Reviews: Doffed

The Soho Anthropologie has a cool winter hat display. And before I knew what I was doing the other day I snapped photos of just about every cap. This is the story of what happens when one girl is too busy concentrating on not taking blurry iPhone shots and not thinking enough about facial expressions. If this is any help to anyone I wear a 7 1/8 equestrian helmet and baseball cap. My head is pretty small. Almost all the hats I tried on were one size fits all.

The first hats I tried on were the Snow Flecked Cloche ($38, left), which comes in either green or grey and the Newspaper Bucket Hat ($38, right). For me, a winter hat has to cover my ears or it’s not practical. This hat passed that test. Though you can’t really see it in the photos above the green hat brought out my eyes nicely. It fit nice and close on my head. The pattern on the Newspaper Bucket Hat is kind of crazy and I love it. I have some concern about the brim of that one catching the wind and being blown off my head. It was a little bit looser than the Snow Flecked Cloche.

Next I tried on the Gilded Days Hat ($58). I loved the marled yarns that make this one up. The pinks, yellows, ambers and greys will go well with a whole mess of winter outfits. But I wasn’t loving how this looked on my head. The shape wasn’t very flattering on me. If this were a skullcap I’d probably have bought it.

This hat isn’t on the website at the moment but was also $58. It’s mainly a dark green with browns mixed in. I think the photo on the right says it all — someone out-of-shot told me I looked good in the hat as I was taking the photo. I was dubious. The flower applique is very pretty and the quilted texture is cool. But the conehead shape? No thanks.

The Snow Fort Cap ($48) is a bit more my speed. The brim is maybe a bit longer than it needs to be but overall this one was really lovely. It covered my ears and the flower was a nice little accent that stood out well against my dark hair. It’s a bit springy in my opinion and would make a better driving cap than winter cap, but I could see using this one for a night on the town.

If the Snow Fort Cap brim was too long, then the Bon-Bon Cap‘s ($42) brim was a bit too short. I like the corsage crocheted but it was all a bit overpowering on me. Perhaps it balanced my shnoze though. I found this cap to be almost too small for me. And it did not pass the ear cover test. Kind of impractical as a winter hat.

The Starfish Cap ($38) gets the brim just right. There is one online review at the moment saying the cap is tight — I did not have that issue. I found the cap to fit close to my head but comfortably so. I felt like it wasn’t going anywhere. The starfish itself is beautiful and the lambswool is warm. If I didn’t already own three caps in this shape (and one in this color) I would have bought this one too.

The Button Cluster Cap ($38) is similar to a hat I bought at Anthro over the summer. But it’s wintertized with heavy wool makeup and an extra layer over the brim. The buttons are adorable and fixed well to the cap. This hat is snug but not tight on my small head. The brim is somewhat malleable so be careful if you’re stowing this in a bag. Really cute, but again too similar to things I already own.

Here’s another chapeau that’s not yet on the website. I’m kind of at a loss with this one — it makes me think Tea Party hat but I kind of loved it too. It’s made of marled wool with a big old flower on the left side. It doesn’t pass the ear test but it’s pretty damn cute. I didn’t snap a photo of the price but I believe it was $58. Post will be updated once this appears online.