Guide to 80s Hats and Headwear

The decade of the 1980s saw fashion at its most daring time. It was a decade of excess, and its legacy can be seen in today’s fashion. Big, bold curls in the hair and side ponies were two of the most iconic styles of the 1980s in terms of fashion. Back in the day, people also used hair sprays frequently. Aside from those, people also wore garish and showy clothing, which was paired with equally garish and colorful accessories. In addition to clothing, hats and other forms of headwear are also a big deal in the 80s.

80s Hats and Headwear

The 1980s saw the resurgence of the hat in popular culture. Fedora hats, bowler hats, sun hats, beret caps, newsboy caps, visors, and bucket hats are just some of the women’s hats that have made a comeback in recent years. Many women’s clothes are revivals of clothing from previous decades.

Fedora Hats

A fedora is a hat with an indented crown and a soft brim. It typically has a crease running the length of the crown and is “pinched” on both sides near the front. The positioning of pinches can change, and fedoras can also be creased with teardrop crowns, diamond crowns, center dents, and other creases.

In order to help the felt maintain its shape, fedoras are typically made by pressing a piece of felt over a mold. Iron was used to press the felt onto the molds that had previously been made by shaping the hat with a series of wooden blocks. Currently, pressure is generated to form the shape of the hat using machinery and metal molds. When the hat’s basic shape has been achieved, the hat-makers add a decoration, typically a ribbon, between the brim and the crown. Either the brim is hemmed or left unfinished. A soft hat, such as the fedora, is one that is typically made of felt, fur, or animal hides.

vintage gray fedora hat

Bowler Hats

Hard-felt hats with rounded crowns and narrow brims are known as “bowlers.” A bob hat was another name for it, along with billy coke, billycock, bombin, and derby. It has historically been worn with casual and semi-formal clothing. During the second half of the 19th century, the British, Irish, and American working classes, as well as the middle and upper classes in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and on the east coast of the United States, were big fans of the bowler, a sturdy and protective hat style.

walking stick and black bowler cap isolated on white backgroundSun Hats

Sun hats can also be referred to as “floppy hats,” “harvest hats,” or “field hats.” It is any hat or other headgear that has been specifically designed to shield the face, neck, and shoulders from direct sunlight. It typically has a circumferentially protruding semi-rigid brim that can range in width from small to large, but as a general rule, it should be somewhere between 10 and 18 centimeters in width.

Beautiful short hair Asian woman with a white top, and straw hat looking up, smiling and raising a hand to block sunlight at the beach with blue sea and sky

Beret Caps

A beret is a type of headwear that is typically made of wool that has been hand-knit or woven, crocheted cotton, wool felt, or acrylic fiber. It is a soft, round cap with a flat crown.

The nineteenth century saw the beginning of mass production of berets in Spain and France; today, the beret is most commonly associated with these two countries. Berets are a traditional part of the uniform of many armed forces and police forces around the world, in addition to being worn by a variety of other organizations.

The beret wraps snugly around the head and can be “shaped” in a number of different ways; however, in the Americas, it is typically worn with the point pushed to one side. There is no one standard way to wear a beret, but older gentlemen typically do so in a manner that makes it appear as though it is protruding forward from the front of the head and is held in place by the local custom in Central and South America. It is unisex, meaning either a man or a woman can wear it.  If you are creating uniforms or team outfits, you can also consider options like buying bulk tee shirts Canada.  

Young blonde woman smiling happily using smartphone in the city

Newsboy Cap

The first people to be seen wearing what is now commonly referred to as a “newsboy cap,” but was previously known as a “paperboy cap,” “newsie cap,” or “newsy,” were newspaper vendors in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Like a flat cap, it has a round, low profile and a small visor or brim. Tweed is the material most commonly used in its construction, and it has the same characteristics as a flat cap.

Retro wool driver cap on a white backgroundVisor

A sports visor, also known as a sun visor or visor cap, is a type of crownless hat that consists solely of a visor or brim and a strap or buckle that encircles the wearer’s head. Other names for this style of hat include visor cap and sun visor. Only the face, including the eyes, nose, and cheeks, is shielded from the sunlight by the visor, which leaves the crown of the head exposed to the elements.

Smiling senior man on the golf course wearing visor

Bucket Hat

A hat with a brim that is both narrow and sloping downward is known as a bucket hat. Variations of this style of hat include the fisherman’s hat, the Irish country hat, and the session hat. In most cases, the hat is constructed out of heavy-duty cotton fabric like denim or canvas or heavy wool like tweed. Additionally, metal eyelets may be sewn into the crown of the hat in order to allow for air circulation.

Romantic curly-haired girl reads the novel in paper book with yellow cover on eco-bench in the park. A young woman wears a yellow Panama bucket hat and a white summer outfit. Female student studying summer vacation

Conclusion

These are some examples of hats and other headwear that were popular in the 1980s and that you can incorporate into your outfits. All of these hats and other headwear items are going to be excellent choices for you, regardless of whether you want to give your wardrobe a throwback to the 1980s or you want to go all out when getting dressed for a party.