The Sun Hat

The best sustainable sun hats

I’ve been wearing this linen sunhat pretty much every time I’ve left the house for the past few months. Honestly, I’ve meant to buy a sun hat for about ten years. And in the meantime made do with an old misshapen hat – see below – when I sat in the garden. (It’s useless for walking because it doesn’t stay on my head, although I’ve since figured out hat pins are a thing…)

Sun hats in my opinion need to

(a) stay on my head – hat pins, scarves or bits to tie can help with this.

(b) cover at least most of my face, the option to manoeuvre it out of the way is also beneficial and

(c) look good. It should be about the outfit as a whole rather than ‘Oh, she’s wearing a weird hat.’ ie you wear the hat rather than the hat wearing you.

Last year I felt my forehead melting as I walked along the river bank with the sun roasting down on me. So I finally took the plunge and bought this sunhat from Arket. It’s so pretty. It’s 100% linen with a 100% cotton lining. And I’ve been pairing it with everything from summer dresses to winter coats for the early morning dog walk. I love the straps as a design feature. They look good left undone or to hold the hat in place. When the top is turned up, the hat gives me Anna Chlumsky in My Girl vibes. This is a good thing. Although it is probably one of the saddest films I’ve seen… I’d love to watch it again for 90s fashion inspiration.

Solbari sell a selection of pretty sunhat in natural fibres too. This cotton and linen one looks cute and is reversible. I’m trying to remember when I last wore anything reversible! All their hats are tested and rated UPF 50 in Australia. If it passes UV testing in Australia then I’m happy. I love this one – it has an opening for a ponytail.

For really beautiful handmade sunhats try Sensi Studio. They have a selection of 220, and at the moment and I’m currently coveting all of them. Especially this one, I love the scarf detail. It’s made of Ecuadorian toquilla straw and the scarf is cotton. It’s handmade by Andean artisans.

For a classic wide brim straw hat, the Clara from Toast is spot on. It’s 100% natural palm leaf and made by craftsmen in Mexico. I read the reviews which say it’s oversized, so perfect for those sunny days when you really want to block the sun.

These photo’s are taken in my front garden where there is an abundance of lavender growing. I keep meaning to pick it and dry it. The dresses in the images are both from Cos. They are definitely my go-to dresses for summer ’23. I bought the black and green. Something that I don’t usually do. I even pondered the royal blue too but thankfully it sold out before I could buy that too.

I don’t usually buy the same garment in different colours because I end up favouring one and never wearing the other. However, this dress was everything I wanted for summer. It’s loose and billowy but still has some structure to it with the vast poplin skirt. It’s 100% cotton with jersey fabric on top. I like that Cos do a selection of easy to wear pieces in natural fibres. They also have a dedicated resell website if you are looking for secondhand Cos pieces.

Fancy more reading? What about yellow dress?

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