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Dr. Seuss would have had a field day describing the hats at The Village Hat Shop in Old Sacramento. With more than 1,000 styles and 120,000 hats between its four locations and two warehouses, this is one store worth tipping your hat to.

The company got its start in 1980 in San Diego as a specialty western-style hat store banking on the emerging cowboy hat trend, which was propelled by the television show "Dallas" and the John Travolta movie "Urban Cowboy."

When the cowboy fad died out, the company began stocking different styles of hats.

Today, patrons of the shop can find anything from a fedora, beret, trilby, a newsboy or even a Panama at The Village Hat Shop, located at 123 K St.

"We have every type of hat... well we don't have construction hats... or motorcycle helmets," Viki Spector, store manager, said when asked what kinds of hats the store carried. "Lids (the national hat chain) basically carries ball caps, and we don't have very many ball caps."

There's even a "silly hats only" section.

The Village Hat Shop has been in Sacramento for 15 years, the last five in Old Sacramento, and the previous 10 in Downtown Plaza.

Hats from literally all over the world make their way into the shop. Some are directly from manufacturers, Spector said, some are from the store's own label and some are from other companies.

The safari-explorer's pith helmets are made in Vietnam, the famous Panama hats, made from Panama straw, are made in Ecuador and many of the other hats are made in China, Guatemala or the United States.

"Some of them are handmade, individual dressy hats, and some of the ladies' dress hats have piecework on them that are hand-done," Spector said.

"We're one of the last (hat stores). There used to be another hat store in town, but now we're the only one that is a full-range hat store -- men's, women's, children's, all seasons."

Villagehatshop.com also features a wealth of hat information including style guides, history, hat making and hat care information.