How many hats does one man need?

[daizawaguy]

How about the same number as your Jackets or shoes? Why do I say this? Well, with Jackets or shoes, there are colors, occasions, styles and function - same in hats. The number of hats would be proportional to your wardrobe in Jackets or shoes surely? It would be no use to have 20 shoes, but 3 hats....or is this a hat site and it should be the other way round!!??

 

[belfastboy]

How about the same number as your Jackets or shoes? Why do I say this? Well, with Jackets or shoes, there are colors, occasions, styles and function - same in hats. The number of hats would be proportional to your wardrobe in Jackets or shoes surely? It would be no use to have 20 shoes, but 3 hats....or is this a hat site and it should be the other way round!!??

Or if you are like me.....a closet full of hats AND a corresponding number of shoes and boots!

 

[GHT]

At once?

As this is the hat forum it's not really the place to do my party trick.

How about the same number as your Jackets or shoes? Why do I say this? Well, with Jackets or shoes, there are colors, occasions, styles and function - same in hats. The number of hats would be proportional to your wardrobe in Jackets or shoes surely? It would be no use to have 20 shoes, but 3 hats....or is this a hat site and it should be the other way round!!??

Leather jackets, fedora hats, Aloha shirts, the combination of such is unusual to say the least. When I was small my mother often said: "Strange child."

 

[Rmccamey]

My wife sometimes refers to my hat collection as "grains of sand on the beach".

 

[Edward]

It's worth noting that the word "collection" gets used on and off in this thread. I do think there's potentially a difference between collecting hats - in which case there's almost no limit as long as each one is different in some way - and hats as wardrobe, in which case more utilitarian notions come to the fore. As a recovering hoarder, I try to stick to buying only wardrobe. The first rule is it has to fit me... then there has to be a justification for it. That can be that it's a different colour in the first instance, then type (homberg, fedora, bowler, cap... cap pattern...). Hats that get worn with great regularity - fedoras and textile caps - I have a lot more of, while those that are worn less frequently (top hats, or the Glengarry I only wear when kilted) I don't need multiples of.

How about the same number as your Jackets or shoes? Why do I say this? Well, with Jackets or shoes, there are colors, occasions, styles and function - same in hats. The number of hats would be proportional to your wardrobe in Jackets or shoes surely? It would be no use to have 20 shoes, but 3 hats....or is this a hat site and it should be the other way round!!??

Good comparison. All bits that vary with individual taste and outlook, too. I like to have multiple options of all because they do accessorise in different ways and occasions, while other guys who have one 'look' that is 'their look' might prefer a single jacket / hat / pair of boots at a time.

For me the red line has to be if I found myself considering buying the one colour in the line that I didn't like and would never wear 'to complete the set', or buying, say, ten black Akubra Feds and scrabbling to come up with ten different ideas for bashing them to justify having them all. One thing I've had to learn over time is that if there are two different halfbelts I like, I don't need to have one of each in both black and brown.... one in black and one in frown is fine. Same with hats. That of course has evolved significantly from when I first started wearing a hat daily way back in 1994, and I had three different colour of the same hat, that was it, as that was 'my hat'.

If we go solely with utility, all you need is warmth and pockets. Everything beyond that is, very strictly speaking, "more", but it will vary from individual to individual how much 'more' is too much.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Right, I don't collect hats these days. I only buy new-manufacture hats that I wear... and I only get myself a new one every couple of years. (I've got around ten in the rotation, none bought recently.) This is VERY different from the folks here with roomfuls of hats and constant purchases from eBay.

It's the same with jackets: I get myself a new one just every year or two. Nothing like the scores of jackets that our most active members seem to go through... Yet I'm still interested enough to spend too much time here every day!

 

[Edward]

Right, I don't collect hats these days. I only buy new-manufacture hats that I wear... and I only get myself a new one every couple of years. (I've got around ten in the rotation, none bought recently.) This is VERY different from the folks here with roomfuls of hats and constant purchases from eBay.

It's the same with jackets: I get myself a new one just every year or two. Nothing like the scores of jackets that our most active members seem to go through... Yet I'm still interested enough to spend too much time here every day!

That's a bonus with this place - vicarious enjoyment of somebody's else's new purchases. (Which is not to in any way critique the collectors, I should add - vive la difference!)

I tend to buy mostly new now myself, rather than "true vintage". My sweet spot is repro, as that's very much the authentic style I want, but at this historical distance, it's just not an option for me to go seeking genuine 30s bits any longer.

 

[daddy0d0]

Interesting thread. I currently own 12 Hats. 2 Straw, 1 Stetson Gun Club, 3 FEDIV, 1Banjo Patterson (black) and 4 CampDrafts (2 BGG)with a black one on the way. I am a bit of an Akubra fanboy
I’m 6’5 230, so the wider brim hats tend to look better on me. ( IN MY OPINION)
My wife cannot understand what it is that makes me want 12 hats! I tell her”I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t run around, this is my one vice.” It seems to work.

 

[Frunobulax]

Interesting thread. I currently own 12 Hats. 2 Straw, 1 Stetson Gun Club, 3 FEDIV, 1Banjo Patterson (black) and 4 CampDrafts (2 BGG)with a black one on the way. I am a bit of an Akubra fanboy
I’m 6’5 230, so the wider brim hats tend to look better on me. ( IN MY OPINION)
My wife cannot understand what it is that makes me want 12 hats! I tell her”I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t run around, this is my one vice.” It seems to work.

I wish hats were my only vice.

 

[belfastboy]

It's worth noting that the word "collection" gets used on and off in this thread. I do think there's potentially a difference between collecting hats - in which case there's almost no limit as long as each one is different in some way - and hats as wardrobe, in which case more utilitarian notions come to the fore. As a recovering hoarder, I try to stick to buying only wardrobe. The first rule is it has to fit me... then there has to be a justification for it. That can be that it's a different colour in the first instance, then type (homberg, fedora, bowler, cap... cap pattern...). Hats that get worn with great regularity - fedoras and textile caps - I have a lot more of, while those that are worn less frequently (top hats, or the Glengarry I only wear when kilted) I don't need multiples of.



Good comparison. All bits that vary with individual taste and outlook, too. I like to have multiple options of all because they do accessorise in different ways and occasions, while other guys who have one 'look' that is 'their look' might prefer a single jacket / hat / pair of boots at a time.

For me the red line has to be if I found myself considering buying the one colour in the line that I didn't like and would never wear 'to complete the set', or buying, say, ten black Akubra Feds and scrabbling to come up with ten different ideas for bashing them to justify having them all. One thing I've had to learn over time is that if there are two different halfbelts I like, I don't need to have one of each in both black and brown.... one in black and one in frown is fine. Same with hats. That of course has evolved significantly from when I first started wearing a hat daily way back in 1994, and I had three different colour of the same hat, that was it, as that was 'my hat'.

If we go solely with utility, all you need is warmth and pockets. Everything beyond that is, very strictly speaking, "more", but it will vary from individual to individual how much 'more' is too much.

I consider myself a 'collector'. My collecting parametres include they have to be in my size and I have to wear them....no closet queens allowed. If a hat hasn't been worn at least once in a year then on the block it goes to make room for one that I will wear.

 

[Hats Matter]

I think what is missing from this Thread is the important distinction between "Need" and "Want". A person such as myself may "Need" about a half dozen hats but I "Want" more than the 24 that I have right now.

 

[Zombie_61]

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

How many??
Billy knows some of us.
B

 

[GHT]

I wish hats were my only vice.

How I do so agree but age has a way of suppressing carnal desire.

 

[glider]

I have around 7 nice straws that I wear, not a bad number really. Now if I could restrict the felts to that number, oh never mind. That wouldn't be any fun !!

 

[Edward]

I consider myself a 'collector'. My collecting parametres include they have to be in my size and I have to wear them....no closet queens allowed. If a hat hasn't been worn at least once in a year then on the block it goes to make room for one that I will wear.

That's probably closer to me than I like to admit. I'm still telling myself they're wardrobe, but in truth I have way more (albeit that they all get worn) than I can strictly claim I "need".

I think what is missing from this Thread is the important distinction between "Need" and "Want". A person such as myself may "Need" about a half dozen hats but I "Want" more than the 24 that I have right now.

Indeed. If I was being incredibly strict, all I really "need" is a cold weather cover to keep the cold and rain off, and a warm weather cover to keep the sun off. All else is, if I was being rigid, a 'want'....

Six times nine...

 

[belfastboy]

That's probably closer to me than I like to admit. I'm still telling myself they're wardrobe, but in truth I have way more (albeit that they all get worn) than I can strictly claim I "need".



Indeed. If I was being incredibly strict, all I really "need" is a cold weather cover to keep the cold and rain off, and a warm weather cover to keep the sun off. All else is, if I was being rigid, a 'want'....



Six times nine...

This is sad but true......now that I have what to me is an inordinate number of hats sometimes it takes me a more than a few minutes to decide which hat to wear that day. I and I say to myself.....I should be simplifying my life not making it more complicated!!

 

[Short Balding Guy]

I change the question to a question I can answer: Do you, the short bald man, enjoy your hats and caps? Yes I do. Enormously. Hats and caps that I do not enjoy I send them to appreciating homes.

Need? This is the word in your question that stops me. In thinking about an answer to hat needs, I go to Aristotle's account of human needs. This is valuable because he describes the connections between logical, metaphysical, physical, human and ethical necessities. Followed to conclusion the proper Aristotelian conclusion is that, far from being an inferior activity fit only for slaves, meeting needs is the first part of Aristotelian virtue.

I need hats. Therefore I have virtue.
(The above is indeed tongue in check tonight.)

 

[Motorhat]

Same Cowboy boots, never enough !

 

[BobHufford]

Is vise collecting a vice? I have a half-dozen and I'm not even trying. Hats and boots I admit to...