Is Hat Ettiquette Obsolete?

[Huertecilla]

The essence of hattiquette

I like this french affiche;

which proclaims not wearing a hat itself impolite because one thus has no hattiquette


I was reminded of this affiche on my morning run to the Post Office today.
Upon encountering a well groomed woman I could only fake a toff. When she returned me a heartjumping open faced smile, I felt bare headed.

 

[Mr Oldschool]

I like this french affiche;

which proclaims not wearing a hat itself impolite because one thus has no hattiquette


I was reminded of this affiche on my morning run to the Post Office today.
Upon encountering a well groomed woman I could only fake a toff. When she returned me a heartjumping open faced smile, I felt bare headed.

I left through the wrong door yesterday and had to endure the entire day without my hat which was waiting patiently by the usual door. It felt wrong to be out and about without my lid. "Bare headed" indeed.

 

[Edward]

mn. I can think of maybe three occasions during the last seven years on which I left the house without a hat - every one of them when I had on a full head of make-up and/or wig, for cosutme purposes. It is strange how quickly it becomes habit and it feels wrong otherwise. I often suspect that my fondness for a collar / tie/ jacket now stems from habituation though all those years of school uniform.

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

..and there is no doubt whatsoever that women recognise and appreciate courteous manners including hattiquette.

I disagree, because wearing a hat near a woman is almost never discourteous, nor will she take it to be so.

In my opinion and based on my experience, modern women do not care one iota whether a man keeps his hat on or not. If a man removes his hat, she will not think he is doing so for her. Nor will she spare any thought to the matter.

The alleged "hat etiquette" that says "a man should take off his hat whenever he is anywhere indoors" is absolutely obsolete and dead - and rightly so. Holding a hat in one's hands whenever one is indoors anywhere is ridiculously impractical. Doing that in essence turns a two-handed man into a one-handed man, which renders many of the normal activities of living impossible to perform without exceeding difficulty. To expect a man virtually to handicap himself whenever a roof is over a head, just because he has the good taste to wear nice hats, is senseless and even worse, highly discourteous to that man himself. Thankfully, almost nobody harbors that discourteous expectation nowadays.

Keeping a hat on indoors is not being impolite, unless the indoors are an intimate space and/or the people there are conducting a special ceremony or some such thing. Intimate spaces/special ceremonies are the only legitimate places/times when hat etiquette even comes into play. I'm sure all men will take off their hats in those situations anyway. In other words, true "hat etiquette" is a non-issue, because everybody abides by it.

 

[TheDane]

As long as people keep on telling others what the truth is - and what good ettiquette is - then this thread lacks ettiquette in general ... BIG TIME! Intelligent, educated gentlemen leave room for doubt .... pleeeeeeease!

 

[Huertecilla]

In my opinion and based on my experience, modern women do not care one iota whether a man keeps his hat on or not. If a man removes his hat, she will not think he is doing so for her. Nor will she spare any thought to the matter.

I am sorry to read that.

Not withstanding that, I would still keep it up as for háving good manners it is not relevant whether others have or get them. Just like personal integrity.

 

[Seb Lucas]

I disagree, because wearing a hat near a woman is almost never discourteous, nor will she take it to be so.

In my opinion and based on my experience, modern women do not care one iota whether a man keeps his hat on or not. If a man removes his hat, she will not think he is doing so for her. Nor will she spare any thought to the matter.

The alleged "hat etiquette" that says "a man should take off his hat whenever he is anywhere indoors" is absolutely obsolete and dead - and rightly so. Holding a hat in one's hands whenever one is indoors anywhere is ridiculously impractical. Doing that in essence turns a two-handed man into a one-handed man, which renders many of the normal activities of living impossible to perform without exceeding difficulty. To expect a man virtually to handicap himself whenever a roof is over a head, just because he has the good taste to wear nice hats, is senseless and even worse, highly discourteous to that man himself. Thankfully, almost nobody harbors that discourteous expectation nowadays.

Keeping a hat on indoors is not being impolite, unless the indoors are an intimate space and/or the people there are conducting a special ceremony or some such thing. Intimate spaces/special ceremonies are the only legitimate places/times when hat etiquette even comes into play. I'm sure all men will take off their hats in those situations anyway. In other words, true "hat etiquette" is a non-issue, because everybody abides by it.

I think that's a reasonable summary.

 

[fedoracentric]

"In my opinion and based on my experience, modern women do not care one iota whether a man keeps his hat on or not."

Which again proves my point that etiquette is dead.

 

[VetPsychWars]

"In my opinion and based on my experience, modern women do not care one iota whether a man keeps his hat on or not."

Which again proves my point that etiquette is dead.

Not all etiquette, clearly, just relating to hats.

Tom

 

[fedoracentric]

"Not all etiquette, clearly, just relating to hats."

I thought we were talking about hats?

 

[DAJE]

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it already, and I'm not going to read through 27 pages to find out, but I've raised this point here in other threads: There never was a rule that hats were always supposed to be removed indoors.

I'm talking about in society in general - you may have experienced a culture where it was a Very Bad Thing, and I believe that some militaries enforce a "no headgear indoors ever" rule as part of their pointless totalitarian malarky - but it has never been the rule in civilian society.

Here's my cite:
The Non Shorpy Web All Stars

There are many many other collections of old pictures, and it's not at all hard to find them, and it's not at all hard to find examples of people wearing hats indoors during the "golden era".

 

[Tomasso]

There never was a rule that hats were alwayssupposed to be removed indoors. .

Sure, there were exceptions to the rules of etiquette that would allow for a hat to be worn indoors.

 

[fedoracentric]

"I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it already, and I'm not going to read through 27 pages to find out..."

Well you should have because it was.

 

[Edward]

BURN!

lol

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

"not all etiquette, clearly, just relating to hats."

i thought we were talking about hats?

"i'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it already, and i'm not going to read through 27 pages to find out..."

well you should have because it was.

lol

 

[hatsRme]

Liking the new avatar, CS!

 

[DAJE]

"I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it already, and I'm not going to read through 27 pages to find out..."

Well you should have because it was.

Well, my point was entirely worth repeating, since some folks seem unable to grasp it. Probably needs to be repeated and restated many times. Thanks for your helpful response.

 

[Garrett]

Rusty, will you please close this thing. Thought it was done already

 

[ManofKent]

Rusty, will you please close this thing. Thought it was done already

+1

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

Liking the new avatar, CS!

Thank you!