Perhaps a silly question: Ladies' hats indoors?

[Dormouse]

When I was a little girl in school in the 80's, the teachers had a hard-and-fast rule against wearing hats, any kind of hats, indoors. But it seems to me that ladies' hats would have to have been worn inside during the Golden Age, or the hairdos would have been ruined! Who's right on this bit of manners?

 

[David V]

When I was a little girl in school in the 80's, the teachers had a hard-and-fast rule against wearing hats, any kind of hats, indoors. But it seems to me that ladies' hats would have to have been worn inside during the Golden Age, or the hairdos would have been ruined! Who's right on this bit of manners?

I beleive the rule of thumb for womens hats were if it had a brim it was an out of doors hat worn to protect from the elements and was removed when you entered someones home. If it was brimless, it was a fashion accesory and so could remained on the head.

 

[Joie DeVive]

In the Golden Era, the brim/brimless rule may have been the case. I really don't know. Maybe one of our gals will have more information on the matter.

I do know that it wasn't always the rule. Around the turn of the century (1900-1910) huge hats were the style. Many of them covered with birds, feathers, and tons of ribbons and such, and held held in place by huge sharp hatpins. I know there was quite a furror in churches with many ministers because they didn't approve of the hats. The hats interfered with parishoners ability to see, took up a lot of space, limiting the number of people that could fit in the pew, and were generally a "pokey" kind of hazzard. The preachers often considered them a vanity, but hats were required church wear for women, and thus there was a bit of a hubub about it.

Maybe if the brim/brimless thing is the rule this is why!! lol

 

[Miss Brill]

I thought ladies were allowed to keep their hats on indoors because hats usually mess up the 'do?

 

[Dormouse]

I thought ladies were allowed to keep their hats on indoors because hats usually mess up the 'do?

That's what seems logical to me, especially with brimless hats...I was always perturbed by the teacher telling me I wasn't allowed to wear a hat in class, cause that's supposed to be a rule for boys!

 

[Sunny]

Rambling...

Historically, hat wearing has really varied. Like in the 1860s, bonnets were kept on when just calling, but taken off when one was a guest for dinner or an evening.

The head was covered in church; that's pretty consistent through the decades. I suspect that Edwardian ministers objected to the hats not because they were worn in church, but simply because they were so big and obstructive.

I think first we need to realize that hats weren't ubiquitous. In the 1920s Sayers books, for example, there were comments about the modern girl who ran about without a hat in all weathers. By the 1940s, going hatless was by no means unusual or frowned-upon.

That means that when fashion hats were worn, they were usually in more dressed-up situations. Going to church. Going to a tea or other party. Going shopping (although that depends on the person and the store). Running important errands, like going to the bank. On the way to the office.

The hat would be taken off if one was going to stay a while - like at a private home, and not at a formal tea - or at work. Dormouse, mentally I'd equate school to work. You're there for the day; why wear a hat in the buildilng? Even in the movies and TV shows from all eras, I've seen hats outside but not inside, on students and on teachers.

I think wearing/not wearing the hat has far much more to do with custom than with practicality. The wide availability of a true "powder room" would've made removing a hat not a problem for the hair. You lay your coat on the host's spare room bed; if you remove your hat, you just fix your hair in the mirror back there. No problem.

I like that bit about brimless hats, though it might not be quite as technical as that. To their eyes, an outdoor/functional hat would be clearly recognized as such, whether it had a brim or not. (Some of the mid- to late-1930s hats are tricky about that.) A wide, casual sun hat, worn casually at a resort, might indeed be taken off informally indoors. But a formal late 1940s skimmer, worn with a suit, wouldn't be removed in a restaurant.

 

[Topper]

Yes can be indoors though traditionally only "Formal" hats would be worn by ladies indoors.

Unless you were "downstairs" when said people would wear a bonnet as chambermaids e.t.c.

Wearing a hat was inside was normally a requirement of downstairs or other working classes as they needed that hat for warmth or protection ( hair in the weaving looms machiners e.t.c.).

So the only time an lady would wear one would be as a "Formal" dress hat.

 

[HamletJSD]

Not sure

I couldn't speak to what is historically accurate, but I agree that nowadays it seems to come down to practicality. Most often there is not a safe place to hang/store your hat even if it were proper to remove it, so by default it must be kept on.

For good or ill, the climate has changed about hat wearing indoors anyway. I am sort of ashamed to admit this now that I am getting older and feel that I know better, but I (male) used to wear a ballcap to church most of the time ... even while I taught Sunday school to people older than I, even when I knew I was going to be on stage ... if I had thought about it, I probably would have been baptised with a hat on (nah, someone would've stopped that one :eusa_doh: ).
My point is that nobody ever mentioned it. I am sure those from generations before mine were biting their collective tounges about it, but sentiment about hats indoors has changed enough that everyone let it slide.

I will not preach right now as to whether the change is good or bad, but I guess I would come down on the side of "Do what seems proper to you" based on the type of hat you are wearing and don't fret too much over what others think. Just the fact that you are questioning it means you have twice the class of most people out there (myself included).

 

[bolthead]

Link

Here's an Etiquette link that might help.

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Clothes Articles/etique