Rising · Hats · Fall 2026 · Mrs Accessories analysis by Maggi Ferguson

Brims are getting bigger

Oversized face-framing brims on the runway, structured caps and leather buckets on the street.

Hats are the accessory most people have decided do not suit them, usually on the evidence of one bad hat tried on once in a shop. The truth is narrower than that: most hat shapes suit most people, and crown height is what actually goes wrong.

A crown that is too shallow perches, and perching is what people mean when they say a hat looks silly on them. The hat should sit down onto the head with the band resting on the forehead, roughly two fingers above the eyebrow. If it is sitting on top of your hair rather than around your head, it is too small — which is extremely common, because most online hats come in one size and that size is small.

On brim width, the useful proportion rule is that the brim should be about as wide as your shoulders are broad, or narrower. Wider than the shoulders reads theatrical, which is the runway version and is a choice rather than a mistake, but it is not the everyday one. A brim of two to three inches is the range that works with a coat and still fits through a car door.

Felt for autumn, and a stiffened felt rather than a soft one if it is going to live in a car or a bag — soft felt creases permanently and does not come back. A hat with a wire in the brim edge can be reshaped after being sat on, which is a more useful feature than it sounds.

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