Welcome to the first article in a four part series. This post will cover women’s hat trends for the Autumn/Winter 2017 seasons.

In the last hat trends post, we discussed how there are four overarching visions for each season.

The first style for the A/W ’17 season is full of soft pastels and greys with hipster inspiration. The trend has a handcrafted feel at a mass produced level.

The second trend consists of deep earth tones, predominately reds, browns, and greens. Earth elements like wood grains, fire, and recyclable materials are used throughout.

The third style revolves around an active lifestyle and performance fabrics. Reflective and metallic elements on grey-scale garments are common.

The final trend also uses a lot of pastels. Retro looks are met with modern technology and bright pops of color and texture.

Over the next three weeks, we will discuss the season’s trends for men and youth, as well as active and performance apparel, so check back every Monday for updates.

But, ladies first.

Style and Personality

Women are creatures of individuality, so we’ve split this section into four different styles. We’ve related the women’s hat trends back to personalities, activities, and lifestyles.

Cold Weather

This includes knits, fleeces, aviators, and ear warmers. Layers are very important here; bulky styles are popular with heather fabrics. Poms, including faux fur poms, are used on a lot of knits as well as chunky weaves, patterns, and taglines.

Country Boutique

These are the hats you would see a rodeo queen wearing on her day off. The patterns and textures are bright with bold embellishments like studs, rhinestones, and ornate crosses. Tribal inspired patterns and turquoise are completed with sassy taglines. Camouflage and animal patterns are also common. 

Outdoorsy 

Significant colors for the outdoorsy women’s hat trends include black, grey, pink, and aqua blue; camo patterns are very common in this category also. There are some Americana styles mixed in with hunting and both freshwater and saltwater fishing. Generic outdoor elements like leaves, floral, and mountain images are also used here.

Surf and Skate

These are going to be beachy pastels with floral prints. 5-panel trucker shapes with sublimated or screen printed designs are used a lot. California is a commonly used motif as well as generic surf and skate references.

Decoration Elements

There are a lot of fabrics and embellishments forecasted for women for the A/W ’17 season.

These include tweeds, pleats, weatherproof fabrics, hardware, lace details, jewels, sequins, glitter, satin, suede, mesh, snake patterns, bold clashing patterns, and faux fur, among others. 

Graphics

Common motifs we’re seeing in graphics everywhere include elephants, sugar skulls, owls, cats, dogs, and anchors. These are both embedded in all-over patterns and used as the primary art piece.

Prints and Patterns

Stripes, plaids, and paisleys remain important. But, floral, geometric, Hawaiian themed patterns and tribal patterns are acquiring a lot of the market. Black and white patterns are used a lot with accent colors, but bold pastels are dominant.

Trim and Details

There are a lot of added decorative features for women’s headwear including flowers, chains, buttons, braided bands and ropes, studs, lace accents, bows, quilting, antique brass accents, faux fur, and leather elements.

Fashion Blanks

These will rarely include baseball cap shapes; typically they will be fashion forward shapes like fedoras, bowlers, sailor caps, and brimmed hats. We’re seeing a lot of searsucker fabrics, heathered wools and felts, and dressy plaids with embellishments like buckles, bows, scarves, and flowers.

Keep an eye out for the men’s, youth, and athleisure trend guides in the coming weeks, and let us know what you think about the women’s hat trends in the comments below. You can also follow us on Instagram using the hashtag #hatswork.