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Something wonderful is happening on British streets. Amongst the usual parade of beanies and baseball caps, a distinctly different silhouette has emerged: the elegant bell-shaped curve of the cloche hat UK style. This isn’t costume nostalgia or vintage dress-up. It’s a genuine fashion revival that proves certain designs never truly age, they simply wait for the right moment to return.
The cloche hat carries remarkable cultural weight. Originally synonymous with 1920s liberation and feminine boldness, it represented women claiming public space with confidence and style. Today’s reinterpretation honours that spirit whilst adapting proportions, materials, and styling to suit contemporary British fashion sensibilities. The result? Headwear that feels simultaneously vintage-inspired and utterly current.
At Novella Hats, we’ve watched this renaissance unfold with particular interest. The cloche’s return represents more than cyclical fashion trends. It signals renewed appreciation for feminine silhouettes, quality craftsmanship, and accessories that genuinely transform outfits rather than merely completing them. This guide examines the cloche’s journey from Jazz Age icon to modern street style staple, exploring how to wear this distinctive hat with confidence today.
A Brief History: The Cloche’s Roaring Twenties Origins
The cloche (French for “bell,” describing its distinctive shape) emerged during the early 1920s, created by milliner Caroline Reboux. The timing proved perfect. Post-war women were abandoning restrictive Victorian and Edwardian fashions, embracing shorter hemlines, bobbed hair, and streamlined silhouettes that allowed genuine freedom of movement.
The 1920s cloche style fitted this revolutionary moment beautifully. Its close-fitting shape worked wonderfully with the era’s cropped hairstyles, sitting low on the forehead and hugging the head in ways that previous large-brimmed hats never could. Women could now drive automobiles, ride bicycles, and move through public spaces without elaborate hatpins or concerns about wind catching oversized brims.
The cloche became inseparable from flapper culture and the broader social changes of the Jazz Age. Wearing one signalled modernity, independence, and participation in contemporary life rather than adherence to Victorian propriety. It was simultaneously practical and stylish, functional and fashionable in ways that spoke directly to the new woman’s lifestyle.
By the late 1920s, virtually every fashionable woman owned multiple cloches. Milliners created endless variations: deep crowns for dramatic effect, shallow versions for subtle elegance, elaborate trimmings for evening wear, and simple wool felt for daytime practicality. The basic bell shape remained consistent whilst decoration and proportion varied endlessly.
The style’s dominance faded during the 1930s as fashion shifted towards wider brims and softer shapes. However, the cloche never disappeared entirely from fashion consciousness. Periodic revivals occurred throughout the 20th century, each generation rediscovering the hat’s flattering proportions and distinctive character.
The Modern Reinvention: Updated for Contemporary Style
Today’s cloche hat UK interpretations honour historical silhouettes whilst adapting to contemporary needs and aesthetics.
Material Modernisation
Whilst traditional cloches used stiffened felt that maintained precise shapes, modern versions employ softer wools and flexible felts that offer more forgiving fits. This makes contemporary cloches more comfortable for extended wear whilst maintaining the essential bell silhouette.
Technical improvements in felt production create materials that breathe better than historical versions, preventing the stuffiness that sometimes plagued 1920s cloches during extended wear. Modern women’s winter hats in cloche styles provide genuine warmth without excessive weight.
Some contemporary designers incorporate unexpected materials: soft leathers, technical fabrics, even knitted constructions that create cloche-inspired shapes with completely different textures. These innovations keep the style fresh whilst respecting its heritage.
Proportion Adjustments
Modern cloches often feature slightly shallower crowns and less extreme downward angles than 1920s versions. This subtle adjustment makes them more flattering for contemporary hairstyles (which tend to have more volume than Jazz Age bobs) and less dramatic for everyday wear.
The brim proportions have also evolved. Whilst traditional cloches featured very short, tightly turned brims, contemporary versions sometimes incorporate slightly wider brims that provide more versatility and sun protection without abandoning the essential bell shape.
Versatile Silhouettes
Today’s British fashion revival of cloches includes variations that work across multiple contexts rather than purely formal occasions. Casual wool versions suit weekend wear, whilst structured felt pieces maintain sophistication for professional settings. This versatility makes modern cloches genuinely wearable rather than special-occasion-only accessories.
How to Style Your Cloche: Creating the London Look
Successfully wearing a cloche hat requires understanding how its distinctive shape interacts with modern clothing and styling.
Coat Combinations
Cloches pair beautifully with structured coats that echo the hat’s architectural quality. Tailored wool coats in classic cuts complement the cloche’s refined silhouette without competing for attention. The combination creates cohesive elegance reminiscent of mid-century British style.
A-line coats work particularly well, as their flared shapes balance the cloche’s compact, head-hugging form. Avoid overly voluminous coats that might overwhelm the hat’s proportions.
Consider coat lengths carefully. Mid-thigh to knee-length coats create beautiful proportions with cloches, whilst very long coats can make you appear shorter unless you’re quite tall. Cropped styles work wonderfully, particularly with high-waisted trousers or skirts that maintain vertical lines.
Dress and Skirt Pairings
Midi-length dresses and skirts create particularly flattering combinations with cloches. The moderate length honours the hat’s vintage associations whilst feeling completely contemporary. A-line or fitted silhouettes both work beautifully, depending on your body type and personal style.
For autumn and winter, pair your cloche with knit dresses, tights, and ankle boots for cosy sophistication. The cloche adds polish that prevents knitwear from feeling too casual.
Vintage-inspired tea dresses in florals or geometric prints channel 1920s aesthetics directly whilst feeling perfectly wearable for contemporary occasions. Add a cloche and you’ve created an outfit that photographs beautifully whilst remaining practical.
Trouser Styling
Don’t limit cloches to dresses. Tailored trousers paired with silk blouses or fine knits create sophisticated ensembles where the cloche provides the finishing touch. High-waisted wide-leg trousers particularly suit cloches, channelling 1920s proportions through modern pieces.
Slim-fit trousers work too, though balance them with slightly fuller tops to avoid overly streamlined silhouettes. The cloche’s volume at your head needs some balance below.
Footwear Foundations
Ankle boots in leather or suede complement cloches wonderfully. T-bar shoes or Mary Janes directly reference 1920s style if you’re committed to period-inspired looks. Oxford shoes create sophisticated androgynous styling that feels very contemporary.
Avoid athletic shoes or chunky trainers, which create jarring style disconnects with the cloche’s inherent elegance. The hat demands footwear with some polish.
Face Shapes and Fit: Getting Proportions Right
The cloche’s close-fitting nature means choosing carefully for your specific face shape matters tremendously.
Round Faces
Round faces benefit from cloches with slightly higher crowns that add length. Position the cloche to expose some forehead rather than pulling it down to your eyebrows. This creates vertical lines that balance facial width.
Avoid cloches with very wide, turned-up brims that add horizontal width. Keep brims narrow and relatively streamlined.
Oval Faces
Oval faces suit virtually any cloche style beautifully. This versatile shape allows experimentation with different crown heights, brim widths, and wearing positions without proportion concerns.
Long Faces
Longer faces work well with cloches featuring wider, more pronounced brims that add horizontal balance. Position the cloche lower on your forehead to reduce apparent length.
Avoid very tall crowns that accentuate facial length. Opt for shallower versions that create width rather than height.
Heart-Shaped Faces
Heart-shaped faces look wonderful in cloches. The hat’s width at the crown balances broader foreheads, whilst the brim’s gentle curve complements pointed chins beautifully.
Square Faces
Square faces benefit from softer cloche constructions that don’t emphasize angles. Look for rounded crowns without sharp creases, and avoid overly structured versions. The gentle curves soften angular features beautifully.
From Vintage to Streetwear: The Cloche’s Modern Journey
The cloche’s transformation from vintage hats curiosity to street style staple reflects broader changes in how we approach fashion history.
Influencer Adoption
Fashion influencers and style bloggers began wearing cloches in ways that mixed vintage and contemporary pieces fearlessly. A 1920s-inspired cloche might appear with distressed jeans and leather jackets, or paired with minimalist Scandi-style coats. This eclectic approach proved the hat’s versatility whilst keeping it relevant.
Social media platforms, particularly Instagram and TikTok, showcased countless styling possibilities. Seeing real women (not just models or actresses) wearing cloches successfully made the style feel accessible rather than intimidatingly vintage.
Designer Reinterpretations
High fashion designers brought cloches back to runways, often reimagined through contemporary lenses. These pieces honoured the original silhouette whilst incorporating unexpected materials, proportions, or decoration that felt completely current.
British designers particularly embraced the cloche, recognising its place in UK fashion history. Contemporary interpretations appeared in retro elegance collections that celebrated British heritage whilst serving modern wardrobes.
Street Style Integration
Perhaps most significantly, cloches appeared organically in street style photography from London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Fashion-forward women wore them with the casual confidence that defines genuine style rather than costume. This grassroots adoption confirmed the cloche’s return as authentic rather than manufactured by marketing.
Craftsmanship Spotlight: Novella’s Handcrafted Approach
At Novella Hats, our cloche creations honour traditional handcrafted millinery techniques whilst incorporating modern improvements.
Each cloche begins with quality wool or felt selected for texture, weight, and how it holds shape. We work with materials that feel luxurious against your head whilst maintaining the structure essential to the cloche silhouette.
The blocking process remains fundamentally unchanged from 1920s techniques. Felt is steamed and shaped over wooden forms (blocks) specifically sized and shaped for cloche proportions. This hand-blocking creates the precise curves and angles that define the style.
Interior finishing receives particular attention. Grosgrain ribbons line the interior for comfort, whilst sweatbands prevent the felt from irritating your forehead during extended wear. These details matter tremendously for hats worn regularly rather than occasionally.
Trimming choices balance vintage inspiration with contemporary restraint. Ribbon bands, subtle bows, or minimal embellishments add interest without overwhelming the essential form. We favour quality over quantity, using premium ribbons and carefully placed details rather than excessive decoration.
Art deco fashion influences appear in our colour selections and geometric trim details, connecting contemporary pieces to the era that birthed the cloche whilst keeping designs wearable for modern contexts.
The Cloche as Timeless Symbol
The cloche hat represents more than fashionable headwear. It symbolises feminine confidence, appreciation for craftsmanship, and willingness to embrace distinctive style rather than following crowds.
Wearing a cloche today connects you to nearly a century of fashion history whilst making a thoroughly contemporary statement. It announces that you value quality, understand proportion, and possess the confidence to wear something genuinely distinctive.
The cloche’s return proves that excellent design transcends temporary trends. The bell-shaped silhouette that captivated 1920s women works just as beautifully today, adapted for contemporary life whilst maintaining its essential character. That’s the mark of truly timeless style: relevance across generations without fundamental change.
At Novella Hats, we’re honoured to participate in the cloche’s modern chapter. Each piece we create bridges past and present, honouring millinery traditions whilst serving contemporary British women seeking accessories with genuine personality.
Because true style isn’t about slavishly following trends or rigidly replicating the past. It’s about recognising exceptional design, wearing it with confidence, and making it utterly your own.
