Straw Caps & Hats

Straw Caps & Hats

Straw Caps & Hats

A straw cap or hat can refer to any brimmed hat that is woven out of straw. This cap or hat is designed to protect the head from the sun, as well as protect against heatstroke . There are several styles of straw caps and hats, but all of them are made of woven straw. Many of these caps and hats are formed in a similar way to felt hats; they are softened by steam or by submersion in hot water, and then formed by hand or over a block. Finer and more expensive straw caps and hats have a tighter and more consistent weave.Since it takes much more time to weave a larger hat than a smaller one, larger caps and hats are more expensive.

Straw caps and hats have been worn consistently in Europe in the Summer since antiquity, and arguably are the least - changed form of headgear, since many medieval examples would draw no special attention if worn today. The Middle Ages also produced, among the more fashionably dressed,possibly the most spectacular straw caps and hats ever seen on men in the West, notably those worn in the Arnolfini Portrait of 1434 by Jan van Wyck (tall, stained black) and by Saint George in a painting by Pisanello of around the same date. In the middle of the 18th century it was fashionable for rich ladies to dress as country girls with a wide brimmed straw hat to complete the look.