Let’s rewind thirty years, shall we? I’m audi­tion­ing for drama school in Lon­don, and one of my future teach­ers presents me with a big box of mar­velous hats. “Pick one, then you have five min­utes to pre­pare a sketch,” I’m told…

As my teacher knew, hats are mag­i­cal things. You can become any­one you want to be when you put on a new hat. Rein­vent your­self and feel trans­formed, just for that brief moment when you’re wear­ing some­thing dif­fer­ent on your head.

I’m sure you all have or had a dress-up box for your kids at home. We’ve been col­lect­ing stuff for years, despite attempts to spring clean, and while princess dresses and super­hero capes come and go, our hat box is sacred. I mean, you never know, Mom, really…

Party hats, car­ni­val cos­tumes, acces­sories to cre­ate bril­liant disguises–welcome to the Land of Make Believe. I do hope you’ll play along with me.

Linen Party Hat & Flower Princess Crown
avail­able from $18 at colette bream on etsy 

Nei­ther of these sweet linen hats are par­tic­u­larly new or elab­o­rate, but Colette Bream’s delight­ful styling con­veys the fun in sim­ple, imag­i­na­tive play. Both are hand­made from linen, and the party hat is avail­able in sev­eral beau­ti­ful colors.

Gnome Mush­room Cone Hat
avail­able for $15 from hunt­ing faeries on etsy

The Hunt­ing Faeries shop on Etsy is a lit­tle trea­sure trove filled with rea­son­ably priced, hand­made cos­tumes for your lit­tle ones. If I had to pick one hat for myself (yes, that’s right, for myself!), it would be this beau­ti­ful Gnome Cone, guar­an­teed to pro­vide hours of mag­i­cal, cre­ative play. Hmmm…

Bat Hat
avail­able from $48 at oeuf

Put on one of Oeuf’s baby alpaca Bat Hats and you’ll be a super styl­ish super­hero all win­ter long. Eye-catching and eco-friendly, this hat will get plenty of every­day wear before becom­ing a firm favorite in the dress-up box. To the Batmobile!

Paper Chef’s Hat
avail­able for $1.82 from milk & paper

Every time we have a bak­ing ses­sion at home, my youngest son Miles insists on look­ing the part. He made and dec­o­rated his own chef’s hat years ago in kinder­garten, so that obvi­ously makes the hat-wearing cer­e­mony all the more spe­cial. Milk & Paper’s paper hats are super afford­able and would make great birth­day presents or stock­ing stuffers at Christ­mas for any­one, big or small, who likes to cre­ate in the kitchen.

Lit­tle UTHA Shaman Head­piece
avail­able for $129 from utha hats on etsy

I love UTHA Hat’s tribal head­gear, not only for wear and imag­i­na­tive play, but also for dec­o­ra­tion. Bright, col­or­ful, and fun, these cro­cheted head­pieces look stun­ning and are guar­an­teed to turn a few heads, I’d say!

Pic­tured at top of post: Eco-Felt Robin Hood Hat, avail­able for $10 from Tiny Dis­guises on Etsy.

Meet The Contributor

Deb­o­rah Beau is a cura­tor of all things vin­tage and hand­made, shar­ing her finds daily on her blog Kick­can & Conkers.

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