The Niger Bend

This hat was custom-made for an individual and worn by him but not so much as to have destroyed the beauty of it, just enough to confirm its authenticity. It is the only hat of this type that I have ever seen. The basic hat is the same as all Fulani woven straw hats with leather trim around the brim and a cone of worn and patinated leather on the top. The knob on the top is of tightly woven leather topped by a metal ornament. Feathers stick out from underneath the leather and 5 white, pink and green yarn tassels are attached to the hat all around it. There are three parallel rows of leather stitching decorating the perimeter of the hat as well as a band of the straw of the hat dyed black at the circumference of the crown. One quarter of the brim, possibly the front as the man who wore it conceived of it, is decorated with colorful strips of vinyl: green, blue, yellow, orange and brown. 18″ diameter (46 cm)