How do folks react to your hat wearing?

[hatsRme]

TOO funny, Emisario! People's concepts of hat characters get locked in on one specific image, and they can't get beyond that. My niece was CONVINCED that I had a "Breaking Bad" hat on during a holiday here last year. I was wearing a 1952 Stetson Homburg. All they see is a hat.

I'll bet that with enough time to acclimate, your German might work with the Yiddish, though.

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

TOO funny, Emisario! People's concepts of hat characters get locked in on one specific image, and they can't get beyond that. My niece was CONVINCED that I had a "Breaking Bad" hat on during a holiday here last year. I was wearing a 1952 Stetson Homburg. All they see is a hat.

I was watching the horror film Jeepers Creepers and I began to wonder if anybody on the lounge had ever received a "Creeper" comparison, lol. To be honest, the Creeper reminded me of Michael Jackson as far as style

 

[TheDane]

I began to wonder if anybody on the lounge had ever received a "Creeper" comparison, lol.

Sure! Usually when I don't hide myself under a fedora lol

 

[T Jones]

I was watching the horror film Jeepers Creepers and I began to wonder if anybody on the lounge had ever received a "Creeper" comparison, lol. To be honest, the Creeper reminded me of Michael Jackson as far as style

That was actually a pretty decent movie...I wore one of my OR conversions to my local pharmacy the other day and was told, (by another lady, again), that I looked real dapper and that she liked my hat! Almost all of the comments I received on my hats were from women, and only when I wore a wide brim Silverbelly ORish hat....

Here's a horror flick character who was known for wearing a fedora...notice the hat band and brim binding in this pic from the original movie that was missing from the sequels.

 

[hatophile]

If I looked remotely like those guys, my wife would toss all my hats out the window.

 

[Huertecilla]

If I looked remotely like those guys, my wife would toss all my hats out the window.

More likely that she would not be your wife then no?!

 

[Edward]

When I was seventeen I bought a black wool trilby, really like a 50s style 2" brim fedora, which I used to wear with a black wool trenchcoat. Some local kids always shouted 'Freddy Kreuger' after me. He was a great villain, though it was slightly unnerving later on when he became regarded with so much affect by the fanbase, given what he was! I've met robert Englund - really nice guy.

 

[T Jones]

When I was seventeen I bought a black wool trilby, really like a 50s style 2" brim fedora, which I used to wear with a black wool trenchcoat. Some local kids always shouted 'Freddy Kreuger' after me. He was a great villain, though it was slightly unnerving later on when he became regarded with so much affect by the fanbase, given what he was! I've met robert Englund - really nice guy.

Freddy was definitely different from the other slasher villains like Jason and Michael Myers. Freddy had a personality and an evil sense of humor to go with it. He enjoyed the "cat and mouse" tormenting of his victims before he slashed them, plus he had a cool fedora. Jason just wore a Hockey Mask and Michael Myers ran around wearing a William Shatner Mask, but Freddy had style!

 

[g.durand]

I walked by a homeless man on our main street a couple of weeks back just after dark. I was wearing the new Premiere Stratoliner. He says, "I see you've got your collar up and you're wearing that Freddy Krueger hat!"

So there you go, Hatco.

 

[T Jones]

I walked by a homeless man on our main street a couple of weeks back just after dark. I was wearing the new Premiere Stratoliner. He says, "I see you've got your collar up and you're wearing that Freddy Krueger hat!"

So there you go, Hatco.

Ha! Good one! That's a first! Everybody else gets the ol' run of the mill Indiana Jones hat comment!

 

[g.durand]

Ha! Good one! That's a first! Everybody else gets the ol' run of the mill Indiana Jones hat comment!

A couple too many of those lately, from people at work who should know better.

But you have to just brush it off.

 

[CRH]

While I was walking a hallway at my workplace last Friday a passing stranger gave me a big grin and a bold, "Hello, SIR!". His eyes were obviously attached to my mint circa 1950 Whippet. I smiled and gave him a nodding "Hello."

Gee, if a nice lid should command such respect and kindness from random strangers I should wear one every day. Hey wait a minute........

 

[sola fide]

People's reactions range from perplexed to affirming.
-While walking through Berkeley Ca outside of the UC a gent holding an empty paper cup just stared at me and raised an eyebrow so I gave him a, "Hows it going?" and he responded, after a long pause, with "alright".
-While on a walking tour of Stanford University this lady kept staring in my direction and of course what made me stand apart was my Stetson fedora.
-Tomorrow, after Easter Brunch in Burlingame, we will hang out in San Francisco's Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival. San Francisco aka The City has an eclectic population so looking unique the norm. I will probably blend with my new Resistol San Antonio(Thank you rclark).
Happy Easter

 

[MothPrey]

This is basically a pretty hat-hostile area, as I mentioned here before.

I get lots of stares and sometimes deliberate rude comments. The African-American ladies seem to take the most exception to it for some reason. I had one break out in laughter at the sight of me on the sidewalk while I was wearing a pretty unremarkable black wool Tilley winter hat, another whistled the "Indy" theme in a building lobby as I went by (that at a smallish brown Borsalino travel hat), and they often pointedly avoid sitting next to me on the subway trains, or change seats to get away from me as soon as another is available. When I make the same trip, same clothing but no hat, I don't get any of that reaction.

Nothing much recently, a guy near the entrance of a subway station flashed a peace sign and said "HOWDY!". Guess my hat looked like a cowboy hat to him. Girl in a station with what I assume was her boyfriend looked at me from a distance and loudly said "Hat!". She might have said something else before or after, I'm not sure, it was very crowded and noisy.

It wasn't until this past few weeks when we had wildly varied weather that it finally dawned on me that I was seeing far more hats (though still a tiny percentage of men) in really nice, sunny weather than I do in the rain or snow. Certainly some of that is due to the increased concern over skin cancer, and sun damage in general... but I also wonder how many men bought a hat at some earlier point in their lives, attempted to wear it in weather, and found out the hard way that the vast majority of the hats that have been typically available in stores now are simply not up to it. The vast majority of men have probably never held, much less owned a good hat, so to them hats only work in good weather.

 

[jhe888]

I wore a very simple Milan fedora to the professional golf tournament here in Houston a couple of weeks ago. I got several compliments, every one of them from a black man. I guess black men wear more hats (other than cowboy hats) here.

 

[John T. Sarto]

Comments I have received have been mostly positive. I have been call Dick Tracy a time or two, but usually I get "nice hat." One nice comment was from an older lady at church: "I love your hat, you don't see enough men wearing them anymore." While in NC on a rather cold, rainy day I was wearing a double breasted raincoat (like Bogart's in Casablanca) and a Whippet-style fedora and a black gentleman passed by and said "You have that classic look... I love it!" That was probably the best comment I have gotten. I did have one older lady say "Who do you think you are, James Bond?" while dressed the same way. That has been the only somewhat negative reaction I have gotten.

 

[F. J.]

Negative??

[...]
I did have one older lady say "Who do you think you are, James Bond?" while dressed the same way. That has been the only somewhat negative reaction I have gotten.

So . . . being compared to *James Bond* is a bad thing?

 

[John T. Sarto]

So . . . being compared to *James Bond* is a bad thing?

No, but it was in the tone of her voice, which does not translate here in the written word. If you had heard the smart aleck (and that's a nice way to say it) inflection, you have known it was not intended as a compliment.

 

[facade]

One thing that seems obvious to me is that there is clearly more at work here than just people reacting to the hat.

I've no doubt that random people think I look like a dork/Indy/whatever but I've not encountered any who felt empowered enough to openly mock me (outside of ribbing from co-workers). I imagine there are a number of factors, besides the hat, that generate comments (both good and bad). Age of the wearer, manner of dress, bearing, & general appearance to name a few.

 

[MothPrey]

One thing that seems obvious to me is that there is clearly more at work here than just people reacting to the hat.

That much is clear. Most people don't care, but those that do react way out of proportion to what amounts to just an unusual clothing choice. I'm not sure if reacting to a hat as costume rather than clothing is part of the cause or effect.

I've tried to see it from their perspective, and part of it is not hard. Without questioning the right to do it at all, nonetheless, my wearing a hat in a hatless culture makes some sort of statement whether I want it to or not. I am setting myself apart. Inherent in that act are the statements "I am not like you. I am not trying to be like you, hence, obviously, I don't want to be like you". Hard to frame that as a compliment. If "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", what is the opposite?

The author Tom Wolfe once called his habit of wearing white bespoke suits "a harmless form of aggression". It took me a while to understand that.

I imagine there are a number of factors, besides the hat, that generate comments (both good and bad). Age of the wearer, manner of dress, bearing, & general appearance to name a few.

And geographic region (local culture), and exposure. If I only saw a dozen or two people a day who could practically react to it (which is pretty much the case when I'm working in the suburbs, without the urban commute) I doubt if I would have experienced any overt negative reaction. Passing within sight of hundreds of people a day on foot is far, far different.