NYT piece: Hat-wearing minority gets no respect!

[Doctor Strange]

This is obviously old news to the likes of us, but still nice to see:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/nyregion/11nyc.html

Testify, brother!

 

[Benzadmiral]

True enough: "Some men seem to have finally realized that it is time to lay down the baseball cap — in Mr. Palacios’s words, 'to switch to a hat and grow up.'”

I've worked hard to be a grownup and have grownup choices and privileges. No way I'm going to walk around dressed like Bart Simpson. It'd be nice if we saw more young men rejecting the T-shirt and shorts look.

As a hat wearer, I'm an invisible minority down here. Noo Awlins is a weird town. When, on a Sunday morning, you can see a beefy hairy guy wearing not much more than a leather jockstrap climb blithely into a cab on St. Charles Avenue -- well, the simple fedora doesn't draw much attention, does it?

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

It's the first reaction someone has is negative Mob and drug lord. But I overlook these comments and remember the good things people say and people stopping and talking to me about a beloved grandfather that always worn a Fedora and all the bad stupid commnet melt away.
The problem now days is that many cities do not have a Hat shop to purchase a hat from and this slows down the adoption of Fedoras as only the determined will go online and find forums such as this and learn about all the hat available.

 

[Feraud]

First Mad Men gave us guys are doing the swingin' 60s lounge thing in fedoras. Now it is The Adjustment Bureau and guys in hats are suddenly suspicious characters.
Shouldn't journalism be something other than regurgitating various stereotypes to fill space and meet a deadline?

 

[norton]

First Mad Men gave us guys are doing the swingin' 60s lounge thing in fedoras. Now it is The Adjustment Bureau and guys in hats are suddenly suspicious characters.
Shouldn't journalism be something other than regurgitating various stereotypes to fill space and meet a deadline?

Why should they change now?

 

[azshawn]

First Mad Men gave us guys are doing the swingin' 60s lounge thing in fedoras. Now it is The Adjustment Bureau and guys in hats are suddenly suspicious characters.
Shouldn't journalism be something other than regurgitating various stereotypes to fill space and meet a deadline?

It should be but....

BTW I would be fine with having Terence Stamp's swager and menace when I'm the same age.

 

[hatophile]

Rather odd, isn't it, that 75 years ago, when almost all men wore hats, there would have been no stereotyping. The local detective would be wearing a hat, just like the local mob
boss (only the mob boss's hat would be MUCH nicer).

I have been wearing hats almost daily now for about 5-6 years, and have yet to recieve a disparaging remark, oddly not even an Indy comment (which wouldn't really bother me).
Maybe this attitude is more prevalent in NY city?

 

[dhermann1]

I think it's a great piece, astute and droll. Haberman, as he points out, is an inveterate hat wearer. He writes from experience. Kudos.

 

[Feraud]

I am sure there was plenty of stereotyping back in the day based on dress and not just in big cities.

 

[tonyb]

It appears to me that the writer is simply noting that these stereotypes exist. I see no endorsement of them. His description of the advertisement for "The Adjustment Bureau" (an ad I've yet to see; it -- the ad --apparently isn't running out here, or maybe I've just failed to notice it) is quite well crafted.

Sure, it's mostly fluff. But so is most of what you get from almost any news outlet -- print, broadcast, etc. Yes, they have space to fill and deadlines to meet, as they always have. So we get the tricycle-riding chihuahua in Wauwatosa and the occasional feature about hats making a comeback. Or not.

The story is accurate, as far as it goes, which, admittedly, isn't all that far. But at least he didn't haul out the kennedykilledthehat nonsense.

 

[4spurs]

I only get compliments about my hats.

 

[fmw]

I've never encountered the gangster stereotype. I can't say I've ever had a negative reaction to any of my hats. And I've had many, many positive ones.

 

[Lefty]

I always follow the trends set by the entertainment business, at least after they're reported in the paper. For a while, and having been informed of the trend created by Lady Gaga, I was wearing a shirt of pork chops almost every day.

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

I have seen the ads for "The Adjustment Bureau", and yes,the guys in fedoras look rather sinister,but so what.It caught my eye and made me think I might wan't to see this movie just for the hats.Having suspicious characters in fedoras doesn't bother me because plenty of good guys wear them too.You don't hear western hat wearers complaining about all of the badguys in cowboy hats.
One thing I do get slightly ticked about ,is when fedoras of the late 50s, & 60s, get lumped into the "swinging lounge" category. That was the style of fedora at that time, and I can remember most of the men at church,(which used to be packed) wearing nice fedoras,with the narrower brims. The pews had hooks on the back to hang the hats.Most of these men were farmers,and very few of them ever saw a "swinging lounge".
My dad was one of the last to give up wearing fedoras as a work hat,about 1974. He would always buy a new straw in the spring for good,and his old one became his work hat.In the late fall he would do the same with felt.He also kept one or two heavy winter felts,with earlaps that folded up into the crown for really cold days.These are the hats he wore,buying and selling livestock,farming or anything else.By this time, the "free cap" given out by seed corn companies had become the work hat of choice by farmers, and I remember wishing Dad would start wearing them like everybody else.Eventually he did,and for a while I thought the caps made him look younger.When you look back at the pictures now, some of the fedora shots look silly, but some look really good.I know the stingier brimmed fedoras aren't as classy as the wider brims,but they are still nice hats, and my father aws not a hipster.

 

[vintage68]

Astute article. I say fedora wearers should embrace the dark side, after all look what happened with Harley Davidson. Any publicity is good publicity. Marketing baby, marketing!

 

[Fletch]

Then we'll have to start wearing them like Hollywood badasses or military drill masters.
Dead level, low in front, and stiff as a tin pot.

That nonchalant tilt to the side that so many of us cultivate impresses nobody but us and certain, rare women.

 

[JimWagner]

At least it's positive press for fedoras and other real hats.

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Us,and certain rare women.Amen.Who else matters?!

That nonchalant tilt to the side that so many of us cultivate impresses nobody but us and certain, rare women.[/QUOTE]

 

[Fletch]

You made the point I didn't want to. I actually wouldn't give up my tilt and push-back for anything.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I constantly get 'Capone' when wearing my fedora.

I've never encountered the gangster stereotype. I can't say I've ever had a negative reaction to any of my hats. And I've had many, many positive ones.