The Social Meanings of Hats

[scottyrocks]

I dont buy the whole hats to t-shirts analogy. T-shirts are much more in your face. A person's wardrobe in general, past or present, says just as much about them as a hat or t-shirt in particular.

 

[mayserwegener]

In America, even though all classes wore toppers between the 1850 and the 1880s, the hat itself was still considered an upper class hat (hence why lower classes tried to wear them to make themselves seem a step above). Cloth caps like newsboys were usually associated with working men or kids in the USA. But even these base ideals were crossed many times by people from different classes.

I think this also applied in Europe. I see it in the hats I collect from Germany and Austria (even Homburgs and Bowlers came in different qualities). See the above photos of Hans Albers posted above wearing caps. He was at the hight of German society during the first half of the 20th Century. Also in England the Homburg was looked down on at first. It evolved into a more formal hat style.

 

[HatsEnough]

I think this also applied in Europe. I see it in the hats I collect from Germany and Austria (even Homburgs and Bowlers came in different qualities). See the above photos of Hans Albers posted above wearing caps. He was at the hight of German society during the first half of the 20th Century. Also in England the Homburg was looked down on at first. It evolved into a more formal hat style.

Good point. We should also note that toppers ended up as a strictly formal hat in the end. After the turn of the century only politicians and upperclass folks at formal occasions were much interested in wearing top hats. They fell out of use in the general public once the fedora became more ubiquitous.

 

[MikeBravo]

Certain hats can be linked to class. But moreso in Europe than the USA.

i.e. Bowlers were most often of the middle class in England. Homburgs were often of the banker and political class there.

In America, even though all classes wore toppers between the 1850 and the 1880s, the hat itself was still considered an upper class hat (hence why lower classes tried to wear them to make themselves seem a step above). Cloth caps like newsboys were usually associated with working men or kids in the USA. But even these base ideals were crossed many times by people from different classes.

Headwear in the west never achieved the hard and fast rules as headwear in the ancient world or in third world cultures.

The lack of headwear rules seems to be common in the newer, more egalitarian/classless societies such as USA, Australia, New Zealand etc. Who needed the old ties to class? Isn't that what we escaped or were exiled from? (I am referring to convicts sent to Australia here)

As far as I know or recall from growing up, everybody wore fedoras, from bankers to farmers, school kids wore beanies if anything.

 

[HatsEnough]

The lack of headwear rules seems to be common in the newer, more egalitarian/classless societies such as USA, Australia, New Zealand etc. Who needed the old ties to class? Isn't that what we escaped or were exiled from? (I am referring to convicts sent to Australia here)

As far as I know or recall from growing up, everybody wore fedoras, from bankers to farmers, school kids wore beanies if anything.

That became true moreso after 1965 or so, I agree. People began to cut ties with the old forms of etiquette and class ideals and informality became de rigueur. Mores the shame of it in some cases. I mean, to see people in shorts and T-Shirts on Sunday morning in church is rather disgusting. To see teen girls going to official-like functions wearing flip-flops and dressing like street hookers... well, a little mind to etiquette I wouldn't mind coming back!

 

[SGT Rocket]

This quote:

"Unlike hats, whose meanings were universally understood, T-shirts speak to like-minded people; a particular T-shirt may not be meaningful to those with different views and affiliations. This reflects the fragmentation of leisure cultures into lifestyles and subcultures and other groupings whose members respond to the enormous cultural complexity of their surroundings by orienting themselves toward those who are like rather than those who are unlike themselves."

Makes me think that t-shirts are used today to show how different the wearer of the t-shirt is compared to everyone else. It's used as a way to separate the wearer (and who he thinks are like minded people/ his or her tribe if you will) from everyone else. Like the people in college who wear the most obscure band t-shirts ever. So, today maybe the t-shirt is a way to "separate" the wearer from a social class or tribe; but in the past the hat was a way to try to "join" another social class or tribe. Maybe the hat was about trying to join "up" into a group. The t-shirt is a way to try to distance oneself from any social/class group at all and in doing so, the wearer is joining a group in and of itself.

Kind of like: I want to get a prince albert so I can be different, just like everyone else. Or, once everyone is special, no one is special.

Or like some of the t-shirts you see in college. On the front of one it will say "G-d is dead, Nietzsche" and on the back it says "Nietzsche is dead, G-d."

Another good example is the shirt that says "Stop Plate Tectonics." I love that one.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that with the hat, maybe people were trying to join the group of the "other;" and with the t-shirt they are trying to not join a group of the "other" but trying to show off some sort of gnostic knowledge that only "cool" people "in the know" will understand.

Just a thought.

 

[HatsEnough]

So, to express how different they are, they wear stuff like everyone they think is cool.

LOL.

Yeah, it's like goths who think they are sooooo different, but then they hang with people that dress just like them. Some "individuals" they are!

 

[SGT Rocket]

For me though, I like hats because they are very functional, look good on me, and heck, I guess that's about it.

 

[jwalls]

What does this style say about you?

 

[alanfgag]

good point.

 

[hatophile]

What does this style say about you?

You're a witch?

 

[gtdean48]

...
What does this style say about you?

There are winged monkeys somewhere about....????

 

[Oldsarge]

What does this style say about you?

You live in Lancre on Discworld?

 

[scottyrocks]

That you were not a Cesarean section?

 

[Sam Craig]

There are winged monkeys somewhere about....????

And your little dog, too!

Sam

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

good point.

Would you, Sir (respect intimated) be the Master of the Double Point? BTW (begin off topic) you make a good picture. Splendid hats, to say the least (end off topic).

Well aware that anything said about oneself is entirely subjective (that's the very definition), I don't think one could say I wear hats in an attempt at being like everyone else. Certainly not here, where any one wearing hats -cowboy hats, at that!- can not be considered anything else but an oddball. I think, down deep, I wear hats as homage to the country that wasn't to be, for me: The United States of America. Sound ridiculous? Think again. I lived in the USA when I was 13-17 years old... It left a mark. And, by wearing (and buying) hats, one learns to distinguish between the good, the bad, and the ugly (hats, you fool!)

 

[HatsEnough]

What does this style say about you?

That you are from Cornwall, er sumthin?

 

[zetwal]

There might be some related discussion here.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?40149

 

[SGT Rocket]

What does this style say about you?

It says that I'm a Conehead from France!