Hat comeback

[Rick Blaine]

One thing I would like to add. I live here in the Washington, D.C. area, and there are a lot of African Americans, and many Hispanics too. What I have found is that African American men seem to be much more interested in style than others are. I am much more likely to get a positive glance or a quick nice comment about the hat from an African American man than from others. They are checking out the style, being interested in it, and are much less likely to take offense at wearing different styles like hats. Actually I think they think that someone besides them wearing a hat gives them more space to do it themselves, a good thing. On the other hand, in Minnesota where I spent my first 26 years, and which is pretty much a monoracial place, I would expect to get mocked for anything I wore that deviated from the ordinary, so I didn't do it much when I lived there. Although it is probably different now, many decades hence, it sounds like your case there in the U.K.

No question, the AA population have KEPT the American dress hat industry going. Period. Paragraph.

 

[scottyrocks]

Living and working in a multi-racial city, (NY), I too, have found that you are much more likely to see any type of stylish hat (read: NOT a bsb cap) on a black man than on a white man. I will the analyses to others as to why.

 

[Yeps]

Living and working in a multi-racial city, (NY), I too, have found that you are much more likely to see any type of stylish hat (read: NOT a bsb cap) on a black man than on a white man. I will the analyses to others as to why.

When wandering around in DC and the surrounding area, I feel a little uncomfortable in the white parts, fit right in in the Hispanic section, and get an awful lot of compliments in the black areas.

 

[senoreme]

I completely agree with some of the writers in this thread. Living in the Bronx, New York City, and working at a court house with a heavy volume of people daily, I have observed time and time again that most African-Americans wear a diversity of hats. Hispanics also, but not to the same extent. Non-Hispanics and African-Americans mainly wear baseball caps. I being a light-skin Hispanic, have received many compliments while wearing my fedora. Baseball caps suck!!!

 

[Hal]

...keeps your head warm in the cold, cool in the sun, the fact that they can also look good is almost immaterial...most of us started wearing a hat for an essentially practical reason.

It's easier to start wearing a hat that way, surely; until complete confidence in wearing one is attained, a practical reason given in response to a negative comment is more likely to be accepted. One of the hat-types you mention worn in cold or wet weather with an overcoat or raincoat, or a panama in hot sunshine, can always be justified on practical grounds; the fact that the hat adds style and smartness will come to be appreciated later.

...of those kids now wearing the horrible cloth stingy brim nightmares, a percentage are going to find their way through to proper hats...

Also a good point. Just as one who listens to pop music is more likely to try jazz or classical music than someone who never listens, so is a kid who wears a baseball cap or one of your "stingy brim nightmares" more likely to try a proper hat than someone who invariably goes bareheaded.

 

[monbla256]

Living here in Tarrant County in The DFW area of Texas, we have a bigger tradition of Western hats though as we get more urbanized and less rural influence even that is changing. Most of the Fedora style of hats were worn by my fathers generation ( The Greatest, I'm a Boomer) and the Korean War generation. Most of the folks my age you see hatless during the work week, ( office workers, suits) and a lot of Tilley's and Cowboys or Rangers Baseball caps on the weekend while they do there "Honey Do's" ) on the weekend. Just a few bush hats but very few felts on my generation for sure. Can't speak for many folks under my childrens age ( mid to late 30's) but I don't notice ANY resurgance of hat wearing

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Another hats-are-coming-back story this one based on the fact that a guy on TV wears them.

It is in the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

From the article:

Hat sales have risen dramatically in the last three years, said Iwa Hooe, a spokesman for Dorfman Pacific of Stockton, Calif., one of the world's largest headwear companies, which makes hats for men and women, though he declined to give figures. Fedoras and bucket styles lead the way.

"Young people in Hollywood are starting to wear hats as a trademark accessory," he said. He calls Justin Timberlake "a classic example of a newer generation trying to dress more sophisticated." Other influences are the young male and female characters in the hit CW network series "Gossip Girl" who dress to the nines in almost every scene.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/nov/21/fedora-catching-on-as-trademark-accessory/

 

[CharlieB]

Just a thought to ponder.

With so many of us who do continue to wear proper hats, is it a "comback", or did it just never completely disappear? HHMMM, makes one wonder.

To quote Mark Twain

"History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes"

 

[Sam Craig]

I remember in the 70s when Esquire did its big fall fashion edition and featured two football stars ... no idead who they were ... on the cover with natty suits and bowlers.
Inside it explained all the appropriate hats from bowlers to fedoras to wear with which suits, sports coats.
Unfortunatley, the rest of the nation did not catch on.
This seems to resurface from time to time.
Probably the best thing we can do is grab the opportunity if a few extra decent hats get made.
Some of us have never and will never give up hats with suits, casual dress and even jeans.

Sam

 

[Chascomm]

Hair,as I see it was the big change,up until the fifties what you wore on your head was your statement,fifties the quiff, early sixties moptop,late long hair,seventies spikypunk,eighties,the flick,all of these styles and others not mentioned precluded hat wearing

Certainly true in my case. I used to have big hair, wild and curly, so in spite of the climate I never wore a hat in the sun (probably not smart). Then I inherited my great-uncle's fedora and tried it out for fun. That meant tying my hair back (Jimi Hendrix looked great with a 'fro under a hat, but it's not the look for everybody and the 'hat hair' is terrible). Then I bought another fedora and started wearing my hair tied back for the office. So the hat helped my tidy myself up. But after hours and on weekends I'd let my hair down, so no hat. As my hair got thinner I realized the need to keep my head protected from the sun so I kept it tied back under a hat most of the time. When the fateful day arrived to shave off the 400mm pony-tail, it was not a big step to take to wearing a hat whenever I was out. Felt naked without, actually.

Anyway, the point is that with some hair styles, hat wearing takes planning. It is never the default choice.

 

[Widebrim]

No question, the AA population have KEPT the American dress hat industry going. Period. Paragraph.

That would seem to be the case, especially among the Creoles of Louisiana (who are actually in an ethnic class of their own). I just cruised through downtown L.A. today, and noticed all the hats being showcased on suit mannequins in the garment district. The colors and styles were those customarily associated with the Black community here, and I doubt that many non-Black men would purchase any. (Other men in S. California generally tend to wear cheap, stingy brims, although some of us do go against the grain.)

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Now the New York Times gets into the "hats are coming back" game…

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

THERE was a time when only beggars went bareheaded. This was some while ago, a century or so. But up until World War II and the period just after, a gentleman was not considered properly dressed without a hat. Even the names of hats were rich in character and historical association. The bowler, or derby, with the rigid shape of an upended bean pot, was named for a 19th-century English earl who popularized the style. The fedora’s name came from a play of that title, written for Sarah Bernhardt by the otherwise largely forgotten French dramatist Victorien Sardou.

Then the hat went the way of the dodo. Social historians are divided about the cause of the sartorial die-off, although an often repeated canard attributes it to President Kennedy and his rarely covered thatch of luxuriant hair. The real blame probably belongs to automobiles, though. Hats were knocked off when you entered a car and inevitably got squashed beneath a passenger’s wayward behind or went into orbit when you lowered the top to a convertible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/fashion/03HATS.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

 

[Lefty]

there's a tenth time for everything

 

[monbla256]

Now the New York Times gets into the "hats are coming back" game…

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

THERE was a time when only beggars went bareheaded. This was some while ago, a century or so. But up until World War II and the period just after, a gentleman was not considered properly dressed without a hat. Even the names of hats were rich in character and historical association. The bowler, or derby, with the rigid shape of an upended bean pot, was named for a 19th-century English earl who popularized the style. The fedora’s name came from a play of that title, written for Sarah Bernhardt by the otherwise largely forgotten French dramatist Victorien Sardou.

Then the hat went the way of the dodo. Social historians are divided about the cause of the sartorial die-off, although an often repeated canard attributes it to President Kennedy and his rarely covered thatch of luxuriant hair. The real blame probably belongs to automobiles, though. Hats were knocked off when you entered a car and inevitably got squashed beneath a passenger’s wayward behind or went into orbit when you lowered the top to a convertible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/fashion/03HATS.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

I think a bigger indication is what characters are wearing hats on TV shows. I've noticed that more of the "bad" guys wear hats and the "good" guys DO NOT ! Take the show "the Fringe", the new series has a group of bad guys who wear thin lapeled grey suits and small brimmed" fedoras." I think they are making a sort of comeback but not with the variety of creases, colors or felts as were available 50/60 years ago. Will be interesting to watch and see where all this goes.

Onward thru the ICE

 

[Young fogey]

I usually only see one other fedora-wearer a week, not the same man every week, someone random, but usually on a Sunday, usually black and usually from the golden era.

 

[Widebrim]

Now the New York Times gets into the "hats are coming back" game…

The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Then the hat went the way of the dodo. Social historians are divided about the cause of the sartorial die-off, although an often repeated canard attributes it to President Kennedy and his rarely covered thatch of luxuriant hair. The real blame probably belongs to automobiles, though. Hats were knocked off when you entered a car and inevitably got squashed beneath a passenger’s wayward behind or went into orbit when you lowered the top to a convertible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/fashion/03HATS.html?_r=1&ref=fashion

Well, they're wrong about the hat going the way of the dodo; that would imply that hats totally died off and could never come back. I think that the car roof-line theory carries some weight, though.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Well, they're wrong about the hat going the way of the dodo; that would imply that hats totally died off and could never come back.

It would also mean that hats all look like short, fat birds with big beaks.

 

[Widebrim]

^^lol

 

[Yeps]

I don't mean to sound arrogant, but styles keep popping up on runways after I have been wearing them for a while.

Honestly, this guy could be dressing up as me, green hat and flamboyant scarf included.

This happened a couple years back with vests (waistcoats). It creeps me out a little bit, even though I highly doubt I am at all connected to the styles in reality.

 

[Chinaski]

Head coverings have been around for millenia. Hats as we tend to know and love them here, that brief, shining era of wide-brimmed fur felt hats of the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, well, that dog's probably had it's day. Life is too fractured, the world has moved on more than likely.

People will always wear hats, but I don't think we'll see millions wearing the styles we enjoy again. If it ever managed to become really popular again, the lawsuits against using fur would become problematic. Would you still salivate over the Stetson Stratoliner of the year 2025 made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate?