Posted on 09/17/2024 3:27:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Image of Yonge Street crowd celebrating the end of the Boer War in 1900, with the majority of people in the image wearing hats. Credits: William James / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain Headwear has been an essential fashion item for almost as long as it has existed, but people these days are not wearing hats as often as they used to in times past.
Since ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, people have worn headwear. Men and women commonly used headwear, and pharaohs wore their iconic Nemes striped headcloth to communicate their status. In the Middle Ages, there were laws requiring everyone to wear hats.
Later, top and bowler hats were used for centuries in English society, where they distinguished men and women of status. In the US, bowler hats were the most used form of headwear, and hats, in general, were commonplace.
For centuries, one would be hard-pressed to find anyone who left their home without headwear. However, as the ’60s and ’70s rolled around, hats became less and less common. So, how did hats fall from popular fashion to an item people could do without so quickly?
The disappearance of hat wearing
Rumors circulate about the disappearance of the hat from modern fashion. The most prominent of these relates to President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was always bare-headed, and with his extreme popularity, it is believed that his lack of a hat may have come to represent modern fashion.
Grecian Delight supports Greece
With the rise of a generation known for rebelling against traditional norms in the ’60s and ’70s, it makes sense why caps would be ousted from fashion.
The implications of transportation modes on hat usage However, the most likely reason for the lack of a hat is the rise of vehicles and public transportation. Thanks to advancements in transportation technology, society has rapidly transformed to the point where it is hard to conceptualize how fast the change has taken hold in how the world works today.
In a few decades, man’s primary mode of transportation went from horses and trains to cars, buses, and subway systems. Humanity’s exposure to the elements significantly decreased with the advent of these vehicles. Suddenly, a hat became cumbersome, making one duck when leaving an automobile or a bus. It often got knocked off and became uncomfortable for the user.
Just because hats have disappeared from popular fashion doesn’t mean they are not still utilized. Headwear these days is more focused on protection from the sun, like easily stored baseball caps, arguably one of the more popular forms of headwear. In terms of the top hats of old, they still find their place at British weddings and horse races.
Military personnel worldwide still wear headwear. However, the form of headdress has changed significantly throughout the centuries. Earlier, they would wear large bearskin caps and other more extravagant forms of headwear.
With the arrival of guns, military headwear has changed to more practical hard helmets and berets that can easily be stored when soldiers need to switch to their helmets.
While hats aren’t as popular these days as before, they still find their use in the modern world. However, there will always be those who wish for the old days when hats could be found on every head on the street.
I wear hats. Always. Borsalino felts in winter, Panama in summer, caps daily.
I also wear bolo ties when not wearing a silk tie.
My advice is, develop your eccentricities early.
Very true. Between electricity, engines, and the elevator, work moved into factories and offices.
Add in folding umbrellas (1923) and the growth of the automobile, buses, and subway trains, men were less exposed to the weather.
Men wore powdered wigs at one time but no one seems to be complaining about them not doing that anymore. (Same with large buckle shoes).
Same here. I wore ball caps for years. I had to get a cancer removed from my ear. Lots of $$ and a pain in the ear. I wear a straw brimmed hat all the time now.
Get this Barmah
https://barmahhats.com/product/1087-extra-wide-brim-canvas-cooler/
I have some of their others as well. I’ve had that one 26 years. Picked it up in Sedona. Wore it boating a hundred times in Missouri, a decade in Phoenix and still use it on the outer banks.
I’ve got dozens of hats. That is the best.
I suspect your grandmothers were like mine. Very serious dinner rules.
It started as a ghetto/rap thing during the late 1980s.
My grandmother might have been one of the last of the ladies who always wore a hat to church. She must have had a dozen of them.
“I suspect your grandmothers were like mine. Very serious dinner rules.”
Poor farmers and not hoity-toity, but proper.
When he gave his inaugural speech.
Lots of men wear hats if we count backwards baseball caps.
Me? I rotate between fourchads, primarily western outback style.
And I never wear a baseball cap because they make look like Beaver Cleaver.
Who gives a rats ass. I have 50 golf caps in my collection. I always have a cap on. Looks better than my thin. What’s left, hair.
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I don’t care what anyone thinks, either. If I did care, I would ask their opinion.
I have very little hair. My hats protect the skin on top from skin cancers and abrasions. The visor somewhat shields my face from sunlight. Reasons enough for me.
Baseball caps... good gravy, are caps not hats. You can put a propeller on a cap, a logo, the beer can holders and tubes. A watch cap, beanie, dunce cap
A hat... think Fedora, pork pie, stetson, cuban, Bucket hats, berets...
Caps.. pfffft
“Because it messes up your hair and makes you look stupid. That’s easy! Next question.”
My wife has a bad hair day and I mention “wear a hatc, she replies “I don’t like hats because it messes up my hair,”
“your hair’s already messed up”
“yeah but if you put a hat on then take it off it looks terrible”
And I say “when you put on a hat it’s a hat day”
I don’t think she even owns a hat.
I’m on a first name basis with my dermatologist, I were hats.
Like everything else, blame global warming.🤣
I love hats! ... and wear them often. Always get compliments......Straw ones, caps, and all fabrics.
Ah, nothing more sexy than a western hat on a man in TN.
My hair turned white. I don’t need a hat to keep my head cool now.
JFK didn’t like his hair being mussed up with a hat. He stopped wearing them, and then most every man in the country followed his lead.
Look at the lines of cars from the 1960s compared to the 1950s. The cars got lower, so a man would have to take off his hat when driving.
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