How to Wear HATS! (According to Adam Savage)

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I feel like we need a series all about Adam's favorite hats

70% of anything fashion related is confidence. The other thirty percent is what actually looks good on you and what you “should” wear.

What have found, as a lifelong hat wearer, is that “hat people” find each other in a crowd. There may be a conversation about hats or just a nod of mutual recognition / respect, but we find each other. A quality hat sets you apart. And can often be a conversation starter.

I could listen to this for hours. Always wanted to be a hat person but cringed whenever I tried one on, then I decided to bite the bullet and buy a relatively expensive Akubra for a cowgirl halloween costume. Within a week I was absorbing all the hat knowledge I could get, completely reshaping it to my preferences and I'm so in love with it. I've also bought a couple of old ruined hats (crushed, oil-stained, hole-ridden) to restore and they come up amazing with just a few hours effort. I do also find fedoras hard to enjoy now, but there are so many other styles to choose from!

As someone who hasn't left home without a hat for more or less my entire adult life, I get this. They keep the sun out of my eyes and the rain off my head. My current everyday wearer is a heavy wide-brimmed brown leather hat that I actually made myself earlier this spring. I had always wanted one like it, but could never find anything commercially made with that size of brim and material weight, and having one made custom by a hatmaker was outside of my budget, but buying the materials, tools, and a template off of Etsy to do it myself was not. I spent the better part of a month working on it in the evenings after work and had to redo the crown once because I messed up the symmetry on the vent grommets. One side of the crown is still slightly mushed, and the wire in the brim never sits flat, but I think it gives the hat its own character that it wouldn't have if I had found it on a shelf or had it made to perfection. I regularly get comments on it, and I always grin a little when people go "Really?" when I tell them I made it myself.

You know you've pulled it off when someone tells you "You can pull that off." just out of the blue.

As you discussed the reactions you get from wearing a hat for the first few weeks, I was reminded of the very similar comments thrown my way when I began wearing a beard. Especially from family. "You've got dirt on your face." "I wish you'd get rid of that thing." "You don't look like you anymore." Eventually, they warmed up to it. I am aiming for the Gandalf look, but I have to put up with all the Santa comparisons for a few more years. 😅

Last year I bought a Stetson kind of as a joke but mostly because I was tired of getting sunburned on a certain part of my head. Since then I get random comments from strangers saying how they like my hat. I also find that I stand a little differently and am just a little more polite. A good hat will have more effect than you realize.

I've had my Indy/4th Doctor hat for about a decade, yet I never wear it because it always feels like I'm underdressed for such a nice hat.

I’ve had kind of an opposite thing to what types are presented. I’ve had a wide hat for backpacking that I’ve used for years and loved, but I’ve never liked baseball caps. Recently though, I found one with a design that I loved, and got it despite my distain. After a few months of wearing it I can now say I love it, I really like how it feels and I look. Oh and PS you totally do rock the fedora better than anyone else

I love that you called it a lid. Only word I use for it

I would add, you can change how a hat looks on you by how you wear it, tilt it up or to the side, etc. the look changes a lot depending on how much forehead you show.

As a milliner for womens hats I love helping a customer find their hat style. All of my hats are indiviually hand made on my collection of vintage wooden hat blocks mostly from the 1930s and 1940s. A fun challenge is always to have someone say 'I cannot wear hats' and then have them leave with their new favorite accessory that is just the perfect finishing touch to their outfit or style. The process is what I enjoy most. Making hats personal is such fun...matching colours or fabrics to specific outfits or recycling a favorite family broach or scarf as part of the new creation. So much to experiment with that every customer is a new adventure. I love making hats.

I found a Stetson Indiana Jones fedora at a local flea market and I’ve since fallen in love. There’s something so enchanting about vintage style hats.

Adam, what a great video. My wife is milliner, and something we hear SO much is "I don't look good in hats." This is the biggest fallacy. It's like saying "I don't look good in shirts." You have to try on different kinds of hats, and you WILL find one that suits you. It just takes some trial and error. A good hat store/milliner will help you find a hat that not only suits your face and style, but also suits what you want to do with it. Do you want to wear it out in the town? Do you want to wear it when you go for long walks? The "why" of a hat is just as important as the "what kind".

Mr. Savage... As an avid hat wearing citizen. This video has made me smile and giddy with my utmost respect for you. I have been a massive fan of Aegean Greek fisherman caps for more than a decade and will never go back. Just the thought process of picking a hat that imbodies your soul is very important to me, and more people who are afraid of the hat concept really need to watch this video. Thank you for everything you and the tested team do, and keep up the great work. (I am in no way affiliated with the Aegean hat company)

After watching this series for a few years, THIS video is the one that made me subscribe and hit the like button. I can relate to what Adam says 100%. I am so lost without a cover, I even have to wear a men's ascot cap to funerals and weddings in churches. (yes they are appropriate) Two things I want to ad about newcomers to the hat game. 1, the brim or bill that gives you shade for your eyes and/or rain diversion for your eyes and glasses should you wear them, also gives a blind spot above your line of sight in tight quarters. So you will bump your head from time to time as you missed that object that the brim/bill hides from your peripheral. 2, if you still have hair, remember it will grow back. Don't be afraid to cut and/or style your hair to accommodate your new choice for head gear. Often newcomers to the world of wearing a hat/cap will quit or change to a different style that they do not prefer simply because the hair style does not work with it. Don't be afraid to experiment. I'm 61 years old. I have old color slides of me wearing a hat at 3 years old and have never been able to go anywhere without one. I simply can not function outside my house without a cover that has a bill or brim over my eyes. So thank you Adam for this most awesome video and advice to a new comer to the awesome world of wearing head gear.

I am no hat aficionado, but I do wear a variety of different hats at various times. One of the things I like most about wearing a good hat, besides as Adam mentions regarding how it makes you feel, is that hats have a special affordance few other wearables posses... we can gesture with them! A hat allows for so many extra and sometimes exceedingly subtle gestures and expressions that we can't really accomplish without them. No one ever mentions this when talking about enjoying wearing hats but it seems to me like a major feature. Cheers (and tip of the hat to you).

Oh, I have a big problem with a size of ready to wear hats - usually they're too small for my head (same thing about safety helmets and so on). And recently, in the clothing shop there was a nice black classic hat, that I tried, it was just the right size. I was not sure for some reason and put it back on the shelf and immediately some person took it and started to try in front of the mirror. That was the moment I realized -- I need this hat. I was standing there, crossing my fingers waiting for the guy to put it back. I am so happy now :)