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JFK no hatless Jack

fabiovenhorst

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JFK wearing a topper
22-jackie-kennedy-021.w750.h560.2x.jpg
JFK-in-morning-dress-with-top-hat.jpg
Inaguration-ceremony-coat-and-dress.jpeg
 

Chamuco

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Nixon wore a fedora in office, too. Reagan wore cowboy hats. According to threads right here, the hat industry was noticing the decline in sales starting the the 1930s. My guess is that it started when men started worrying more about their hairstyles.
I really liked how Reagan looked with a cowboy hat.. Kind of a way to send a message of who the boss was...

Kennedy, in my humble opinion, does not look sharp on a hat...



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BlueTrain

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JFK was also known for his two-button suits. Did you notice that he frequently buttoned both of them?
 

BlueTrain

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Well, the thing is, he was and still is, I guess, a sort of style icon and to button the bottom button on a suit jacket is something that looks a little strange, like something a "country jake" might do. He was, I think, very conscious of the way he dressed but without attempting to be any kind of trend or fashion setter in the way the Duke of Windsor was. People like the Duke of Windsor had more time to worry about clothes. There is a fine line about being carefully well-dressed and being fashion conscious or trendy. You don't want to be either old-fashioned looking or foppish (a word you don't hear anymore). Usually, if you are wearing clothes that are old-fashioned or out of style, it also means you are wearing clothes that are old. It is possible to wear clothes that are classic and timeless in style but you don't want to wear clothes under most circumstances that are just plain old.

On the other hand, someone wrote that the reason people wear fine, expensive clothing is so others can see them and that nobody wears clothes like that when no one is around to see them. It's pure vanity. That was written over a thousand years ago.

It is surprising the way someone you would least expect to be conscious of their appearance can be sometimes. I had an uncle who lived right across the street from us. He was a welder for the railroad and worked in shops that manufactured rolling stock. He wore overalls to work on the job. His wife told me that he wouldn't wear a certain pair of overalls on which bleach had been spilled, causing streaks.
 

TheDane

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It is surprising the way someone you would least expect to be conscious of their appearance can be sometimes.
Not at all surprising to anyone, who was around during the 70s. Most of us then youngsters spend hours and weeks in front of a mirror to fine-tune the absolutely right bum-like casualness. Full blown vanity, indeed!

I don't worry the least about looking strange or old-fashioned. Come on ... I'm wearing a fedora! :D
 

BlueTrain

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I think my uncle, as well as most people, were conscious of their appearance only in a negative way. It wasn't so much that they wanted to look a certain way; it was more like they wanted to avoid looking certain other ways, if you follow me. In other words, they didn't care how they looked. But they were very careful about how they didn't want to look.
 

Rogera

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JFK needed a wider brim and a fuller crown. His face was too full for those short crowned stingy brims.
 

tropicalbob

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I think my uncle, as well as most people, were conscious of their appearance only in a negative way. It wasn't so much that they wanted to look a certain way; it was more like they wanted to avoid looking certain other ways, if you follow me. In other words, they didn't care how they looked. But they were very careful about how they didn't want to look.
The idea was that you wanted to show the world you were doing fine. My parents, who grew up during the Depression, always asked me, "Why do you want to look like an old bum?" I can still hear them.
 

TheDane

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The idea was that you wanted to show the world you were doing fine. My parents, who grew up during the Depression, always asked me, "Why do you want to look like an old bum?" I can still hear them.
Spot on! And we still wanted to look like bums - just to distance ourselves from old, grey and conservative people. Pure vanity ;)
 

tropicalbob

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Spot on! And we still wanted to look like bums - just to distance ourselves from old, grey and conservative people. Pure vanity ;)
I never thought of myself as looking like a bum: rather, a young, dashing Woody Guthrie who would solve the world's problems and meet admiring girls. My problem was always that I wanted to combine that look with the British rockstar look, which took some doing.
 

TheDane

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Haha ... spot on again! :D

I know, he married Marjorie - a leading dancer of Martha Graham's - but I have also (much later) read, what Ronnie Gilbert of The Weavers had to say on his looks, behavior ... and smell! It seems, "bum" would have been a rather precise description during his more distressed periods.

I was/am a great fan! Played tons of his songs and read his autobiography "Bound For Glory" several times. Arlo's Alice's Restaurant was also a great hit with me. Loved the movie - and could recite all 17 minutes while playing the rag :D
 
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BlueTrain

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My father had a brother who was a fairly successful businessman in our small town. He owned a gas station, a restaurant and a sawmill and possibly a logging operation. But he normal everyday attire was bib overalls. My father said in so many words (to me, not to his brother) that he wasn't decently dressed for what he did. But a British, probably English, gentleman supposedly said that it didn't matter what he wore at home or around town because everyone knew him. Yet he also said that when he traveled, it didn't matter what he wore because no one knew him. However you might describe a person like that, pretentious is not one of the words you would use. Otherwise, we essentially dress to more or less satisfy the expectations under which we live and exist. We can't really dress any way we wish and to do so would open us up to ridicule. But the problem is in discovered exactly what those expectations are. They are different for different people, depending on our status, our age, our gender (formerly referred to as "sex"), where we live, what we do and so on. And acceptable deviances from those expectations, whatever they might be, can vary.
 

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