Hat comeback

[Feraud]

You don't skip a beat when it comes to knocking the NYT do you?

 

[danofarlington]

If enough people say there is one, eventually it will have to be true.

On a related line, if I were a hat manufacturer, I would take encouragement that at least one place in the world, TFL, features heated discussions about--hats. Where else would people argue about hats? But I bet there were not hat arguments ten years ago. In the abstract, that points to enough interest being there--even if in a very small group of enthusiasts--for hat builders to follow up the market.

 

[Lefty]

Come baaaaack!

 

[DanielJones]

lollollol
Good one Lefty!

Cheers!

Dan

 

[johnnycanuck]

With skin cancer on the rise I think within a generation or so a hat will be apart of everyone’s wardrobe. What kind of hat they will be wearing , I don't know But I think they will be protecting themselves somehow.
Johnny

 

[Pompidou]

With skin cancer on the rise I think within a generation or so a hat will be apart of everyone’s wardrobe. What kind of hat they will be wearing , I don't know But I think they will be protecting themselves somehow.
Johnny

That's the best case scenario, for sure. The other solution is the Hollywood sci-fi vision of pasty white (bald?) people in enclosed cities that never see real sun. Hats look pretty appealing in comparison.

 

[JimWagner]

I think there is some demand out there among the over 40 crowd especially. Some of it certainly has to do with protection but not all of it. I get asked quite often by complete strangers where I bought whatever hat I'm wearing that day. Quite often they seem disappointed when I tell the from the internet. I get the feeling that they'd hurry to a hat or department store if there were actually decent hats there. This especially true of Panamas in the summer. But my fedoras get their share of comments too.

 

[DJH]

Sounds like I climbed onto this bandwagon just in time.

 

[Bernie Zack]

Sounds like I climbed onto this bandwagon just in time.

Ditto that, David!

 

[cookie]

You don't skip a beat when it comes to knocking the NYT do you?

Don't worry that is what is called a patriotic act.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Don't worry that is what is called a patriotic act.

Yes, but it's so easy, it makes you look like the class bully holding up the wimpy kid for his milk money.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

Well, they DO call The New York Times "the Gray Lady." After all, she's anemic and about to die!

 

[Widebrim]

Well, they DO call The New York Times "the Gray Lady." After all, she's anemic and about to die!

I wonder where that places the L.A. Times?

 

[danofarlington]

best hat selection in the history of the world

It is an excellent time for new hat buyers to get into the market now, because now is the time of the best hat selection ever in history. Why? First, because of E Bay, the average person has access to an excellent cross-section of hats of the past. That had never been true before. Because they are commanding good prices, the supply is being called out of the attics, closets and thrift stores, and offered for sale at auction. Even those hats which are bought often re-circulate back. Second, there is also the phenomenon of Internet retailers. There are many, and their selection is astounding. Third, at least here in the U.S., you have the intrepid custom hatters who can push the boundaries of style. The likes of all this together has never been seen before, and it's happening right now before your eyes. So new hat buyers, you have the past, present and future of fedora hats at your command, and it's a good time to start buying right now.

 

[Lefty]

 

[Scotus]

If you look about you, especially if you, like myself, live in redneck country, you'll notice that hats haven't gone out of style. Everyone seems to be wearing them and they're called baseball caps; what I would have called a 'farmers hat' or 'feed hat' as a kid, as baseball caps were generally for baseball. So hats haven't gone out of style, its just that the styles associated with the past are few and far between.

More formal hats are stuck in time because they aren't popular; therefore, new styles aren't emerging right now. Also, it's no longer a social convention to wear hats (other than ecclesiastical ones). Will hats again worn by most someday? I believe so. Will they be the styles of the past? That remains to be seen. Formal hats are still in the same style they've been in the last hundred years and seems that that's where they'll stay... for now.

 

[Gumbo Book]

It is an excellent time for new hat buyers to get into the market now, because now is the time of the best hat selection ever in history. Why? First, because of E Bay, the average person has access to an excellent cross-section of hats of the past. That had never been true before. Because they are commanding good prices, the supply is being called out of the attics, closets and thrift stores, and offered for sale at auction. Even those hats which are bought often re-circulate back. Second, there is also the phenomenon of Internet retailers. There are many, and their selection is astounding. Third, at least here in the U.S., you have the intrepid custom hatters who can push the boundaries of style. The likes of all this together has never been seen before, and it's happening right now before your eyes. So new hat buyers, you have the past, present and future of fedora hats at your command, and it's a good time to start buying right now.

Nuff Said.

 

[DRB]

Dano and Scotus : Thank you for posting your excellent perspectives. I have enjoyed reading them.

 

[Ralphin Ormond]

People used to dress up for work. I do not live in a city now but I suppose people in the various financial districts still do dress up. That group being so passionately conformist in their dress, whether or not fedoras are presently part of the uniform is, I think, almost arbitrary. If, for whatever strange reason, they all decide at once to do so, it will happen. Either way, there are a vast number of entire industries where the men once wore jackets and ties every day to work and now do not. My point is, I believe people in great numbers do like the looks of fedoras, and admire them when they see them on other people, but do not see themselves wearing them. Perhaps because their self-image is of a very casual person. We are a nation of Jimmie Carters and Archie Bunkers. Though I have never before given fedoras any thought, I have been wearing one (and only one, gulp) for the last fifteen years. I am maybe too sensitive to how people respond to me and I never once in all that time felt that anyone responded anything but positively to my appearance in a fedora. Now that I'm getting into some nice new hats, I feel like I look pretty good as I make my daily rounds. I certainly do not feel like I'm looking fifty years behind the times. As far as I am concerned, mass popularity is the very last thing I want to happen to the very excellent, the noble, the distinguished fedora.

 

[Tango Yankee]

I wonder where that places the L.A. Times?

You mean "The Whale"? (As the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner used to call their competitor.)

I used to prefer the Herald as you didn't have to do so much digging to actually find news among the advertisements. Of course, I suppose that those advertisements were what kept the Times going long after the Herald died.

Cheers,
Tom