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How to Choose a Hat for Your Face Shape

“Face-shape rules are a starting point, not a verdict. Most hats that look wrong on you are the wrong size or the wrong brim for your shoulders, and no chart will tell you that.”Her take

Face shape is a starting point, not a verdict

Every hat guide hands you a chart: round face, buy this; long face, avoid that. The charts aren't wrong, they're just incomplete. Face shape tells you which hat to try first. It doesn't tell you whether the hat is the right size, whether the brim suits your frame, or whether the crown sits at the right height on your head. Those three things decide most hat disasters.

Use your face shape the way you would use a compass: to point you in a direction. Look straight into a mirror with your hair pulled back and trace the outline. Notice where it's widest (forehead, cheekbones or jaw) and whether it's longer than it is wide.

• Round: face about as wide as it is long, soft jaw. Try angular crowns, asymmetric brims and a bit of height, like a fedora with a pinched crown.
• Square: strong jaw and forehead of similar width. Try rounded crowns and soft or floppy brims to ease the corners.
• Oval: balanced proportions. Most shapes work; your limit is proportion, not shape.
• Long or oblong: face noticeably longer than wide. Try wider brims and lower crowns that add width and shorten the line.
• Heart: wider forehead, narrower chin. Try medium brims and hats worn slightly tilted so the forehead isn't the only width on show.

Wide brim, fedora, beret or cap: what each one does

A wide-brim hat adds width at the top of your silhouette. A wide-brim straw hat with a linen dress is the easiest summer hat there is, and it flatters long faces especially, because the brim cuts the length. The catch is scale: if you're petite or narrow-shouldered, a very wide brim can turn you into a lampshade. Choose a brim that ends at, or just inside, the line of your shoulders.

A fedora is structured: a pinched or creased crown and a medium brim, often snapped down at the front. It brings angles, which is why it suits round and oval faces. A camel wool fedora with a long coat is a polished autumn look because the hat repeats the coat's colour and stops it from looking like a costume.

A beret is soft and has no brim, so it works on almost every face as long as you wear it pushed back and slightly to one side rather than pulled flat across your forehead. A baseball cap is the most forgiving shape for most faces; what ruins it is a crown too tall for your head. Look for a lower-profile crown if you have a small or short face.

Proportion: the brim and your shoulders

This is the rule I'd put above face shape. Stand in front of a full-length mirror, not a bathroom one. A hat is part of your whole outline, and you'll only see whether it works from head to toe.

Look at the brim against your shoulders. If the brim extends past them, the hat reads as the main event and you read as the stand. If the brim is tiny on broad shoulders, the head looks small. Somewhere between the two is your range. Coats change this too: a bulky winter coat can carry a slightly bigger brim than a summer dress can.

How to test crown height in a mirror

The crown is the part of the hat that covers your head. Too tall and it adds length you may not want; too shallow and the hat perches on top like it's about to blow off. Put the hat on and settle it where it naturally sits, then check three points.

• Front: the brim, or the base of the crown, should sit roughly a finger's width above your eyebrows. If it covers your brows, it's too big or too deep.
• Side: the hat should sit just above the tops of your ears, not on them, and not floating well above them.
• Height: compare the crown's height with the length of your face. Long faces suit lower crowns; short or round faces can take a bit more height.

How to get the size right

Wrap a soft tape measure around your head where a hat sits: across your forehead about a finger above your eyebrows, just above your ears, and around the fullest part of the back of your head. Keep it snug, not tight. Write the number down in both centimetres and inches, because sizing labels vary.

Check the maker's size chart against that number rather than assuming you're a small, medium or large. If you fall between sizes, go up and add hat-sizing tape inside the band; a hat that's slightly loose can be fixed in a minute, but a tight one gives you a headache and a red line across your forehead. Hair matters too: if you'll wear the hat over a bun or thick curls, measure with your hair styled that way.

Questions people ask

The takeaway

Let face shape pick the style, then let your shoulders pick the brim and a tape measure pick the size. Check it all in a full-length mirror before you buy.

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