Edward
Bartender
- Messages
- 25,078
- Location
- London, UK
Started wearing a cap at university in the mid Nineties - a corduroy, Greek-fisherman's style - largely because in Belfast by the time the rain was heavy enough to be bothered opening an umbrella, it was also invariably too windy for it to be worth fighting with it. Also helped with cold in the Winter. As by this point I had long eschewed coats with hoods, it was a good move. By 2000 I was also wearing a hat (various cotton boonie hats) in the Summer heat (having by now moved to London) in order to keep the sun off my face and neck. Less a health concern, more aesthetic - always hated a tan on me. This was my norm for several years: hats for worst of the Winter and the worst of the Summer. By 2005ish, I was wearing a cap all Winter as a norm. I'd owned a wool felt trilby since 1993 that got worn for 'dress' occasions, and in 2006 I bought a wool felt Western (think more open road than ten gallon, though) which got worn pretty much any time I was in a suit. 2005/6 was a period of change for me - a regeneration of sorts. I moved rapidly through a psychobilly look and into vintage by 2007, when I found and joined the Lounge. More hats followed.... Since June 2006, I believe I have left the house without some form of hat on me on precisely six occasions.... all of them involving either a fully head of zombie make-up, or devil horns. Hats still retain their original utilitarian purposes for me (even moreso, as I have been shaving my head completely since June 2006), but also they are now an essential aesthetic choice, and I have enough that at any one time I have a choice of several which will co-ordinate with a given outfit.