Winter chill? Yay, it's time for lots of luscious hats!

Did you know the UK's oldest hat maker is Lock and Co hatters on St James Street in London? They've been making smart headgear since the 1660s. But their history pales into insignificance compared to the hats that archaeologists now think adorn the heads of thirty thousand year-old stone and clay fertility figurines. When archaeologists re-examined a number of the famous Venus figurines found in Europe, they found many seemed to be wearing basket hats and caps, which had originally been interpreted as elaborate hairstyles. That's what we call an old hat! And why the saying 'oh, that's just old hat'?, describing something that's 'tediously familiar or outdated'.

Egyptian hats and fighting hats

One of the earliest images of hat-wearing appear in a tomb painting from Thebes, Egypt, showing a man wearing a conical straw hat. The images date back to 3200 BC. It looks like humans have always worn hats, and we're still enjoying hat-wearing to this day. Hats can define a national costume. Some traditional hats are extraordinarily silly, more about storytelling and history than comfort or practicality. There are special hats to wear for fighting wars and hats that signify your career choice. Hats can even signal your poshness, for example the smart hats worn by the rich at the Royal Ascot horse race.

Bowler hats and flat caps

Mums wear special hats at weddings and grooms who opt for the traditional look sometimes wear a top hat. Until the 1970s businessmen in The City wore bowler hats, a national costume hat style also worn by Bolivian women in sharp contrast to their rainbow-coloured clothes. A flat cap denotes a working class man, and a turban defines the World War Two Land Girls who kept our farms going through the conflict and made sure the nation was fed.

Mushroom hats and Zucchettos

A hat can symbolise more or less anything; good or bad, rich or poor, peaceful or warlike. Some hats reveal your religion, others your political affiliations. The Ancient Greeks wore sun hats. In the early 1900s the trend for ever-bigger mushroom hats inspired cartoons in the press. The Pope wears a Zucchetto. And if you walked down any British street in the 1930s almost everyone you encountered wore a hat. It was rude not to. Many people even kept their hats on indoors.

The world's silliest hats

Search online for 'silly hat' and you'll discover a wealth of headgear madness. There's a hat that makes you look like a lobster and a hat smothered in flashing LED lights. There's a fleece chicken hat with long, skinny legs that dangle down past your ears, and a policeman's hat with a flashing light and siren on top. There's even a hat made to look like a Christmas turkey, a hat with a hipster beard attached, and a brown knitted hat complete with woollen dreadlocks. Crikey.

Got a head? You need a hat

No wonder our hat collection is so popular. Wherever there's a head, there's a hat. They're not just for keeping warm, although our fleece hats are brilliant at achieving exactly that. They're gorgeous hats, hats to decorate your head as well as add oodles of alternative style to your wardrobe. Bearing all that in mind, here are our top 3 hats for winter 2019. Zoom over to our hat collection and see if there's a style that makes your head feel happy!

Our top 3 winter hats for 2019

1. Nature inspired fleece leaf hat - The number one hat for the season is this little beauty. Our model is female, and doesn't she look lovely, but men can wear this hat too. There's no law to say you can't! It's colourful and funky, an alternative hat with a difference, and it keeps you lovely and warm as well as making you stand out from the everyday, boring-hat crowd.
2. Fleece pixie hat – If you're after a lightweight hat that's also really warm, go for this one. Made from fabulously warm fleece, it features cool, swirly embroidery and the overlock stitching adds extra interest. Choose from a bunch of lovely colours including trendy petrol blue, subtle olive green and scarlet with black embroidery. Being partially elasticated at the back, it stays where it belongs, even in the wind.
3. Velvet and silk leaf hat - Gheri fabric is beautiful, woven in vivid coloured and textured stripes. Gheri is the star of the show for this fab hat, a stunning patchwork of black velvet and silk Gheri plus pretty, bright leaf appliqué patterns. It's lined with fleece and the colours are simply delicious.

Why put up with an ordinary winter hat when there's something as lovely as these available? Just say no to dull hats! We also stock a collection of stunning summer hats – why not invest in one now and treat your head to some summer festival fun for 2020?