Women without hats

[LolitaHaze]

Carebear... Can I entice you with a bit of ankle showing?

But sticking to the subject at hand... I couldn't find my favourite hat that I planned on wearing earlier, so instead I wore a grey felt hat that reminds me a but of a riding hat. I am not familiar with styles other than what I like or don't like.

I sir, am the very soul of modesty and respect for the fairer sex.

In fact, I hesitated to type sex just then. Oops, that makes twice. I better stop before I faint straight away from shame.

 

[carebear]

Carebear... Can I entice you with a bit of ankle showing?

But sticking to the subject at hand... I couldn't find my favourite hat that I planned on wearing earlier, so instead I wore a grey felt hat that reminds me a but of a riding hat. I am not familiar with styles other than what I like or don't like.

You baby, whose birthday I just realized I missed (Happy Birthday!) could entice me with a glimpse of anything.

Unfortunately, I fear I can't compete with the man in your avatar. I am but the student, he is the Master.

Oh, on topic, regardless of the formal names, those are the only two styles anyone need concern themselves with. :eusa_clap

 

[LolitaHaze]

Thank you Carebear! It was a delightful birthday with wonderful company all around.

Ah... there is no competition for anyone!! I love everyone (well that's not true but...) and new friends are always welcomed!

Do women's hats have style names even? I know there is the beret, the turban, the... *runs off to look at old catalogs...*

You baby, whose birthday I just realized I missed (Happy Birthday!) could entice me with a glimpse of anything.

Unfortunately, I fear I can't compete with the man in your avatar. I am but the student, he is the Master.

Oh, on topic, regardless of the formal names, those are the only two styles anyone need concern themselves with. :eusa_clap

 

[Miss Match]

There are names for women's hats, it's just that some of them are incredibly obscure. In Men's Hats, words like "fedora" cover a wide range of styles. In women's hats, you have Garbos and cloches and pillboxes and cartwheels and slouches and caps and beehives and toques and brettons and pancakes and on and on.

Or women can wear a teeny tiny hat (think Satine in Moulin Rouge) called a "doll hat" or just about any men's dress style, like toppers and fedoras (yes, they are period for women to wear them).

So many hats... so little space to keep the hats.

 

[Twitch]

In So. Cal. you will see an occassional wide floppy brim felt fedora-style woman's hat worn. In the summer many will wear "sun hats" at outdoor events. They range from inexpensive to fairly decent. So while we see some resurgence in men in fedoras or Panamas the women are not going back to pillbox hats with lace veils.[huh]

 

[Matt Deckard]

bump

 

[mysterygal]

There are two reason's why I do not wear hats all that often. The biggest of the two is that I'm still in that stage of feeling comfortable wearing one...even as a kid, I didn't like any kind of hat on (even baseball caps), I figured that's what ponytails were for It's definetely getting better, but, I will admit that there's some feelings of awkwardness....people around here stare at you and it can be a bit disconcerting at times! also, sometimes, I can feel like I'm wearing a 'costume' instead of a suit.
The second reason is that I've been having the most difficult time finding a hat that I like! ok, this needs further explaination....most hats I love the look of, but it's a whole different story when it is put upon my head, most just don't seem to fit my personality.[huh]

 

[MattJH]

I just bought my wife a Borsalino that I'm waiting on. She loves hats, but this will be completely different for her as she does not own a fedora. For all intents and purposes, it's a man's hat, but it appears it can be shaped however we'd like.

 

[Honey Doll]

I love hats. I've become a bit of a hat junkie! That being said, it is remarkably difficult to find good quality hats with vintage flare at a reasonable price. I've gone largely to custom hats to get what I'm looking for since there is so little commercially available....

Here are a couple

Doll hat by Barbara Feinman

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One by BoringSidney on Etsy

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I wear a hat daily and constantly receive remarks --all of them positive. The older gentleman at my coffee stand has remarked several times that he wishes his wife wore one, but she won't because she feels uncomfortable in them.

Honey Doll

 

[Bud-n-Texas]

I wish you luck DJ. I have purchased numerous hats through the years for my wife. She may wear it once or twice and then gets tucked away in its box. I have always found ladies in hats intriguing. My daughter likes hats, and I have given her several through the years as well. She has a Stetson waiting for her on her next visit.

 

[Decobelle]

I wear hats fairly often... especially on Fridays, as part of my own little protest against 'casual Friday.' If I could find a hat in my size like Ingrid's in Casablanca, I'd consider having it surgically attached to my head. Most of the time, I stick with doll hats worn tilted forward. I've noticed in vintage magazines, they tend to call these simply "sailor hats" or whatever the style, making no reference at all to the tiny size.

 

[Vanessa Anne]

Berated while wearing a Beret!

I wore a beret this past winter and the amount of stupid men that would hang out of their vans and trucks and shout out dumb "French" insults was unbelievable!

Everytime I went to the shops or somewhere, somebody had a bloody remark to make. I'm sure they thought they were just being hilarious, but I just got sick of it and stopped wearing the thing.

If I wore a nice netted creation during the day I'm sure I would just get hassle. I would only wear one for an evening do or an event really.

Vanessa

 

[Lady Day]

I wear hats a lot as well. Mainly mens hats, cause womens hats (off the rack) are too small for my head and LARGE hair. Fineman hats are fantabulious and custom made! Imma get a few from there...when I can


LD

 

[Nick D]

A former co-worker of mine's mother owned a hat shop in Detroit. According to her, business sharply dropped and then practiaclly disappeared after the second Vatican council. When Catholic women no longer had to wear hats in church, they stopped wearing hats.

I still see some older women wearing hats in church, but they were all born well before Vatican II.

 

[GoldLeaf]

Well, I don't wear a hat because I am a child of the 80's. I am young enough that I was raised in a non-hat wearing culture.

However, I do like them, and would wear them if I found hats that I liked in my size. Ebay is of course a good source. But I wanted a hat quickly the other week, and I wasn't able to find a good looking one in the stores. BLECH! They were outrageous looking! Or, just the plain straw floppy brimmed hat which wasn't appropriate for my occasion.

I do have one hat that is a black felt 50's hat that sits on the back of the head that I wore to Good Friday service. Very cute! I have a straw hat I wear in the summer, also very cute. I will keep my eyes peeled

I don't think it would be appropriate for me to wear one in the office. I work with building inspectors and erosion control officers. I would be very overdressed. While I don't mind odd stares or strange remarks, I really think that to wear a hat all day would be very out of place in my work environment. There is such a thing as being too overdressed. A skirt and heels I do often. Add a hat, and I think it would be a bit much. I would wear one in and out of the building, and into stores, though.

I was just thinking, as I typed this post, of all the ladies I saw in the vintage photo thread that weren't wearing hats. I would guess that most of them weren't wearing one. So were they really as common as we think they are? Would a secretary from the 40's or 50's wear a hat all day?

 

[Joie DeVive]

I love, love, love hats!

I always have. I even obtained some while still in high school in the 90s, but people made such merciless fun of them, that it stopped wearing them, and still am somewhat fearful of wearing one, even though when I have in the recent past, I have received very positive reactions.

Right now, I am faced with the dilemma that there are very few styles of hats easily available in stores beyond the most casual. Those that are nicer and available in stores, tend to be woefully out of my price range. Le sigh..

So to sum it up for me; nerves, availability, and cost...

 

[Sunny]

I was just thinking, as I typed this post, of all the ladies I saw in the vintage photo thread that weren't wearing hats. I would guess that most of them weren't wearing one. So were they really as common as we think they are? Would a secretary from the 40's or 50's wear a hat all day?

There are a couple issues. When you look at a vintage photo, you've got to consider the situation. Hanging out with the family? Unless it was a more formal occasion, I wouldn't be wearing a hat. Going shopping? Probably. At a wedding? Certainly. Even at that, hat wearing wasn't ubiquitous even in the old 1920s and 1930s; young women were far more likely to leave them off. As the decades went on, those now aging women may have continued to leave them off in less and less casual situations.

As for a secretary: I would certainly think a secretary would wear a hat to the office. But she would take it off while in the office.

I was watching one of the Hercule Poirots with David Suchet, and noticed that when his secretary Miss Lemon arrived, she hung up her hat on a nifty hook in the front hall. This was in the 1930s.

 

[RaasAlHayya]

I recently bought two adorable little hats, neither of which I have worn. I also have a pillbox from an estate sale that I've worn maybe three times. Probably because I really don't have anything to wear them with yet. Right now, all I have are modern clothes, but I'm working on getting some nice vintage-inspired outfits!

I love hats!

--Leslie

 

[John in Covina]

Convenience wins out

I think that it is a matter of convenience for women, to cut down on some aspect of "image management" that hats for women have dwindled to a small percentage.

 

[Davidson]

I think that it is a matter of convenience for women, to cut down on some aspect of "image management" that hats for women have dwindled to a small percentage.

I can see that in a workplace. Many women live very busy lives, and I often see them out running errands, grocery shopping, whatever. And they have hairstyles that take time to look at their best. So I see a lot of ponytails, clipped-back hair, whatever they can do to manage their hair when there's no time. It seems to me that there must be styles and forms of hats that would be helpful to them in managing their appearance when there's "no time" to do their hair.