Felt Hats for Men: Shapes, Fit and What to Buy First

Almost every men's felt hat sold is one of six shapes, and they differ from each other in ways you can measure. Once you know which numbers matter, the choice stops being a matter of nerve and becomes a matter of proportion.

The six shapes

• Fedora — brim 6–8 cm, centre-dent or teardrop crown crease, brim snapped down at the front. The default. Works with everything from a peacoat to a suit.
• Trilby — brim 3.5–5 cm, sharply upturned at the back, crown shorter. Sits higher and reads younger; unforgiving on a large head.
• Homburg — stiff curled brim all the way round, single centre dent, no front snap. The formal option, and the one that looks wrong with casual clothes.
• Pork pie — flat top with a circular crease, brim 4–5 cm turned up all round. Distinctive; suits narrow faces.
• Western — brim 9–10 cm with a pronounced side curl, tall crown. Heavily regional in how it is read.
• Bowler — hard, domed, short curled brim. Effectively costume outside a few specific settings.

Matching the hat to the head

Two rules do most of the work:

1. Brim width tracks shoulder width. A brim noticeably narrower than your face makes the head look larger. Broad shoulders carry a 7–8 cm brim easily; a slight frame is better at 5–6 cm.
2. Crown height tracks face length. A long face is shortened by a lower crown and a wider brim. A round face gains length from a taller crown, around 11–12 cm.

If you wear glasses, the brim should clear the frames when the hat is seated properly. A hat that rests on your glasses is a size too small or a brim angled too steeply.

Sizing

Measure around the head roughly 1 cm above the ears, level across the forehead, with the tape snug but not tight. Common conversions:

• 55 cm — UK 6¾, US 6⅞, S
• 57 cm — UK 7, US 7⅛, M
• 59 cm — UK 7¼, US 7⅜, L
• 61 cm — UK 7½, US 7⅝, XL

Between sizes, take the larger and use a sizing tape inside the sweatband. A tight hat leaves a mark on your forehead and gives you a headache after an hour; a loose one blows off.

Wool felt or fur felt

• Price. Wool felt runs roughly £30–70; fur felt starts around £150 and climbs past £500.
• Weight. Fur felt is noticeably lighter for the same stiffness, which is what you feel after an hour.
• Rain. Fur felt beads and sheds water. Untreated wool wets through and dries misshapen.
• Crease memory. Wool softens over a season or two; fur felt holds a crease for years and can be reblocked.
• Best for. Wool for occasional wear and for finding out whether you actually wear hats; fur felt for daily wear and long ownership.

The grading system you will see on fur felt — the X marks — is not standardised between makers, so 10X from one firm is not comparable with 10X from another. Judge weight and hand feel instead.

Colour

Charcoal, dark brown and black cover most wardrobes; see felt hat colours for what each shade actually does next to a coat, and why black is the hardest of them to wear well.

Care

• Handle by the brim, front and back — pinching the crown wears through the crease within a year.
• Store upside down on the crown, or on a hat block, never resting on the brim.
• Brush anticlockwise with a soft hat brush after wear.
• Wet hat: reshape by hand and dry away from heat. A radiator shrinks and hardens felt permanently.

Full method in how to clean a felt hat. If you would rather build one than buy one, felt hat blanks covers the cones and capelines the trade starts from, and wet felting a hat covers making the felt itself from loose wool.