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Bowler from the bottom of the sea

Pat_H

A-List Customer
Messages
443
Location
Wyoming
caps v. hats

I thought this comment was very interesting:

"Only the lower types wore caps, and to go out without a hat meant being seen as either "low,” wretchedly poor, just plain eccentric, or even faintly obscene."

Is that generally correct? I've never thought of that before, but early in the 20th Century, caps did seem to have a much lower standard. It's odd to think of it, as if I wear a Newboy with a tweed jacket today, I'm dressed up. Earlier, however, quite the opposite would have been true.
 

Pat_H

A-List Customer
Messages
443
Location
Wyoming
deanglen said:
I guess I'm a "lower" type by that definition because I'm leaning more and more toward my eight panel caps these days.

dean


Being where I am, I do wear a broad brimmed hat, a cowboy hat, a lot when I'm out in the hills, and occasionally in town. And I wear an Open Road sometimes in town, or even a Fedora, depending on the weather. None the less, my Newsboy gets worn a lot more in town than any other hat I have.

Not sure why. Maybe just because it provokes fewer comments.

Funny though, I think the comment in the link might be right about that time period, but at some point it seems to me caps rose in status. So not only do we have a general demise in hats, but a rise in the status of caps.
 

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