Edward
Bartender
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- 25,116
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- London, UK
As a retired US Marine (notice I didn't say former or ex) I have always laughed at the US services (USAF and Army) and their berets. They look stupid unless you are dropping your weapon and running.
I rather enjoy that most military the world over are - so often against their own preferences - obliged to wear a beret. It rather feels to me like the French getting one over on all those tedious bores who think it's funny to perpetuate such inaccurate French military stereotypes.
So you ladies think a man wearing a Trilby aka Snap-Brim style hat looks silly?
And a person has to be French to wear a Beret?
Interesting, but I do hope your point of view does not represent the majority of American women.
I can imagine that women in Europe think differently of these styles, since they are and were more popular here.
The world 'trilby' gets used t mean many different things. I suspect you may be thinking of this:
or perhaps this:
Traditionally, many in the UK would identify those a Trilbies (while folks in the US might call them stingy brim fedoras). Others in the UK insist a Trilby is a narrow-brimmed, soft-crowned had made of wool, usually tweed, thus:
I suspect, however, when the ladies object to 'trilbies' they may be referencing the sort of modern hat that is a similar shape, but churned out cheaply and nastily as disposable fashion, thus:
Which is much like comparing one of Connery-Bond's nicely cut DJs to the sort of modern "Tuxedo jacket" which has notch lapels, two buttons and pocket flaps.
Meanwhile, consider the humble baseball cap, that most American of all headgear. It's very easy to look dopey in a baseball cap because baseball caps as they're made today have a built-in dopiness factor. Their crowns are too high and too stiff in the front, and their visors are too long, causing the wearer to either wear them high up on their heads so there's a lot of empty crown puffing up over the top or to pull them down too low so their eyes vanish into the shadow of the visor, making them look like they have shallow, shrunken craniums. I don't know why modern caps are made this way, but they are.
But they weren't always. A 1930s baseball cap has a shallow, soft crown and a medium-length visor, and were often worn with a sideways tilt that could be quite rakish on the right type of fellow.
Cap tilted just slightly back on the head and worn with just a slight tip to the side. Lookin' sharp there, Cookie. "Always good in the clutch."
Whereas with a blockier, stiffer cap worn pulled down low, well --
Of course, it isn't always just the hat that makes a difference.
Totally agree. I stopped wearing modern baseball caps when I was in my middle teens because I hated how they looked on me (mainly in combination with my glasses); I'm not sure I could have told you at the time the proportions were the issue, though I know I always felt they would be greatly improved if the length of the bill was cut in half. Not worn or owned one since 1992; I think I could come around to it now if I was to buy an original 30s-shape (and properly sized -I also never liked the 'one-size-fits-some' or adjustable-sizing thing, nor did I care for the d-shape cut-out on the latter's rear).
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