Cost of owning a hat

[Adcurium]

I remember an article or link a year or two ago about how the cost of the hatcheck may have been a contributing factor as to why men stopped wearing hats. I haven't been able to find the post. Does anyone remember this thread?

 

[zetwal]

Are you thinking of this one?

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?28399
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?28399

 

[zetwal]

Or this one,

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?49195

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I don't remember the thread, but I do remember reading in the "Hatless Jack" Book that the hat check girls did have something to do with the down turn in hat wearing. If memory serves, many hat check girls asked for a quarter to check your hat back in the late 1930's and early 1940's. So, if you were a downtown New Yorker who ate lunch at a local restaurant, you paid $1.25 a week for the privilege of having your hat checked. This is on a $10.00 to $25.00 hat. Eventually, checking becomes more of the cost that the original Capital outlay.

Later

 

[Chaps]

And to think that President Kennedy not wearing one has been blamed all these years for the demise of the hat...for shame, for shame

 

[Yeps]

All this talk blaming one thing or another (Kennedy [busted], Hat check girls, automobiles, etc.) for the demise of the hat is kind of silly. Fashions changed, and more importantly, people stopped spending any significant amount of time outdoors. When the only time you are outside is between the metro or car and your home or office, a hat is pointless.

 

[newturnofphrase]

...and more importantly, people stopped spending any significant amount of time outdoors. When the only time you are outside is between the metro or car and your home or office, a hat is pointless.

Well, that's true and it also isn't. I think the "fashions changed" bit is the vastly more important part. Hats haven't really been necessary for about 150 years, when trains, omnibus carriages, and urban development meant that fewer and fewer people spent a significant amount of time outdoors. Even prior to that the nicer hats were more about fashion than function, because the people who could afford them didn't need to be outdoors. They were more essential back then for hygenic reasons (people didn't wash their hair as often, some cities had smoggy air, etc), but hats have been mostly about fashion since the mid 19th century. Most of the various reasons people give for the decline of hats are basically either "hats went out of fashion" or "hats became a hassle," which IMO were the actual contributors to the demise in everyday wear.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I see tons of men wearing hats everyday. But today it is the ballcap that is in fashion. All my co workers would never leave the house without their ballcap on their head. Just look around you in a restaurant or in a store you see a lot of ball cap wearing men. The younger guys spend ton's of money on New Era ballcaps they can cost as much as are custom Fedroas if you get into the limited editon ball caps.

 

[job]

:eusa_clap Amen brother. :eusa_clap

 

[H.Herdick]

Well, that's true and it also isn't. I think the "fashions changed" bit is the vastly more important part. Hats haven't really been necessary for about 150 years, when trains, omnibus carriages, and urban development meant that fewer and fewer people spent a significant amount of time outdoors. Even prior to that the nicer hats were more about fashion than function, because the people who could afford them didn't need to be outdoors. They were more essential back then for hygenic reasons (people didn't wash their hair as often, some cities had smoggy air, etc), but hats have been mostly about fashion since the mid 19th century. Most of the various reasons people give for the decline of hats are basically either "hats went out of fashion" or "hats became a hassle," which IMO were the actual contributors to the demise in everyday wear.

I live in the Netherlands, Europe. Same thing. I agree with @The Wiser Hatter.

IMHO, the ballcap don't last as long as a good Fedora. My daughter (13 y.o.) own a quiete expensive ballcap. But for how long? My Fedoras stands sun and rain and all kind of weather, without any problem.

Even old man in the Netherlands are wearing ballcaps, but I don't get the reason. A good Fedora fits so smooth and easy and convertable, but ballcaps never reache this standard in my opinion.

 

[Adcurium]

This is exactly the info I have been looking for. Thanks Gentlemen!

 

[Historyteach24]

Speaking of ballcaps I am one of those people that wear both fedoras and ball caps. As a baseball coach and baseball fan the ballcap has its place and I have to disagree with the statement that says they never get to the same comfort level as a fedora. I have a few ballcaps that feel like they are tailored to my head but that comes from hours upon hours of head time. I feel the ballcap has its place right along side my moreexpensive dress hats.

 

[scottyrocks]

A 'good' ball cap can cost between 20 and $30. Good fedoras are considerably more expensive. A cloth ball cap can be washed by machine or in the sink. A fedora can be brushed, but washed in the sink? Reshaping is more than most men want to deal with. A ball cap can be folded or wadded up and put in your pocket, pulled out, and be fine. Most fedoras can't. And ball caps (as well as knitted caps) fit in with our oh-so-cahj society better than fedoras. Fedoras don't stand a chance in the mainstream.

 

[gtdean48]

.... I feel the ballcap has its place right along side my more expensive dress hats.

I agree with Teach that ballcaps have a use & a place. I do have quite a few & they get worn fairly regularly. I have a couple of "sized" caps that fit like a custom hat.
Now I don't think their place is along side my more expensive dress hats....maybe next to my beaters but quite a few rungs below my nice lids....

 

[Atticus Finch]

I don't remember the thread, but I do remember reading in the "Hatless Jack" Book that the hat check girls did have something to do with the down turn in hat wearing. If memory serves, many hat check girls asked for a quarter to check your hat back in the late 1930's and early 1940's. So, if you were a downtown New Yorker who ate lunch at a local restaurant, you paid $1.25 a week for the privilege of having your hat checked. This is on a $10.00 to $25.00 hat. Eventually, checking becomes more of the cost that the original Capital outlay.

Let’s hear it for the Hat Check Girls!

If you drive your $21,000.00 automobile 25000 miles per year...and it gets 18 miles per gallon...and gas cost $3.85 per gallon...in 48 months your gas bill will exceed the capital outlay for your automobile. But doncha gotta drive?

And if you pay your dry cleaner $14 to clean your $250.00 suit once a month...in a year an a half the cleaning bill will exceed the cost of your suit. But ya can't go to court stinky or nekked.

And if you pay the landscaper guy $7000.00 to sod your lawn...and you pay the neighbor kid $50.00 each for 15 mowings per year...in ten years the cost of mowing the sod is more than what you paid for the sod. But you’ll tick off the homeowner's association if you don't keep your yard mowed.

AF

 

[John in Covina]

If you wear a beret like Groucho Marx did, you can stuff your hat in your pocket and smile at the hat check girl.

 

[alanfgag]

Yes, but if you give her your hat, the hat check girl smiles back... and that makes all the difference.

 

[John in Covina]

There was a time when businesses had services that were part of what they did. Like a restaurant might give you a coupon to eliminate the parking charge. The hat shop might do a brush and steam for free. Today we find that the expense of doing business means that you are charged for everything. There remains little that is included any more. Was the idea of a hatcheck girl simply a money making proposition? There are many stores that as part of their loss prevention will not allow large bags or backpacks in the store, do they charge to handle these?

What ever happened to free air and water at the service station? The banks have already tried to add a fee for going to a live teller out this way, how about a fee to just stand in line?

 

[TipTop]

I'll also mention hair styles: wearing hair short (as in 50s brushcuts) meant keeping your head warm, at least here in the north. By the mid-60s, longer hair (The Beatles) meant less warmth concern, and actually, a desire to keep your locks free-floating and avoiding the dreaded "helmet hair." Now that short styles are back, closer shaved heads require cover, but the knitted beanie seems to have slipped into popularity, even over ball caps among the younger crowd.

Bottom line, it's the YOUTH market that drives styles. Maybe Justin Timberlake and hipsters with their stingy-brim fedoras will light a fad, but it seems not to have so far. Nobody knows how to deal with doffed fedoras nowadays. Except at my (ancient, city) club, most public coat rooms did away with shelves and large hat hooks, and as we discussed earlier this month, there is no safe way to deal with one on a plane or train, so keeping them on more indoors is about the only option...and not really a good one.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I can't decide which I hate more: ballcaps or knitted caps (which I have noticed more and more these days).