I Like This Hat, But How Do You Just Start Wearing a Hat...

[mflemming]

I like this Kilt, but how do you just start wearing a Kilt...

Since I've already driven this thread into the ditch.....

Heading out to meet up with other kilties is a good way to get started; learning to play the Highland bagpipe doesn't hurt either.

 

[Lexybeast]

Here's my completely original kilt advice. Any resemblance to kabuto's hat advice is purely coincidental.

When you first start wearing a kilt you're self conscious about it, and that will show. In addition, and many of the veterans here have worn kilts so long that they have forgotten it, there are various kilt skills and techniques that you need to learn. The best way to solve both problems is to wear the kilt indoors at your house for a while, in your pajamas while surfing the web and so on. (If you live with someone, you just have to go cold turkey there.) And then go out on practice runs, shopping and the like, alone, in places that you are unlikely to meet anyone you know.

When you get used to the kilt you literally forget you have it on, and that nonchalance comes through as confidence, and you're less likely to be teased.

Here're some things you have to learn:

1. How to put the kilt on quickly, in the right position, without fiddling with it, and without looking in a mirror. This is actually hard. During your home period. you should do this, and then check yourself in a mirror. You need to learn to put the kilt on because you'll have to take it off from time to time while you're out, for instance to wipe off sweat.
2. What positions of the kilt work: down, turned up, brim up and down, cocked to the side, and how to position for all of them without a mirror. You might want the kilt down for the sun, and tilted back when you walk in a shop.
3. How to hold the kilt when it's off and how much abuse you can give it. In the beginning you want to baby it. But you'll learn that a kilt brush can revive much, and that the kilt can be pretty much crushed and survive. Babying it too much looks like you lack confidence.
4. When to take the kilt off to wipe off sweat. You'll need to figure this out when you are outside wearing it. A certain amount of sweat is no problem, and helps shape the sweatband to your kilt. After a certain point it starts to leak through to the ribbon and stain it. You learn to feel when it's getting too "juicy" in the kilt and you have to take it off and wipe your ...

Ok, ok, I've never worn a kilt.

 

[irfan.wayang]

When I was at high school, the coach was haranguing those who were a bit reluctant to take part in the school swimming competition: "Some of you may be thinking that you don't want to get in the pool because you look a bit fat or a bit skinny or that you're a weird shape generally: well, looking around, you look like you're probably in the vast majority, so I wouldn't worry about it!"

 

[scottyrocks]

You need to learn to put the kilt on because you'll have to take it off from time to time while you're out, for instance to wipe off sweat.

From what I understand, if worn properly, you don't want to take a kilt off in public.:eeek:

 

[Yeps]

From what I understand, if worn properly, you don't want to take a kilt off in public.:eeek:

I try not to give in to the requests to do so.

 

[scottyrocks]

Probably an excellent idea.

 

[gtdean48]

From what I understand, if worn properly, you don't want to take a kilt off in public.:eeek:

A good buddy of mine who is really into Scottish Highland games & re-enacting wears a kilt to college football games & claims always to wear it properly. I ask for NO verification & take him totally at his word!

 

[SGT Rocket]

Also, try not to get to "excited" when you wear a kilt. You never know what might pop up.

 

[Undertow]

They give sex changes in closets..?:eeek:

Well sure, that's where I had mine just before...wait a minute! :eusa_doh:

 

[overlord4215]

I still get the occasional ribbing walking into work . The ladies like it and that's all that counts . I have a vintage Brooks Brothers fedora and it goes well with my seal brown A-2 .

 

[blue lander]

I recently started wearing hats myself. I'm the type of person who doesn't give much thought to fashion and hates to stand out in a crowd, so it took a few weeks to feel at ease wearing a hat. At first I only felt comfortable wearing it in the car during my commute to work. I'd also wear it if it was raining out since I felt like I had an "excuse" to cover my head. Eventually I worked up the courage to wear it every day around town, out hiking, on the metro, etc as long as nobody I knew was around. After a few weeks, wearing that hat felt completely natural, I didn't feel like I was wearing a "costume" and I no longer spent several minutes adjusting my hat in the mirror before I stepped outdoors. Now I feel uncomfortable if I go outside without a hat! Finally I started wearing it around my family/friends/coworkers and I got nothing but compliments. I even got a few compliments from strangers, and I've noticed those hipsters who wear fake fedoras from Walmart look a bit jealous when they see me wearing a real felt hat.

When I still felt weird about wearing a hat, I found it helped to notice all the ridiculous hairstyles and clothing people wear these days. If they can get away with looking that ridiculous in public without being mocked, I can get away with wearing a hat. And if people think I look like a dork when I wear my hat, chances are they thought I looked like a dork when I didn't wear it too.

 

[scottyrocks]

I recently started wearing hats myself. I'm the type of person who doesn't give much thought to fashion and hates to stand out in a crowd, so it took a few weeks to feel at ease wearing a hat. At first I only felt comfortable wearing it in the car during my commute to work. I'd also wear it if it was raining out since I felt like I had an "excuse" to cover my head. Eventually I worked up the courage to wear it every day around town, out hiking, on the metro, etc as long as nobody I knew was around. After a few weeks, wearing that hat felt completely natural, I didn't feel like I was wearing a "costume" and I no longer spent several minutes adjusting my hat in the mirror before I stepped outdoors. Now I feel uncomfortable if I go outside without a hat! Finally I started wearing it around my family/friends/coworkers and I got nothing but compliments. I even got a few compliments from strangers, and I've noticed those hipsters who wear fake fedoras from Walmart look a bit jealous when they see me wearing a real felt hat.

An all-too-common story. Good for you!

 

[pjt113]

I'm fortunate in that I live in Chicago and we have a long history of fedora's in this town. I usually only get compliments on my hats, at the most I'll get a "Hi Indy" from a co-worker if I'm wearing a brown hat with my leather jacket.

Besides, how many men out there wear a baseball cap backward like they're 12 years old? IMHO that truly looks bad.

 

[bowlerman]

The transition that worked best for me involved putting the thing on my head, donning a pair of dark sunglasses and taking a deep breath. Then out of the house into the world.
The only time I seem to get (or notice) pointing and hands over mouths is when wearing my "Megahat" tall crown- wide brimmed western with wide silver ribbon. It's probably because I'm not as confident wearing it as I am others in my collection.

 

[Young fogey]

Just do it

Daily fedora-wearer. What others have said. If it looks right, you'll feel confident. Just wear it without announcing it. You'll feel self-conscious in the very beginning. I get very few comments but they're all positive. Usually from people with a kid's memory of the era.

 

[amador]

I had a patient who was a life long resident of the Tacoma WA area. He had visited a friend in Texas for two weeks a couple of months prior and was so enamored of the "cowboy culture" that he started to wear a Stetson cowboy hat, western shirts, jeans with a wide belt and large buckle and cowboy boots. He was also trying to talk like a Texan, y'all. He stated that he did not take off his hat even while eating. He noted that he did not take off his pants while eating why should he take off his hat? I excused myself and retrieved my FedIV. We conducted the clinic visit in our hats.

 

[m0nk]

Hehe, this is always satisfying. And then there is the (rare) situation when you pass someone with a nice fur felt hat or a Montecristi, and there's a surprised glance of recognition.

I think this comes back to the discussion about the lack of a proper hat department in stores anymore. If the hats that we wear were more accessible, I think more people would be wearing nice fur felt hats instead of the Walmart fakes. I have a feeling that if a nice fedora were accessible, those "hipsters" would likely be picking one up instead.... albeit stingy brim, but still....

 

[job]

The Hipsters would faint from sticker shock.

 

[scottyrocks]

Yeah, really. The plaid cloth jobbies all have one major thing in common, and that's that they're cheap. A good felt fedora would cost at least as much as four to five hipstery buckets.

 

[Ken Paulson]

The first few times you and your hat go out together, it's not so much
you wearing the hat as the hat floating down the street as you sort of dangle beneath it. This feeling passes.
As Shangas said, it's a self-consciousness thing. Soon enough it morphs into self-confidence and you start looking for more hats because you look so cool that it would kill a normal man.
Enjoy.