head besides hats such as hoods, wigs, crowns and one of the other things is masks

This latex mask I'm wearing is from the Ascendancy prop box

Latex masks can be half masks which leave the mouth uncovered, face masks just covering the eyes and forehead or like this one full head masks covering the whole face and head.
These full head masks are the worst to wear as they restrict breathing but the main problem is condensation from breathing and general sweat.

You get a little puddle of fluid in the chin of this mask after wearing it for half an hour.

Thracian Cap

Thracian cap. made of cow hide

The style or shape is that of phrygian cap, i.e. with a forward pointing top the crown, smurf hat style.

Thracian caps where made of skins with the fur still attached, and then the rest of leather is left to dangle down over the shoulders.

You will find the style of hat in many images of ancient Thracian warriors or Bulgarian area history.

Purchased from a reenactment fayre, although you could easily make this yourself for cost of bit leather its only got one crude seam.

Probably going to be used for some sort of fantasy goblin.

Village Yokel

A simple felt hat, misused and abused makes a idea hat for anyone that is not wanting a fashion statement.

Ideal for playing characters such as farmers, peasants or the village yokel.

If you want to look a little (very little) smarter turn the brim up

Novelty Witches

Novelty Witches Hat probably for a Halloween costume

Made of velvet its works in a way, but does not mirror any reality.

The original owner of the hat donated it after wearing once for lrp event where she played the part of witch, see photos below.

The witches hat itself while not historical true does have its roots in history of the period witches were burnt in England. 

One theory I read is the pointed hat represents a church steeple so witches where made to wear them in last ditch effort to redeem them in the eyes of god. 

Another the hats shape is to do with mummified witches from China which were found wearing felt cones on their head.

More likely its a follow on from the wizard hat which was to do with demonising of the Jews in the medieval period.

One thing is sure most of the look is pure Hollywood from films like the Wizard of Oz. 

Trapper Cap

This waxed cotton trapper hat is perfect for when I go hunting for lost socks

Fur lined it helps protect me from the dusty locations hidden socks lurk waiting to jump out at you.

Being black is also excellent camouflage for the dark corners of the sock draw.

You can also wear it with ear flaps down so you cannot be distracted by other noisy clothing.

You can even wear this cap outdoors in the cold and rain.