Getting the nerve...

[LadyPowers]

We women can and do wear almost anything and no one says much. You guys really do have to be brave.

I have been wearing fedoras for the past several months. I receive more compliments when I wear men's fedoras than any lady's hat. I had one incident were this woman told me to take off my hat and put it on the hat rack. (Earlier, she saw JP take off his fedora and place it on the hat rack.) I told her that I didn’t have to because I am female.

Every so often, I get the Indiana Jones comment. Must be because of the brown fedora and brown leather jacket combination that I’m wearing again. I haven’t heard any Laura Croft comments lately.

Regards,
Lady Powers

 

[Canadave]

Great story DBLIII! Where do you work/live?

LadyPowers...this is the first post I've seen of yours. Nice to meet you. I hope you're not as sullen and grim as JP!

Welcome, both, to the group!

David

 

[DBLIII]

Canadave -- I live and work in the middle of Missouri. We'll see how well I'm filling in my profile as to whether that shows up when I submit this reply!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

DBLIII -- That is a great, heartwarming story and it gives me hope I won't be a total reject when I go back to Iowa later this year to be with my mother. She told me "no one wears those around here," and I told her that would soon change. Still having lived in Iowa when I was young, I did not look forward to being stared at like I was from the Planet Claire when I went back.

Lady Powers -- Yes, I get lots of fedora complements and a couple women at work just bought the stingy brim (Britney Spears) style. If people want to make Laura Croft comparisons to me, that's all right (I wish).

karo

PS -- we look better in tuxedos than many men do, too.

kdl

 

[Wild Root]

PS -- we look better in tuxedos than many men do, too.

Um... a man in a poor fitting tux will look bad. A man in a well fitted tux will look really nice. I feel that when women start wearing tuxes and vintage men's clothes, then the public eye will say when a man wears such things his sexuality will be questioned.

So, I'm just old-fashioned that way and I will always have that mindset.

Root.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Oh, of course, Wildroot, there was Fred Astaire, who looked better in a tux and top hat than anyone, ever, who danced better than anyone, ever, and who was more sophisticated than anyone. With that, I will agree. That is why I said "many men," not most or all men.

Gary Cooper looked divine in a tux or uniform, so much so that I understand why (in Morocco) Dietrich would throw off her wealth and heels and follow him off into the desert.

But, I am also thinking of Dietrich and Catherine Deneuve, and some of the actresses and female performers who looked so elegant in tuxedos. They looked better than most men, but certainly not Astaire. Or Cooper.

I think it has been, that when women wear tuxedos, their sexuality has been questioned. As some of us have been for wearing fedoras.

Let them question. It's good for their kharmic growth....

karol

 

[Wild Root]

Well, I thought you may have been thinking of Marlene Dietrich in her custom tux. Her tux was a white one I believe and it was quite feminine in design. So were some of the others I have seen her in.

Eleanor Powell was also one who sported a sequined black tux in the film Broadway Melody of 1936. The lapels on that tux went beyond the shoulders of her coat! Very art deco and feminine.

Well, a woman may be able to wear a tux, but in my opinion the ideal female formal wear would be a long evening gown from the 30's. Such as Miss Harlow has on in this photo. That looks better then a woman in a man's tux any day.

Root.

 

[ITG]

Nah, it doesn't bother me which side of the hat the ribbon is on.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

OldHat -- Are you saying that a woman's hat would have the bow on the opposite side just as buttons on womens' shirts do? I wasn't aware of that.
I found out that the reason the buttons are on the opposite side from men's is that it was assumed a man would dress himself but that a lady would have a servant dressing her, thus the button reversal.

Wildroot -- Check out the film Morroco. Dietrich wore a black tux and top hat in that one and freaked out the guys when she performed onstage for them, until they caught on to her gender-bending little game.

I know she wore a white tux in some film, and wore a white Naval Officer's suit and hat in one of the films she was in with John Wayne. The name is escaping me right now, I will have to look it up (oh, the ravages of old age). She sang that song "The Boy's in the Navy" in it and I believe she was reprising her character Shanghai Lilly. Dietrich also wore a partial tux, just a top, with hose, heels and a tight bathing suit short below (what are those things called?!). I think she wore that in some of her concerts.

My guess is all those tuxedos that famous women wear are stylized to fit their form. As are those wonderful slinky long gowns they wear. A man's tux, unfitted, would probably be too boxy on most women. I think Deneuve's tuxedo was velvety. She wore it for some ad, I believe.

When I was younger and slimmer, I always wanted to wear a long black sequined gown and sit on a piano top with a martini and cigarette (in a holder) and sing bluesy songs. I am wayyy to old for that now and, luckily, was always allergic to cigarettes.

karol

 

[Wild Root]

Say, I do remember seeing that black tux she wore. It was cut better then a man's tux but had most of the same details as one worn by Fred or any of the other Hollywood names.

She did alot of crazy stuff back then when it came to outfits.

I have a cuttaway coat that's dated 1933 and it gives me shape!!! Boy, when I put that thing on it gives me that hour glass shape. Most tuxes back then were designed to shape up a man's figure. Most of my suits from the period are the same way. Suits and tuxes today have very little form and they are very baggy and yucky.

I guess that's why some women today wear men's vintage because it does have a shape to it.

All the best KD!

Root.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Wildroot -- I think it was mostly her director at the time, Erich Von Stroheim. He had a thing, evidently, for women in drag and so, in every movie in which he directed her (there were seven in all, I believe), he put her in men's dress clothes at least once in the course of the movie. But she was one of the pioneers in Hollywood to wear trousers. She also dressed to the nines in fashionable women's clothes also.

The John Wayne film I am thinking of is Seven Sinners. I believe that is the one in which she did White Naval Officer drag. I thought she played beautifully off John Wayne, who was always such a powerful screen presence that he had to have a strong woman to play to or he would swallow her up onscreen. Same with Dietrich, so the two played off each other very well. I think there were two films they were in together.

Yes, those classic tuxedos did have the slim waist, which is probably why Fred looked so classy in them. Modern tuxedos, like modern hats, blah.

Wish I still had the capacity to download, I could show all of you some photos of some of those early films. I find stuff all over the net, but am unable to put it here unless I just copy the website. Guess I could do that!

best, karol

 

[Wild Root]

People getting in your face about your choice of hat? Do tell!

Tell us or you can vent on me via PM.

I'll share some of my storys about the dumb clucks I run into.

Root.

 

[db5zx]

Now that I have read all your experiences, I want to share mine:

I just started wearing a hat about a month ago. So I still am a newbie to that and still am in my early phase. However, I never had any problems with wearing the hat in public. From the first moment, it just came naturally and I didn't think for a second about what other people think. And, so far, I have gotten nothing but nice responses. Everybody who approached me and talked to me about the hat was very nice about it. And from the first day, I wore it to the office. I take it off once I get to my desk, but before that I walk through the entire office wearing the hat. And no problems at all. But the cutest thing happened when I wore my hat and came across a kid, 4 or 5 years old. When he saw me, he turned to his mom and said "Look, mom, a hunter!" That shows me two things:

1) A hat has become so rare that it sticks out even to a 4-year-old and such a special thing that he has to tell his mom about it at once...
2) In 4 years of life, this kid has only seen one other person wearing a hat, and that happened to be a hunter. So he naturally assumed that I was a hunter.

And one other thing:

I live in Berlin, Germany, a city of 4.2 million people and tens of thousands of tourists. Yet, over the entire weekend, I saw maybe 15 men wearing fedoras, and all of them were well over 50 (I am 26). Lots of women with hats, though. Even young women. For some reason, they didn't lose the hats as thoroughly as the men did.

Jens