Walking around in a fedora...

[Ginseng]

I'm new to fine hats and headwear with the Biltmore Chicago and Florence as my first good fur felt fedoras. Recently I traveled to Detroit on business and I wore the Florence on the trip. Walking around the airport, hotels, and streets, it suddenly and clearly struck me how incompletely dressed I found the other men to be. Of course the vast majority were not wearing hats. The few who were wore ball caps. Only once in two days did I meet someone wearing a stingy brim trilby.

It was stunning to me how...grown up I felt. Well, that's not the right word. Mature? Sophisticated? Manly? I'm not really any of those, but I found myself standing straighter, holding my head higher, and behaving with just a bit more consideration and civility.

Has anyone else experienced this? I must admit I rather liked the feeling, as well as the effect it had on me. Amazing. All this from *just* a hat.

Regards,
Wilkey

 

[The Good]

For similar reasons, I also feel confidently while wearing a hat. I think that a hat could finish one's clothes, depending on the kind of hat worn, whether it is with a suit, sports jacket, coat, shirt and tie, western shirt and jeans, polo shirt and chinos, or something else. There is both an element of practicality and fashion, elegance and mystery. Certainly, there are some days I'd opt to not wear a hat, yet whenever I do, I feel like myself, and positively so.

 

[Ginseng]

Sir, you have captured my sentiments precisely and eloquently.
Regards,
Wilkey

 

[Stanley Doble]

When everybody wore hats, everybody felt like that. Now you know the secret to Humphrey Bogart's charisma.

Maybe not but there is a lot in what you say.

 

[Hat Dandy]

I find that I sometimes forget about the hat until someone approaches me about it. At least once per week, I receive a compliment on what I wear and on many occasions it sparks an interest for someone else to get a hat.

 

[F. J.]

Sam Clemens . . .

[...]
It was stunning to me how...grown up I felt. Well, that's not the right word. Mature? Sophisticated? Manly? I'm not really any of those, but I found myself standing straighter, holding my head higher, and behaving with just a bit more consideration and civility.
[...]

This reminds me of an old quote, which was quite true at the time but perhaps less so now . . .

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

—Mark Twain​