How to wear a beret even if you don’t suit hats

I’m French, but that doesn’t mean I can wear a beret. Sorry. In fact, I’m really not a hat person at all. Try as I might, they never suit me. But for the purposes of trying out one of the biggest trends of AW17, I set my personal gripes aside to give it a go.

The thing with berets is that they ARE tricky to pull off. Wear it the wrong way and you look more caricature than chic, and it turns out quite a lot of people don’t know how to wear them, judging by how many Google searches there are for ‘how to wear a beret’.

For inspiration, I looked to French style icons from the 40s onwards, who always managed to pull off the style seamlessly. Think Catherine Deneuve, France Gall and Brigitte Bardot. (Fun fact for you: even though everyone associates berets with France, they in fact originated in the Basque region of Spain, and were worn by shepherds on the mountains dividing France and Spain).

Then, as always, I looked to the catwalk, as berets returned in force at the Dior Paris Fashion Week show.

The key thing is that though it might look effortless, it’s anything but, because you really have to think about the positioning. You can’t wear it straight, because it cuts off your face in an unflattering way, and looks too prim.

Instead, you need to wear it a slight angle. Start off by placing the hat on your head, then take hold of the ‘spike’ at the centre of the beret and dip it slightly on the side of your head. I chose the side opposite to my parting as it felt more balanced, but that’s up to you.

Next, and most importantly, you need to wear your hair down. No matter how hard I tried with my hair up, the beret didn’t go on properly, and when it did I looked like I was in the army.

In terms of colours, you can’t go wrong with classic black which goes with everything, though I do like the chic beige version too. A scarlet red is also a great investment for the season, and you can match it to a red lip or coat for that extra pop of colour.

If you want to avoid stereotypes, then steer clear of neck scarves and striped tops.