Hat comeback

[Chinaski]

I think the answer to this question really depends on your definition of "comeback." We all know that fedoras, and anything other than ball caps are, in general, fairly uncommon. You've got a high-profile Timberlake in stingy brims, Depp in beat up fedoras, and Pitt in ivy caps, which could fuel enough interest to make fedoras and the like less uncommon. But still uncommon. What constitutes a comeback?

 

[Jerekson]

Hats have made a major comeback. I see them almost every day.

Of course, I don't find it a particularly victorious accomplishment. It's just a bunch of super-tapered 1 in. brimmed trilbies made out of freaky materials, like denim or courdorouy. Makes me sick.

 

[jazzncocktails]

In my case, the comeback was doctor-ordered.
"Keep the sun off your head at all times, period," was the instruction.
So, after 25 years of not wearing a hat, I returned to the habit. And am finding it expensive.

I'm with you, Neil--I got the same orders from mine after he removed a "pre-cancerous" bit of skin from my temple. That was enough to scare me into fedora fashion, which I quite appreciate now.

 

[Tiller]

Hats have made a major comeback. I see them almost every day.

Of course, I don't find it a particularly victorious accomplishment. It's just a bunch of super-tapered 1 in. brimmed trilbies made out of freaky materials, like denim or courdorouy. Makes me sick.

I'll take what I can get. I think people look better in cheap fedoras/trilbies compared to ballcaps. Change is slow. If hat's stay popular, styles will change. The question is simply will hats stay popular? Who knows [huh].

 

[Trimen1000]

I've seen an amazing increase of people wearing hats on my campus. The rate of hat wearing on campus is like 100 fold what is every where else in the city. I see some people in moderately nice hats, no Stetsons or anything though (maybe one, you can see the thread I made about that). A lot of really trashy hats is what there mostly is though. I would say that's a pretty solid comeback of hats in general. As far as good quality hats, like others, I don't think they're all that popular or that they ever will be.

As for me, I'm wearing the hats greatly for sun protection. I don't like to dress in a sloppy way, so I went with good quality hats. I don't actually like the vintage clothes much at all so you won't see me in that, but I'm bent on making the hats work well with more modern clothes. The reason I say this is that an earlier post mentioned that a return of the hat would have to come with three piece suits, etc. which I don't particularly agree with. I think that it can work with a more modern wardrobe. I don't think it will actually happen that the modern wardrobe regularly contains a nice hat, but it's possible.

I'm personally perfectly fine with the hat not being so mainstream. I do think that society would benefit from hats being more normal though. It would be nice to see the decrease in the prices of hats as well.

 

[donCarlos]

Comeback of a quality hat is probably as far as we can imagine. People are not prepared to pay that kind of money. They can go to Marks & Spencer and buy some generic hat (sometimes quite nice) at about 40 bucks. They don´t know that it´s a wool felt and that if it gets wet, they can throw it away (because since they don´t recognize wool felt and fur felt, I doubt they can do some basic maintenance).

Hats in general are definitely coming back, surprisingly especially in summer (at least here) - all mainstream shops offer at least one straw hat for men. As for other hats, I really loathe the pinstriped cloth hats, but whatever... It´s cool and in... And better than nothing.

 

[Zarniwoop]

I've certainly seen a stack of cheap trilbies around Sydney over the last year or so.
Interestingly the trench coat is back this season in a big way along with 3-piece suits and thin ties so you never know "real" hats may follow!

Certainly over summer there seemed to be more trilbies and fedoras in my part of the Sydney CBD. Now its getting a little chilly I seem to see many around although I have spotted a couple of Panama's.
If you see a guy around Wynyard wearing a Akubra Hampton and a trench coat you'll know its me.

 

[Mid-fogey]

While...

...I'm skeptical of a large scale dress hat resurgence, I do detect a weariness with the cargo shorts/t-shirt/jeans wardrobe. Don't get me wrong, I don't think those things are not going to disappear any time soon. They have become as much an ingrained pattern among some as the Sunday suit was to my Grandfather.

I do see a desire for something different. This may be a bottom up "from the streets" movement vice a fashion industry trend. Because the technology and lifestyle is so different from the golden era, I don't expect a replication of that look.

I do expect a change.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Well there are some designs that have come back pretty strong...

Such as the "Beanie' from WWII, the knit wool cap with the visor. http://www.atthefront.com/us_head_jeepcap_main.jpg
It seems that my generation has found a new found appreciation for those types of hats, altho its more for the skater types from my observations. But still somewhat of a comeback. http://content.dogfunk.com/images/items/large/VON/VON0117/BK.jpg

Altho its not a fedora...which is sad. My generation really has lost its touch with class and style.

 

[CRH]

...I'm skeptical of a large scale dress hat resurgence, I do detect a weariness with the cargo shorts/t-shirt/jeans wardrobe. Don't get me wrong, I don't think those things are not going to disappear any time soon. ...

I'll bet my Rattlesnake Skin IWB holster couldn't keep my Fedora from disappearing into a crowd :eusa_doh:.

 

[Zarniwoop]

We will know that hats are really truly back in fashion once we start to see hat and coat racks in buses, trains and cafe's. I am never sure where to put my hat when its off my head.

 

[Brad Bowers]

At the opening for Star Trek last night, a young man about 15 years old wore a plaid stingy brim, and another man in his twenties wore a Derby - a modern one, but a Derby nonetheless. He wore it with jeans and a polo shirt, and I have to say that it worked for him. Maybe I was just glad to see others wearing hats, especially a Derby!

Brad

 

[Forgotten Man]

Working at the Griffith Observatory I see many people move through that place... I see a lot of hats... lots of different kinds! I have seen mostly trilby styles, and some of the guides that work there wear them too. One of the guides wears a derby some times... there are some guys up there that like to dress up smart.

There are more hats being worn as of late, I see lots of straw fedoras around town... it's very refreshing to see! I think that Public Enemies when it is released will have another positive effect too.

Let's hope so!

 

[John in Covina]

Fedoras and it's time.

Within my lifetime there have been some big shifts in attitudes as to how one dresses to be in public. Within the smaller shifts of style and fashion such things as to bellbottoms versus straightleg pants have shifted thru. The recent attempt to bring back bellbottoms seemed like an attempt to bring back the hippy era but it simply failed not to regain the strength of that bygone era.

Fedoras are linked time wise to the 1920's thru the fifties and part of the sixties. The attitudes and pressures as to dressing for being in public, business and life is very different today, so the likelyhood that the fedora will return is quite small because it does not fit the times. The youth have seen fit to grab at some stingy brims because it is an accessory that has been portrayed on MTV and has made inroads to public display but it is a big leap to furfelt fedoras that seems very unlikely to happen.

Still, who would have thought that ther would be a cigar boom in the 80's & 90's.

So hats-I do think the segment of men that are drawn to fedoras and are wearers will grow but the idea that it becomes the strong fashion accessory need is possible but not probable, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

 

[Rick Blaine]

Within my lifetime there have been some big shifts in attitudes as to how one dresses to be in public. Within the smaller shifts of style and fashion such things as to bellbottoms ans straightleg pants have shifted thru. The recent attempt to bring back bellbottoms seemed like an attempt to bring back the hippy era but it simply failed not to regain the strength of that bygone era.

Fedoras are linked time wise to the 1920's thru the fifties and part of the sixties. The attitudes and pressures as to dressing for being in public, business and life is very different today, so the likelyhood that the fedora will return is quite small because it does not fit the times. The youth have seen fit to grab at some stingy brims because it is an accessory that has been portrayed on MTV and has made inroads to public display but it is a big leap to furfelt fedoras that seems very unlikely to happen.

Still, who would have thought that ther would be a cigar boom in the 80's & 90's.

So hats-I do think the segment of men that are drawn to fedoras and are wearers will grow but the idea that it becomes the strong fashion accessory need is possible buy not probable, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

True. When I began wearing Fedoras in the early '7os I was not only attempting to pay homage to the Bogie, Cagney & Raft films I loved but I was also emulating (as I had a mane down to my tail) the pop stars of the time like Dylan, Arlo & Neil.

 

[Bingles]

Perhaps the extent of the "comeback" depends on where you live. As I had said in an earlier post, it is not an oddity to see someone in a hat (other than a ball cap)... at least in my corner of the world. In fact, a friend of mine recently commented that once she started paying attention, she was amazed at how many fedoras/trillbys she saw young men wearing -- albeit not the quality of mine.

Yes, the cheap styles are what you can get at any store from Macy's to Walmart, but you know... it's making people aware that the ball cap is not the ONLY option out there. Whether you wear the cheap stuff or the high end, society is starting to see that you don't need to be in a three piece suit to wear a hat -- they really can go well with just about any outfit if you have the right hat and the right attitude.

 

[John in Covina]

Regional versus national versus a worldwide phenomenon, as the area increases the likelyhood decreases.

 

[Feraud]

A scout at my son's boy scout troop showed up wearing a fedora style hat recently.
The kid looked cool.

 

[Widebrim]

I do think 'proper' hats are coming back in Australia to some extent, even homburgs (I have seen two homburgs being worn by Australians on television in the last couple of months. One a film director or some such, the other some chap at one of our billionaires funerals). Locally I see many more hats around today than I did nine months ago. A lot of tweed caps (I swear some of them must come from Bookster) a lot of Akubra countries and even a few fedoras. This summer there were a lot of panamas around, compared to the previous summer where it was all cheap canvas stuff.
I even asked a chap working at a local menswear store and he said they have been selling quite a few Akubra stylemasters.
Here in Australia we have more reasons to wear hats, an extremely harsh sun and one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the developed world. I always felt it was insane that Australians abandoned hats so readily.

Good to hear that, LordBest. Hopefully we here in southern California we see such an upswing.

 

[Widebrim]

Regional versus national versus a worldwide phenomenon, as the area increases the likelyhood decreases.

Exactly. You are very more likely to see stingy brims in Silverlake (that "hip" part of L.A. where I teach), than in East L.A. or El Paso or Scranton. It really depends on the flavor of the area you live in. Related to this, I was at a local thrift shop yesterday, where I spied a tall gent in a sport coat and a widebrim, furfelt fedora. It turned out to be a fellow FLer who is an acquaintance of mine, and I must say that although he looked out of place amidst all the paisas searching for slighly battered furniture and cheap clothes, he carried off the ensemble quite naturally and confidently. (I was wearing a cheap, stingy brim, straw fedora at the time...)