Author tracks down the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìDemise of The Fedora?¢‚Ǩ?!

[Renderking Fisk]

Author tracks down the “Demise of The Fedora�!

Author tracks down the “Demise of The Fedora�!
NPR "Hatless Jack' Tracks the Demise of the Fedora" by Scott Simon. "Neil Steinberg's book tracks a declining interest in men's formal headgear, a trend helped along by John F. Kennedy. “Weekend Edition - Saturday, January 15, 2005 · American men do not wear hats the way they used to, when headgear was considered as necessary as shoes. Hatless has become proper on formal and social occasions. But when did the trend begin?�

I'm late with the Daily Update to TFC because I found this and tried to listen to it but my Real player is out of date. Let me know what you guys think.

Ren

 

[Victor]

Interesting! Good interview. He spoke alot about the symbolism of a hat, the gestures and rituals involved. i miss that, these days its just a head covering but at one time there was so much more to it.

 

[jamespowers]

I agree. Very interesting.
There was that awkward moment about hat check girls in there.
I don't know about hats not being back though. I may not go to Marshall Fields to get my son a hat but I could well take him to a hatter and have one made for him just as easily. More than likely that way too---considering the junk your hat manufacturers make today.
Then again, considering my head size, it is likely that even as a small kid, he should have a large enough head to find a vintage one in 6 7/8.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Slicksuit]

I enjoyed the interview as well. It just goes to show that maybe our work here is important. We're losing an important cultural icon. Our work helps to keep the tradition of hats alive.

I came across an interesting article the other day,The Perpetual Adolescent, its point being that the demise of hats and other traditions is largely due to modern society's valuation of youthfulness over adulthood. Here's the link.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/825grtdi.asp

I think all of us should read it - it is very provocative.

 

[Retro Grouch]

Very interesting. Where have I seen it before?

Oh yeah! Here it is.

Hatless Jack


Tom

 

[The Wingnut]

A friend made a very valid point not long ago while riding in his immaculately restored '64 Impala(and no, he's not hispanic)...rooflines in cars came WAY down in the early-mid '60s...compare the roofline of cars in 1965 to cars in 1960, and you'll see a huge difference. The Detroit slogan of 'Longer, lower, wider!' held true and can be partly to blame for the demise of the gentleman's headgear...who wants to doff their chapeau every time they get into a car?

The same friend's Impala shares garage space with a '64 Ferrari GTE and a freshly restored '37 Buick 8. Johnny knows what car to drive when he's dressed properly...only the Buick will allow him to wear a hat without consequence.

 

[Victor]

I noticed that, Wingnut. I can wear my hat in my own Jeep but i drive a Honda for work and have to take it off to fit in the little thing. I always thought it was just that Japanese are smaller than us large Americans

 

[DBLIII]

I ordered the book from amazon.com yesterday. Should be interesting to read. Regarding vehicles -- when Pontiac brought out the Fiero (I hope I'm remembering this name correctly, two door, engine in the rear, plastic body panels), I passed on one because there was no place to put my hat. The salesman thought I had dropped off another planet.

 

[DBLIII]

Old Hat: your post wasn't "long," it was outstanding. I will spend the day thinking about some of your reasoning. Thanks very much.
David

 

[jamespowers]

Old Hat, I think you might really have something there.
There was a difference between my Stetson Whippet wearing grandfather and my father who never wore a hat unless it was for rain or utilitarian reasons. My father fought in Korea but my grandfather was too old at the time WWII came around. There was a difference int heir approach to hats though.
Mybe the generation I am a part of did the same thing as me. They looked at the old hat grandpa used to wear and wanted one like it. It is not that we want to be an anachronism but that it was something that reminded us of him. In my case, his hat was much too small so I had to find another one like it. I never have found one in that midnight blue color but I did find whippets in green, gray, dove gray, brown and even a sort of mauve. Those just lead to other brands and an affinity for hats.
I hope more people had that kind of experience anyway.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Slicksuit]

Old Hat - I think that your explanation regarding the demise and resurgence of hats is plausable. Personally, I think that something is lost when we, as men, no longer have that rite of passage of receiving a hat. To borrow from the NPR interview, a hat had symbolic meaning, in addition to the utilitarian one. It signified arrival to the adult phase of one's life.

That being said, I would like to extend my appreciation to the members of this board, who have been, and will continue to be, helpful in imparting the knowledge of this tradition. Considering the above comment, you are all fulfilling the function that my generation did not (alas!) receive from their elders.

Vive les chapeaus! (long live hats!)

 

[Tomcat]

I read the book before Christmas, when I was just getting really interested in the subject. It's a fun and interesting read, but there are no earth-shattering revelations or even theories inside, despite some of the jacket hype.

There are undoubtedly a lot of reasons for the decline of hatwearing, and it's been pretty well gone over. As I've said elsewhere, men have been wearing hats for at least ten thousand years, and I regard the last fifty years or so as the oddity. I'm confident hat wearing will be the norm again, it's just a question of when.

Because I've been noticing the pronounced increase of hats being worn in my own area very recently, I've become more interested in the question of "why now?", even if it's just a passing trend, this time.

I think the author might have missed a couple of things. My own father said that he didn't like hats because he was forced to wear one in the Navy, and the author covers that argument, but I wonder if that was really the whole story at the time.

My father talked about his own generation, that he said was called "the silent generation". These were the sons and sometimes younger brothers of what Tom Brokow has dubbed "the greatest generation", the men who fought World War Two. What we tend to lose sight of, is that that is the way they were regarded then, and how very dominant they were in their own time. Men returning from wars have not been treated that way in the US since.

My father talked about having to compete in every realm with the guys returning from the war- in college, with the veterans funded by the GI Bill, and in the workplace having to compete for jobs with returning heroes. He talked about how intimidating it could be to work with guys who had faced down death, who felt that they could accomplish anything, and to whom the struggles of civilian life, that the "silent generation" was just learning to cope with, seemed "easy" by comparison.

Even the war that the "silent generation" fought (Korea) was completely overshadowed, and when they returned, having done their part and their duty like their fathers and older brothers, they did not return to the homecoming they might have expected- that they might have had a right to expect.

I'm wondering if going hatless became a sort of tacit way for a lot of that generation to try to differentiate themselves from "the greatest generation", to try to move out of their shadow a bit. Yes, implicit in stating that they were a different generation, they were also stating that they were younger. After all, hat's didn't disappear when the returning WWII veterans entered the workplace, despite thier complaints at being forced to wear them- they didn't disappear until at least a decade later, when a different generation was beginning to make it's influence known, however quietly.

The shadow of the guys who fought World War Two was huge, and I wonder if we're still seeing the effects.

It's now a new millenium, and we are the generations that came after "the silent generation", and were by and large brought up in a hatless world. Why would hats be returning now? Most of the obvious obstacles have not gone away. Hatracks and hatchecks are gone, car roofs are still too low, and the commonly-available hats are of very poor quality.

I think it may be simply because now, in the new millenium and beyond, that huge shadow has passed, and we're just coming out of it. We no longer encounter "the greatest generation" in the course of our normal lives, and for the first time we can wear one of their emblems as perhaps a tribute to that generation, instead of fearing a face-to-face encounter with a "rightful owner". No one, anymore, is going to think that we're claiming to be something we're not by wearing it. Just at this point in history, that past has become just remote enough, for the first time, for the statement we're making by wearing a such a hat to be different.

A classic fedora is still and probably always will be associated with what we're calling "the golden age", but now our wearing it can be partly to honor that age and those men, whereas when those men actually shared our streets with us, it was, and maybe had to be, theirs alone.

Sorry for the long post.

Old Hat, this is a very well thought out post and very thought provoking. A few years ago I read a book by William Strauss and Neil Howe called "Generations" that discussed the differences in American generations, including the "Silent" and what they called the "G.I. Generation", the ones who fought World War II. I think that your theory is as plausable as any I have heard. You really deserve a "tip of the hat".

I also agree with you as to why you are seeing more hats, but I think there is one thing that we might be overlooking here, the rise of the Internet. Nice hats are becoming accessable again for more people.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

It is not that we want to be an anachronism but that it was something that reminded us of him.

Acutually, in some circles I call us "anachronism-Americans". I think there are a handful of us who wish the values and the pop-culture of that "Golden Era" would return.

I remember a man by the name of Audebt who used to wear a high crown fedora. One of the nicest guys I've ever known. Would entertain us all with these wild stories of his youth.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Interesting things you have to say, Old_Hat, you are not rambling at all. We have posted on earlier threads why we thought hats largely disappeared and it sounds true what you are saying about the "silent generation." This is something new to ponder.

I belong to the (very) noisy generation, the baby boomers.

When we were growing up, we had daddies who still wore hats when they dressed up. When we were older, we rebelled against them. There was a counter-culture in the 60's into the 70's, lots of guys grew their hair long and began to have fancy hairstyles. People who have expensive hairstyles, be they men or women, are hesitant to wear hats.

I recall that, in the 60's, my friends and I considered the wearing of men's hats as dorky and, yes, we associated them with our fathers' generation. Or, we wore our fathers' hats when we played cops & robbers or dressed up at Halloween.

When our generation began to wear hats again, it was partially because we had stopped rebelling, and partially it had to do with the ozone layer warnings about being bareheaded out in the sun. Most of us chose, at that point, to wear Aussie and Tilley hats and, in certain parts of the country, cowboy hats.

If the fedora returns, I believe it will have something to do with accessability to the internet. People always want something new and exciting to wear and something they see their cultural icons wearing. So, they may come back, or some other hat we cannot even imagine at this time. It will be interesting.

karol

 

[jamespowers]

Looking back, what a loss it was, that so much the knowledge won from thousands of years of experience in wearing hats vanished in a generation or two. I'm sure my grandfathers could have taught me a lot about shaping a crown and brim.

Oh man, you are killing me. :cry:
I am sure my grandfathers would have had no problem teaching me either. They would both be over 100 now though. I remember my mother's father always going out with what we call a milan today. He loved that straw hat.
My grandmother always used to tell him to use some of his other----better hats. It was funny now that I remember it. That was his signature hat though. I don't remember what even happened to it after all this time now.
I know I have my other grandfather's old whippet but it is not of any use to his grandson whose head is a lot bigger. So it sits on the hat rack like it is still waiting for him after all these years.

Regards to all,

J

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Old_Hat -- Yes, I think you are correct in saying it started earlier, most men I knew stopped wearing hats in the late 50's & early 60's when we were kids. I do think our generation shoveled some of the dirt on the the grave, however. I cannot recall my brother, who is in his mid-50's, ever wearing a hat. Not even a ballcap, except when he played or coached baseball. I am sure he must wear something when he golfs, I hope so. I will have to ask him.

All it takes is for a generation to stop doing something and it is lost. My mother stated a few years ago that she felt hers was the last generation that knew how to can food. My father would have a garden and, at the end of summer, mother would can cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans. In the dead of winter, we would open a can and have wonderful Iowa vegetables and great pickles. My generation mostly did not do any canning, and now my nieces don't even know how.

I see lots of young guys shaving their heads and running around totally bald in the hot sun. (The only time in their lives they will have a full head of hair and they shave it off. Go figure)

I think the stats on the ozone layer and skin cancer may change that, but lots of young guys refuse to wear hats and/or think they are protected by ballcaps. Young children wear hats to the beach, so there may be the next generation of folks who are familiar and comfortable with hats. I hope so.

karol