Cost of owning a hat

[job]

Don't be a hater. Some people make us look better by how they dress.

 

[St. Valentine]

All the funny remarks and constant joking about being "Indy" or a "Frenchman" or "Al Capone" of my friends and colleagues gives me the impression that they would like to wear a hat too but don´t have the balls to do so. It must have been the sixties with the longer hair and the idea of a new era coming that lead to the decline of hatwearing. It was an "old men thing" and had to go. No need to wear a hat because we live more indoors? I don´t think so, people still wear ties and they don´t serve a purpose too. I enjoy being different and feel already naked when leaving the house without a hat or cap!

Frank

 

[danofarlington]

I would happily pay more to hat check girls if they wouldn't mishandle the hats by crushing the crown and bending the brim. They all do that.

 

[TipTop]

I would happily pay more to hat check girls if they wouldn't mishandle the hats by crushing the crown and bending the brim. They all do that.

Hats too? I thought they only did that at the market with asparagus.:eusa_doh:

 

[danofarlington]

gives me the impression that they would like to wear a hat too but don´t have the balls to do so. It must have been the sixties with the longer hair and the idea of a new era coming that lead to the decline of hatwearing. It was an "old men thing" and had to go. Frank

Those are points that I would have made. I think a lot of men want to wear hats but are afraid, and await the permission of the crowd before they venture into that territory. Also, I think hats stayed out from the 1960s on because of the hair, and because it was an "old man thing" that had to go. For support of that latter point, I just point to 1960s movies where the main characters and his peers wore hats. That was really unhip at the time. The teenagers of the day, like myself, saw hats at that time as an old man thing, for sure.

 

[Richard Warren]

Maybe there is some mysterious connection between getting old and wearing a hat? You think?

 

[DJH]

Those are points that I would have made. I think a lot of men want to wear hats but are afraid, and await the permission of the crowd before they venture into that territory.

I agree - a lot of guys tell me that they wish hats would become fashionable again so they could wear one. Very few (if any) want to take a chance and wear one as things stand.

 

[EggHead]

I noticed that I get less colds since I started to wear hats. It might be the advent of penicillin and antibiotics that killed the fashion.
Back in those days not wearing proper clothing meant more sickness time and possible death.

 

[scottyrocks]

I would happily pay more to hat check girls if they wouldn't mishandle the hats by crushing the crown and bending the brim. They all do that.

I almost had a fit once when a coat check woman jammed the number tag into my hat's ribbon. I told her to put the hat upside down and the tag into the hat. She didn't look too happy, and I wasn't 100% sure my hat would be returned to me in the same shape in which I gave it to her.

 

[Renault]

I see tons of men wearing hats everyday. But today it is the ballcap that is in fashion. All my co workers would never leave the house without their ballcap on their head. Just look around you in a restaurant or in a store you see a lot of ball cap wearing men. The younger guys spend ton's of money on New Era ballcaps they can cost as much as are custom Fedroas if you get into the limited editon ball caps.

I remember when ol' Charlie Schreiner III was still alive, back in he 80's, if you showed up at work on the YO ranch (Mountain Home Tx.) in a ball cap, you were fired on the spot..... If you worked on the ranch and wore a hat, it had better be some kind of cowboy hat.......

Renault

 

[Chief000731]

I'll also mention hair styles: wearing hair short (as in 50s brushcuts) meant keeping your head warm, at least here in the north. By the mid-60s, longer hair (The Beatles) meant less warmth concern, and actually, a desire to keep your locks free-floating and avoiding the dreaded "helmet hair." Now that short styles are back, closer shaved heads require cover, but the knitted beanie seems to have slipped into popularity, even over ball caps among the younger crowd.

Bottom line, it's the YOUTH market that drives styles. Maybe Justin Timberlake and hipsters with their stingy-brim fedoras will light a fad, but it seems not to have so far. Nobody knows how to deal with doffed fedoras nowadays. Except at my (ancient, city) club, most public coat rooms did away with shelves and large hat hooks, and as we discussed earlier this month, there is no safe way to deal with one on a plane or train, so keeping them on more indoors is about the only option...and not really a good one.

Yeah sit your good fedora down or you daily lid for that matter and you'll be relieved of it faster then you sit it down...
Carl

 

[Lt. Bob]

Hats went out of style with the baby boomers right when the "don't trust anyone over thirty" concept came into view. Hats were a quick indicator that you were "old" so they went out.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

A 'good' ball cap can cost between 20 and $30. Good fedoras are considerably more expensive. A cloth ball cap can be washed by machine or in the sink. A fedora can be brushed, but washed in the sink? Reshaping is more than most men want to deal with. A ball cap can be folded or wadded up and put in your pocket, pulled out, and be fine. Most fedoras can't. And ball caps (as well as knitted caps) fit in with our oh-so-cahj society better than fedoras. Fedoras don't stand a chance in the mainstream.

You know what? That's just fine with me (that they will never be mainstream again) because I'm very non-mainstream. I'm very counter cultural in many ways, so it's just dandy with me if the mainstreamers scoff at my hat wearing; it's merely an expression of my unconventional nature. I suspect there are many on this board who feel the same way.

I definitely agree that ballcaps fit the overly casual society in which we live; I've decided I'm sick of being overly casual all the time, so I dress in more classical clothes and wear more classical hats now than I used to.

Also, I like to think I'm not terribly old yet at 29, but I guess the big three oh is looming.

 

[Hal]

Hats went out of style with the baby boomers right when the "don't trust anyone over thirty" concept came into view. Hats were a quick indicator that you were "old" so they went out.

They started going out a long time before then. "Don't trust anyone over thirty" was the saying of 1967. In the UK, hats started to go out in the middle 1930s.

Also, I like to think I'm not terribly old yet at 29, but I guess the big three oh is looming.

Please celebrate, not lament, when you reach it!

 

[1961MJS]

...Please celebrate, not lament, when you reach it!

Hi

To quote my Grandma, who died at roughly 93, "Any day you're looking down at the grass is a good day..." Her son made 92 and a half...

Later

 

[John in Covina]

knitted beanie seems to have slipped into popularity, even over ball caps among the younger crowd.

Out this way the knitted beanie and other knit caps seem to be more of a political statement for many of the 'youts' these days.

 

[zetwal]

Out this way the knitted beanie and other knit caps seem to be more of a political statement for many of the 'youts' these days.

"Psycho Bunny" ... That is funny.

 

[EggHead]

I wanted to add "Savings of owning a hat". I don't buy umbrellas, spend less time being sick, use my feet and public transportation instead of driving a car, usually, so save on gas.

 

[danofarlington]

You know what? That's just fine with me (that they will never be mainstream again) because I'm very non-mainstream. I'm very counter cultural in many ways, so it's just dandy with me if the mainstreamers scoff at my hat wearing; it's merely an expression of my unconventional nature. I suspect there are many on this board who feel the same way.

That is my philosophy also. I get a charge out of being the only one around here (that I see) who wears hats. There's an energy in that. If everybody had 'em, I wouldn't wear 'em.

 

[scottyrocks]

^^ I agree with this, but I don't know if I'd give them up if 'everyone' wore them.