This is a montage of photos from my new creation, the Barbed Baron's Hat, created for a LARP character in our new Changeling: The Lost chronicle. I intend to make a monocle to go with it.
The original hat came with the simple pale thread you see up around the sides of the crown and a brown leather cord holding on the brass rings, as well as a copper brad in the back to hold the cords together. I removed that and added the copper and gold stitchwork, then created barbed wire using gold and copper wire. Trust me, it works as barbed wire; I cut myself on it! The barbed wire band is held in place before and aft, anchored in place to the cord, and I used two new copper brads in the back for the doubled cords that replaced the brown leather one.
I live in DeKalb, Illinois, the birthplace of barbed-wire, hence the theme behind the character this hat belongs to. The city owes a great deal of its prevalence to the barbed-wire barons who made their fortunes here.