Wednesday 24 June 2015

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.


Monday 22 June 2015

Hat Art

I thought I would include a couple of drawings of Richard in a Hat, since my hat collection seems to have inspired a card.


Above me including orange beard wearing a yellow hat and surrounded by various other hats including one that looks like a crown.

Below a stack of hats, the top one is very tall top hat.


Produced by a talented 5 year old girl.


Sunday 21 June 2015

Peaked cap

A peaked cap as used by many military organisations and the odd civilian services such as the police, post office.

This one is clearly RAF at least that what the hat badge would indicate, a quick search says its airman's no.1 SD hat badge whatever that means.



The visor or peak is made in this case of plastic, but originally the peaks would be polished leather.


Peaked cap also known as Forage Caps, Barrack Covers or Combination Cap.

Thursday 18 June 2015

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.