Keeping seasonal traditions????

[Neil]

Past Labor Day, so. . . .

I live in the Washington, DC area, where it tends to get pretty hot and stays warm till well into November.
Lat week, I was standing at a downtown intersection, and a fellow in front of me was sporting a nice Panama. I asked the lady beside me what she thought, and she replied that she thought it was past Labor Day.
True enough.
What is the etiquette for these warm days, when it's too hot for felt and the summer is already done?

 

[leo]

I believe I read some about this on a past thread or two and the consensus seems to be that the Labor Day/September 15 rules are flexible. After all, Key West is not Fargo; Brazil is not Iceland.

The unseasonable warm stretch of weather here forced me to get a straw out of the closet today. No problem because everyone else was dressed like it was July!

Bill

 

[David V]

My straws were put away on Labor Day. Out came the felts.

 

[Geesie]

I live in southern California. Last week it was still in the upper 90s. I don't follow the calendar with felt/straw or for my cream dinner jacket. I go by the thermometer. I don't wear felt when it's hot or straw when it's cool.

 

[Stoney]

I try not to have any hard and fast rules, but rather wear what I think works given the weather and my mood. Of course if wearing a bowler, one should never forget the protective cup for obvious reasons as shown below:

 

[LordBest]

Does anyone know what the seasonal etiquette for hats in Australia may be? Do we have any fixed dates or customs regarding when to disgard felt, and return to felt? It is Spring and generally warm at the moment and I have been wearing my panama, but upon seeing several older gentleman wearing modern stingy brim wool hats I began to wonder if I could get away with wearing my felt fedora. I miss it. I asked my grandmother but she could not really say, only that she thought 'hard' felt hats like homburgs, bowlers and toppers were acceptable all year round.

 

[Akubra Man]

I am up in Winnipeg, Canada about 40 miles north of North Dakota and we have the 4 different seasons. I pretty much follow the seasonal weather. It is usually straw in summer and felt in fall. winter and spring. I agree with the no rules guys..do what you feel you need to do. We just had our first snow fall overnight so now the long stretch begins...no straw hats for 7 months give or take a few days.

 

[Mr. Paladin]

I too, like suitedcboy, wear my felts most of the time year around. Being less than an hour from him, the temps are the same. I always wear felt with dress clothes; my straw Stetson Center Dent or straw Stetson OR is reserved for very casual occasions. I pay no attention to the established changeover seasons.

 

[univibe88]

Now as to straw, I propose as rule 1 for Panamas, if you don't need a coat or jacket then it is ok to wear straw. If you need a jacket or coat, then felt is required. So what is your vote on this rule.

This makes sense to me.

 

[Woodfluter]

I'm with Duggap on all this. Those who made the rules are long gone, so we have a clean slate - if we choose to use it.

I also think that, as folks who kind of like styles that are a little anachronistic, we are perhaps more typical of those who flouted the rules at any period of time. The kind that knew what they liked and wore it regardless of what those around them did. Really, if we followed the current rules, we wouldn't be concerned with hats anyway, or would be wearing stingy-brimmed pinstripe conical crowned jobs, made in China, from Urban Outfitters.
....(Not that there's anything wrong with that, if it rings your chimes!)

- Bill

 

[Ordinary Guy]

This makes sense to me.

Gets my vote too..... common sense rules.

 

[TopGumby]

What drove me to the FL in search of information was a vague feeling that the summer bucket hat I'd started wearing to keep the sun off was not going to "work" in winter, and I'd have to get a real hat, since I found that I enjoyed wearing a hat.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I try not to have any hard and fast rules, but rather wear what I think works given the weather and my mood. Of course if wearing a bowler, one should never forget the protective cup for obvious reasons...

Good one, droog.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

I am up in Winnipeg, Canada about 40 miles north of North Dakota and we have the 4 different seasons. I pretty much follow the seasonal weather. It is usually straw in summer and felt in fall. winter and spring. I agree with the no rules guys..do what you feel you need to do. We just had our first snow fall overnight so now the long stretch begins...no straw hats for 7 months give or take a few days.

That's about the duration of summer here and a llloooooong time for me to go without wearing any felts, I'll tell you.

This year I was really on a binge of buying up vintage hats. Got quite a collection and have slowed to a standstill now unless something really special comes along. Point is, I didn't have the fortitude to keep from wearing some of my felts when they came no matter what the calendar date. Now, I've gotten to know them all and expect I'll be more inclined to stick to straws during the summer through Labor Day in '09.

 

["Skeet" McD]

Documentation?

Does anyone keep to a old tradition that I heard of when I was younger of wearing only straw in the spring and summer and felt in the fall and winter?

Yes, I've read all the various responses, and agree: we can all make our own choices. Myself (who was wearing a hard straw hat to high school...) I grew up with the "Memorial Day/Labor Day" season for such things, and have followed it, although not religiously.

I learned this by osmosis (yes, I'm THAT old). And clearly it wasn't always followed: look, for instance, at photographs of early World Series games, where there's a good cross section of the male population present 1900-1960. It's October...and you'll see some straw hats in there. The question is: what is the earliest written documentation of the "rule" anyone has seen? The current formulation wouldn't even be possible pre-1894 (when the US congress made it a national holiday)...

Grab those etiquette books!

 

[gtdean48]

I live in Georgia & it was 19 first of this week & it will be 71 tomorrow. I wear felt or straw depending on the current weather, not the season!

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Seasonal tradition is merely an arbitrary date or occasion. [huh]

Whatever strikes my fashion sense depending upon the weather

 

[1OldGI]

If you live up north the Memorial Day-Labor Day thing seems like it would have a temperature driven reason. In Florida though, we do get extra summer. In the cooler months say November to March. Wool felt or fur hats can be comfortably worn. We've had a colder than normal winter this year so the wool felt hat had a purpose. When the winter breaks though and the temperature remains in the 70's and 80's it really doesn't take long to figure out that a piece of wool (or fur) is not what you really want on your head. Can't say I really have months for straw and non straw but temperature calls the hat. That said, my felt fedora would seem to have been stored for the season. I'd rather store it and wear straw than walk around with a salt stained fedora, smelling like a farm animal. The new panama was quite nice today.

 

[Dewhurst]

Ok, here is the answer to your situation. It was the hat wearing community of old that made the rules. They quit wearing hats so all rules expired. Now, we, as the new generation of hat wearers, should make our own set of rules.

I agree with this. The weather is the simple determinant of what hat I will wear, other than personal taste or feeling on a particular day.

I wear felts during summer nights. And if it gets warm during winter, I throw on a light linen flat cap or summer weight felt hat. I never get any grief over it, because people wear felt cowboy hats all year 'round here. People are used to seeing hats of all sorts where I live, all year.

 

[RBH]

Thought this would fit right in with this neat thread!!

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