Sometimes, Kyla Kazeil likes to wear a wide-brimmed hat with a fringe around the perimeter that covers her eyes.
Is it functional? Not really. Does it make her feel like a rock star? Definitely.
“For a wide-brimmed hat, the more unique you go, the better,” she says. “When you’re wearing a large hat, you’re drawing attention to yourself, so why not just own it and make a fashion statement rather than trying to fade into the background?”
As the co-owner of The Bamboo Ballroom (among many other local businesses), she knows better than most.
She certainly knows better than me. After a decade-long quest to find a wide-brimmed hat that’s both functional (keep those wrinkle-causing rays off my face!) and fashionable (at this point, I’ll settle for anything that doesn’t make me look like a deranged scarecrow), I turned to Edmonton experts for advice.
Kazeil’s take is clear: go big and have confidence.
That means elaborate, painted felt hats (LuLu Garou Designs, which they sell at The Bamboo Ballroom), Western-inspired hats (any kind of take on a cowboy hat), and the bigger, the better.
Contrary to what you (or I) might think, if you’re aiming to look your best, hair and makeup still matter. “If I wear a hat, I’ll style my hair really big and have it out,” she adds. “Or I’ll do cute pigtails or bubble braids, something that has volume.”
In the end, it’s about confidence, something I’ve definitely lacked with big hats, whether they’ve been felt, floppy or bucket.
“Style it right, so that it’s not wearing you, you’re wearing it,” Kazeil says. “You’re intentionally having something that’s a real statement or you’re pairing it with something that brings your own personality in.”
Or, as Alex Mottershead, owner of Humblewood Hats, puts it: “The answer is always confidence. If you’re uncomfortable in a hat or with the size of a hat, then that really comes across.”
He’s right, of course. My memory of wearing a black-and-white floppy straw hat in Hawaii is that it obstructed my vision and I was constantly pulling it up and adjusting the wire brim.
“Usually, when people are getting into hats, I would try to push them into a more medium-sized brim,” Mottershead says. “That is a little bit easier to handle. Then you slowly progress to the wide brims.”
For my aversion to unstructured brims, he suggests straw with a woven component. “It provides a bit of stability and doesn’t get in your way,” he says. “Definitely crushable options are very popular right now. I find people are a little bit more willing to experiment with colour, maybe a nice, soft blue, or a military green.”
Material matters too. Raffia straw has rustic elements, bleached Panama straw is more formal and braided cotton or hemp is hearty enough for travel.
In the end, Kazeil’s suggestion to lean into sun safety might be the route for me.
“I feel like there’s a whole lifestyle shift where people are cold plunging instead of going to the nightclub,” she says. “They’re protecting their skin because they want to be healthy and look good. I feel like having a big hat and protecting your face is chic because self-care is in.”
And, if all else fails, the humble ball cap is always there to pick up the slack.
