What to Wear in the Weeks Between Summer and Autumn (And Exactly When the Hat Changes)

From the Merve Bayindir atelier in London, the one part of transitional dressing nobody writes about, and the six hand-made pieces that carry you across.

Every August the same articles appear, and they all say the same thing: layer a knit over the summer dress, add a trench, swap the sandals for boots. Useful, as far as it goes. What none of them answers is the question people actually type, which is when. When does a straw hat stop looking right. When can you put felt on without looking like you have given up on the year. The body has a wardrobe of half-measures for these weeks. The head does not, because a hat commits: it is straw or it is felt, and everyone can see which you chose from across a lawn.

There is an old answer to this, it has dates on it, and it is better than anything currently on the first page of a search result.

The short answer

Velvet comes in before straw goes out, and it always has

Geneviève Antoine Dariaux, a director at Nina Ricci, set the seasons out plainly in her 1964 guide to dress, and The Lady has since republished the rule for a British readership. Straw may be worn from the first of February until the first of September. Velvet from the first of August until the first of February. Fur from the first of October until the first of March. Felt, tulle and veiling, all year round.

Read those two middle lines again, because the interesting thing is the arithmetic. Velvet arrives on 1 August. Straw does not leave until 1 September. The calendar deliberately builds in four weeks where both are correct, and those four weeks are precisely the ones people find difficult. The rule does not tell you to hold your nerve until September. It tells you that August belongs to both, and that the choice is yours to make on the morning.

Velvet comes in on the first of August. Straw does not go out until the first of September. The awkward weeks are not a gap in the rules. They are written into them.

One honest note on provenance. Dariaux was French, so this is a mid-century Paris convention that British usage adopted rather than a native rule, and we have taken the wording from The Lady's republication rather than from the 1964 edition itself. It is a good rule with a clear origin, not a law.

The trade always ran a season ahead of the wardrobe

There is a second answer, and it comes from the English hat industry itself. In Luton, which supplied most of the country's straw hats for two centuries, the work ran opposite to the wearing. Plaiting was a spring and summer occupation because, as an account from 1807 put it, that was when the women could sit out at the cottage doors; in winter the hands became numbed with cold, and plaiting near the fire injured the straws. But the bonnet season, the making and the selling, ran from about October, and it was finished by early summer. One sewer put it in a single sentence: it will be almost over now by Whitsuntide, and nothing again until Christmas, except a bit of plait. By the first week of July, five hundred women a week were leaving the town.

So the straw hat you wore in August had been made in February, and the workshop that made it had already moved on to next season by the time you put it on. That is still true. An atelier cutting felt in the last week of August is not being premature, it is being on time, and it is the reason a milliner will tell you the season has turned a fortnight before anyone else notices. After the First World War, incidentally, Luton produced more women's hats in felt and fabric than in straw, and by 1939 women's felt hats were three quarters of the town's trade. The change had already happened in the workshops long before it showed up in the photographs.

What actually changes, in order

First the colour, three weeks before the material

The cheapest transitional move, and the one almost nobody makes, is to keep the summer material and take the colour down. A natural straw with a chocolate ribbon reads September in a way that the same shape in white and pastel never will. Deep green, oxblood, ink and cocoa all do this work while the weather is still warm enough for an open weave. Our natural straw pieces carry the trims that make this possible without changing the hat at all.

Then the weave

Straw and parasisal are the open, airy end. Sinamay sits in the middle and is the genuinely transitional material, because its behaviour depends entirely on colour: a pale sinamay saucer is a June hat, and the same saucer in aubergine is an October one. Wool felt is where autumn properly begins, and fur felt and velvet belong to the far side of it. If you own one hat for these weeks, own it in sinamay.

Then the shape and the scale

Summer headwear is wide and shallow, because it is doing a job: shade. Autumn headwear is smaller, deeper and closer to the head, because the job changes to warmth and to line. That is why a wide brim hat starts to look out of place in late September even on a warm, still day, and why a beret or a pillbox suddenly reads correct. Scale down before you go dark, not after.

And finally the light, which is the real signal

Temperature is the wrong instrument. British August can be colder than October and frequently is. What changes reliably is the light: the sun drops, the shadows lengthen, and the colour temperature warms. Straw is a material that depends on bright overhead light to look crisp, and in long low afternoon light it goes flat and yellow. Felt does the opposite, because a matte surface reads better as the light warms. If you want one test, take a photograph of yourself outdoors at five in the afternoon. If the straw looks tired in the picture, it is time, whatever the forecast says.

The British calendar makes this a real problem, not a theoretical one

These weeks are not quiet. August is the most popular month in the year to get married in England and Wales, so the transitional question lands on a very large number of people at once. Then the racing calendar walks straight through the changeover: the Ebor Festival and the Dublin Horse Show in August, the St Leger and the Irish Champions Festival in September, Goodwood Revival in the middle of the month, and Champions Day at Ascot in October. Three of those want straw. Two of them want felt. One of them, Goodwood Revival, wants neither and asks for period dress instead. Our summer occasion and autumn and winter occasion ranges split along the same line, and there is a full race day dressing guide if the event rather than the season is the question.

Six Merve Bayindir pieces for the changeover

Three in straw, three in felt, in the order you would actually reach for them across the six weeks. Each is hand-made in our London atelier. Prices include UK VAT.

KAEL HAT

£375

A natural straw wide brim with a black grosgrain band, carrying a hand-crafted black cat appliqué with green eyes stretching across the crown and brim. Still fully a summer hat, but the black grosgrain does the first piece of transitional work, because it stops the straw reading as holiday. Good through the end of August. Wear it flat and let the appliqué sit where it can be seen.

VARA HAT

£350

A natural straw hat with a flat crown and a wide brim, a sheer black ribbon wrapped at the crown and long translucent ties falling from it. This is the piece for late summer afternoons and outdoor concerts, and the black ribbon and ties are exactly the trim that carries a straw hat into September. Let the ties hang rather than tying them, and keep the rest of the outfit quiet.

BRUNEL HAT

£325

A handwoven natural straw bucket, relaxed in feel but precisely made, finished with a deep brown satin ribbon that trails at the back. Brown against straw is the whole argument of this article in one object: the material says August and the colour says September. It is the most useful hat here for coastal escapes and café afternoons in the last fortnight of summer.

LIRA BERET HAT

£450

A warm brown wool felt pillbox beret on a softly rounded, structured shape, with an open mesh overlay across the crown in the same tone. This is the first felt of the year, and the mesh is why it works early: it keeps the piece light enough for a mild September while the material has already turned. Wear it back from the forehead and slightly to one side.

CELINE FEDORA HAT

£500

A light camel wool felt fedora with a softly pinched crown and a tailored brim, a black grosgrain band at the base and a cork wood bow printed with a black stripe in burnt caramel tones. Camel is the shade that bridges straw and felt better than any other, which makes this the single most useful piece on the list for the weeks when neither season has won. Made for crisp autumn city days and weekend markets.

SIENNA FELT BERET HAT

£400

A black wool felt beret on a structured shape with a bold angled crown, and a violet tassel falling from one side in long fluid strands. Autumn has arrived by the time this is right, and the violet is what keeps it from reading as winter too early. It suits day-to-night dressing and cold-season city looks. Angle the crown across the brow rather than sitting it flat.

At a glance

Styling notes

Move one thing at a time. Colour first, then material, then scale, and the outfit never lurches. Keep one summer element deliberately in play through September, a bare ankle or a lighter shoe, so a felt hat reads as a decision rather than a surrender. Watch the ribbon before the body of the hat, because a trim change does most of the work at a fraction of the cost. If the event is outdoors on open ground, remember that autumn brings wind before it brings cold, and a piece that sat happily on a still July lawn will need a firmer fitting in October. And if you want a single object to cover the whole six weeks, a camel felt in a tailored shape does it, which is why our fedora hats and beret hats are the two ranges that empty first at this time of year. There is more on the shape itself in our guide to what a fedora hat is.

Ordering, and what to expect

Every piece is made to order in the London atelier, part of a deliberate, low-waste way of working. When the date is close, our ready to ship pieces go out quickly instead. Every order arrives in a custom box, with worldwide DHL Express shipping included.

Frequently asked questions

When should I stop wearing a straw hat?

The traditional rule puts the end of straw at 1 September. In practice the honest signal is the light rather than the date: once the afternoon sun is low and warm, straw photographs flat and felt photographs well.

When can I start wearing felt?

Earlier than most people think. Velvet traditionally comes in on 1 August, and felt has never had a closed season at all. A wool felt in a light colour is correct from the middle of August and September. However, this year due to the high temperatures it could be a month late.

What is the best hat material for in-between weather?

Sinamay, because it takes its season from its colour rather than its weave. A pale sinamay is a summer hat and a deep one is an autumn hat, in exactly the same shape.

Can I wear a straw hat to an autumn wedding?

In early September, yes, if the colour is deep and the trim is not pastel. By October a straw hat will look out of season indoors even if the day is warm, and a felt or velvet piece is the better choice.

Is white a summer-only colour for hats?

Effectively yes at this end of the year. A bright white or a pastel straw after the last week of August is the fastest way to date a photograph. Ivory in felt, by contrast, is a winter colour and works from November.

Do I need a different hat for each season?

No. One camel or brown felt in a tailored shape covers September to November, and one natural straw with a deep-coloured ribbon covers May to early September. Two hats will carry most people through the whole calendar.

Find your piece

Every piece above is designed and hand-made in our London atelier by Merve Bayindir, a member of the British Fashion Council with selections in the Royal Ascot Style Guide. Browse the full range of hats and fascinators, or read our edit of hats for winter events when the changeover is behind you.

Sources

The Lady, modern millinery etiquette, on the Dariaux seasonal rule of 1964

The Culture Trust Luton, Luton hat industry 1750 to 2000

Luton Council, the Luton Hat Trail

ONS, marriages in England and Wales, on August as the most popular month