Deliberate "Too small size" ballcap fashion

[Torpedo]

Hi,

I just wanted to comment on a fashion, or fad, that is taking root here in Spain. Youngsters wear their ball caps (the sort that you can adjust with a velcroed or buckled strap) deliberately adjusted to at least two sizes smaller than they would need; and then, they precariously perch the cap at some sort of odd angle and orientation on their head.

Not that I want to throw any shrapnel on that, curious as it is; just wanted to know if this is widespread. Here it would seem this is usually seen in Spanish youngsters; maybe as a "tribal" cap custom, deliberately chosen as distinct from, for instance, the "Flat Bill" style young men of South-American extraction favour?

Regards!

 

[Neophyte]

We've got that here, too. It's one of many odd cap-wearing trends going around, especially on my university campus.

 

[Derek WC]

I actually like the too small hat look, at least this one:

Monk Eastman.

Paul Kelly.

The gangsters of the late 1800's and early 1900's wore them this way.

 

[Dewhurst]

Why do people have to try so hard to be "expressive"?!?!

In a species noted for it's deliberate conformity, I don't know why people keep trying.

I guess it's part of that built-in desire to be different. Strangely, people who wish to be different usually go about it in exactly the same way as this other group of people who have decided to be entirely different, and so now they just fit in to a smaller group of conformers, which, I suppose, is a step up from mass conformity. Still, it's like graduating from two training wheels to one and a half. You're still crippled.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I can't say as I've noticed it, but I guess things aren't all that regional any more when you have two posts with the same trend on both sides of the Atlantic! lol

Cheers,
Tom

 

[jeffconnors]

I actually like the too small hat look, at least this one:

Monk Eastman.

Paul Kelly.

The gangsters of the late 1800's and early 1900's wore them this way.

Don't forget fats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in1eK3x1PBI&feature=related

 

[Lefty]

I actually like the too small hat look, at least this one:

It's not just gangsters. That was the way in which hats were worn at the time. I think that ads show the end of the style around 1914, but I don't know when it began.
This isn't the extreme, but the hat is certainly high.
1913

 

[Mav]

Right when I thought ball- cap wearing couldn't get any worse.

 

[donnc]

Not that it's the same thing at all, but I have a 7 1/8 fedora that I like quite a bit. Sweatband etc. weren't salvageable, and the now plain felt crown sits a little high on my 7 1/2 LO head but fits OK. It isn't just a stingy brim, now it's a whole stingy hat!

 

[Tiller]

So... are they imitating people who are too cheap to buy a ball cap that fits them properly.... cause I doubt they are imitating the Edwardian underclass. lol

 

[Pompidou]

Doing something different for the sake of it is how style evolves. Hell, we wouldn't have this forum if some enterprising guy didn't decide to wear women's hats and own the look. Probably wasn't the last time the world owed a debt of gratitude to a cross-dresser. I could see small hats being at the very least, funny, which is good.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

 

[The Good]

Other people can do whatever they want, as far as I'm concerned, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. At least wearing slightly small-sized brimmed hats, such as fedoras or bowlers, seems cool in comparison. I just think it looks better in felt hats...

 

[DanielCoffey]

The teenagers here in Edinburgh do a similar thing on their bicycles - putting the saddle down as far as it will go to look cool or different - I guess this is the same sort of thing as with the caps?

 

[Mario]

Oh my...even though this folly has been around in Berlin for a few years now it never ceases to amaze me...

On the other hand Tom Waits loves to wear his hats pretty high as well. Back in the 80's I always thought that this was because his hats had to ride atop that enourmous, monolithic pile of hair, but even now that there is not so much left of it his hats are still high riders.

 

[scottyrocks]

Well, its better than the common practice around here of wearing them two sizes too big with the bill completely straight. They call them flatcaps and they look like they just came off the shelf - stickers and everything still affixed to both sides of the bill. Looks ridiculous but if it makes the wearer happy, who am I to tell them anything? I wont have anyone on a flatcap forum writing about me in their 'stupid comments' thread.

 

[Torpedo]

Well, its better than the common practice around here of wearing them two sizes too big with the bill completely straight. They call them flatcaps and they look like they just came off the shelf - stickers and everything still affixed to both sides of the bill. Looks ridiculous but if it makes the wearer happy, who am I to tell them anything?

This is seen here too, but seems to be related to youngsters of South-American descent. No, I do not like how it looks, neither.

Looks ridiculous but if it makes the wearer happy, who am I to tell them anything?

Agreed, and this is the reason I mentioned I did not intend to qualify the custom. I do not like the ultrastingy loud hats, nor the fabric ones with all kind of bizzare patterns, but if they are comfortable with them and they respect my own choices too, that's fine with me.

Let's face it, wearing a classic dimensions fedora today may be considered bizarre, too.

I wont have anyone on a flatcap forum writing about me in their 'stupid comments' thread.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[theinterchange]

Don't believe I've seen this "phenomenon", or else have been blind to it.

I personally think ANY hat worn too small looks absolutely ridiculous, but ball caps are much worse. To me, it shows a lack of the common sense of what fits and what doesn't. Sort of like those jokers who run around holding up their pants.

Randy

 

[Derek WC]

Don't forget fats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in1eK3x1PBI&feature=related

While I was reading it, I was thinking Fats Domino. lol

Small ballcap (any ballcap) = bad.
Small derby/bowler = good.

Sort of like those jokers who run around holding up their pants.

In my school, they don't even bother to hold them up. lol :eusa_doh:

 

[Atticus Finch]

Strange. I've recently observed the opposite here in the USA. Many of my young defendants attend court wearing caps that are several sizes too large. Often, their caps actually cover the tops of their ears.

Please see State's exhibit #1, below.

AF