Do you long for the return of hats?
Men's fashion is dreadfully boring, but one thing we used to have was a profusion and proliferation of different hats we could wear.
I know the m'lady meme and mall ninjas have forever cursed the fedora (as well as the actually, that's a trilby crowd), but those memes postdate the decline of the hat by several decades.
Currently, we only have baseball caps and beanies in common circulation, with impractical-for-sidewalk-use cowboy hats being the only extant outlier.
Does anyone long for the return of the hat and/or have any insight into what caused their decline?
142 replies
The current state of modern men with hats.
i see his friend in the blue cap on the other side figured out what the brim is for.
The price of being cool
You know you can still buy hats, right? Like any kind of hat you want. They're still made. It's just, we spend much less time outside, and outside is also much less dusty.
I know. And every time I try to find a hat in a store, they are all too small. So I guess that leaves online, but that's a different experience to trying on the exact hat you're going to buy.
I've played with the idea of buying a hat stretcher to broaden my thrifting possibilities..
I once found a Sterkowski flat cap in my exact size at a thrift shop. Been riding that high ever since. I also ordered online from them once with good results. Those are caps rather than hats, but it scratched the same itch for me.
Fashion should be about your expression, not about what is popular. If you long for something, wear it. The only thing that really made the fedora/trilby toxic was that a bunch of people jumped on a hype train because they viewed it as a short cut to being fashionable. Making it inherently inauthentic. The speed at which they ditched those hats only proved the point that they were wearing it not for themselves, but for the opinion of others.
Authenticity will always be fashionable. Not everyone will like your style/fashion. What matters is that you love your style more than anyone, because then the opinion of others won't matter.
People still make those old hats. Measure the size of your dome. Find one you love. Wear the shit out of it.
Cars. Blame cars for the lack of hats.
The car has a roof and climate control. Hats are much less needed for staying comfortable when moving around outside if you're taking a car.
Any type of hat that has a brim on the back cannot be worn in a car with headrests. Many cars lack the headroom for tall hats. You have to remove your hat to get in the car. Its enough of an inconvenience to cause its decline.
The one kind of brimmed hat that is common today is the baseball hat. The brim is only in the front; the hat isn't tall. You can just wear it in the car without thinking about it like most other garments.
So unless you're content being the "hat guy," (you can definitely make the hat work) your only option is to abolish the automobile as the primary mode of transport. Good luck!
Perfect. I hate cars, love hats. I have my villain origin story now. Thanks.
"Hat guys" wear bucket hats and flat caps these days
eta
"Flat" or "curved" is the absolute peak of fashion impoverishment.
eta: I actually do have one of those if I'm going to be in the sun; it's entirely utilitarian.
This one?
Doesn't shade the ears unfortunately.
What's your question exactly?
That's a handsome hat.
I was refering to the fact that you can wear flat-billed baseball hats or curved-bill baseball hats and that is largely the limit of your structural choices for headwear.
"flat cap" is the name for the hat in the above image.
I wear a couple hats like that. One is from the Canadian air cadets and the other is a souvenir from Peru.
Quite nice. Keeps the sun and rain off very well.
No one is stopping you from wearing anything. You can wear a Fez covered in glitter if you want.
I'm bringing back the Fez. Aaaaayyyyy....
Brother, that’s the Fonz.
Fez is from That 70s Show.
I still wear a covid mask. It's still useful for disease prevention and looks nice.
And that is 100% okay. I just recently stopped but sure enough I put it own anytime I go to the dr or pharmacy. And all my coworkers that say they don’t feel good I just say go home. We will make due with out you.
Wear whatever you want. People are boring dipshits on average anyways, so why value their whining.
I'm a keen wearer of hats. Balding man living in the skin cancer capital of the world. My daily is a felt pork pie hat, but I have a few fedoras in various brim widths and colours, and my most recent was a genuine Panama hat that I probably spent too much money on for special occasions that I actually haven't worn much. I somehow lost my old faithful flat cap, which still upsets me, and I have a beanie with the slogan 'bald as shit' embroidered on the front for winter. I feel a bit naked if I go outside without a hat these days.
I can recommend The Hat Store if you're in Aus. Not sponsored, just a satisfied customer.
In summer I wear a straw cowboy hat, protects my neck and face from sunburn, cools my head. The same reason cowboys wear them.
Nice. I also have a cheap straw broad brimmed hat from Bunnings like the one pictured elsewhere in this thread if I'm going too be in the sun a lot, which I generally try to avoid. They're prefect for that.
Aaand, bought myself a new flat cap. Which means my old lost one will probably turn up.
I have a minnetonka outback hat. Its leather and its 20 years old, I wear it whenever I have the chance. I get comments and compliments every time I wear it.
Be the example, wear that hat you long to see.
Mine makes me sweat like a horse. I love it but the weight and heat are often deal breakers when reaching for my trek hat.
That's fair. I wear mine in cooler months.
Perhaps I need a summer hat.
Forgot to ask; how do you treat the leather? I had been using a conditioner and cleaner on mine but it didn't do much for water repellency. I was reluctant to oil or wax it because it already ran hot. Like I said in my previous message, I love the damn thing and it looks great.
I also wear tons of outback hats. I get plenty of compliments!
I like the humble Ushanka
I wore these as my main winter hat for the longest time but had to switch to beanies when I worked in the trades. Now I'm struggling to justify the cost since I spend a lot less time outdoors in the winter...
But man, I love these hats.
I’d have to find that excellent video again but essentially the answer is pretty simple: cars. Basically the purpose of the hat pretty much disappeared over night once everybody started riding inside them (sun and rain protection). Moreover, they were very impractical to keep on while driving so people stopped taking them out with them and yeah, poof.
Anyway, this summer I did what I said I would never and bought myself a magnificent, expensive Panama hat. And yes, it so happens to be a fedora (I know, I know). I love it, I instantly got a dozen compliments on the first week, and I decided I would single handedly revive the fashion. Join me.
If we join you, then we are spoiling your ambitions of doing it single-handedly.
For a cause this great I am willing to share
Good for you. I bet it looks awesome.
I bought this beauty from a gent on the Internet. I have hat for days.
Looka like you have hat for just one, specific day.
Touché!
Nellie's Nest?
Nailed it!
The anti-hat people can fuck off, I wear what I like, although most of the timt it's a Greek fisherman hat, and I own them in about eight different colours. I do have a trillby and occasionally wear it.
You can wear anything you want. But we will judge you for wearing a trillby
And you can fuck off. I don't mean that personally, just to clarify. :)
A wildcard vote for the bunnings hat:
I'm listening.
I've seen that style hate for gardeners, wide-brim straw hat. Don't know what brand name Bunnings brings into the mix.
Ha, bunnings is home depot for Australia and NZ, absolutely bottom of the barrel in fashion, but high in utility
Straw makes a good hat for hot weather; cheap and breathable. Here in the US, we have Panama hats which look like Fedoras, but made with straw.
And actually, shout out to all the Ecuadoran ladies sportig their fedoras. I don't know what that's about.
Panama hats are actually from Ecuador, that's why ecuadorians wear them.
Yes, but the ones I see Ecuadoran women wearing look like felt fedoras, no straw panama, but I could be mistaken.
Ecuador has a ton of different indigenous communities, but the hats you're talking about probably originate in Otavalo
It's part of a uniform--fedora, braided hair, sweater, long skirt, black shoes. I saw it a lot near Quito, but didn't get very far out.
Ah, then nevermind. There are a decent amount of ecuadorians near me too, but I've never noticed them wearing fedoras, I'll have to keep an eye out.
The brand adds nothing. (Maybe a dad vibe?).
I believe a couple surf brands sell similar ones
Women don't wear hats much either. I only do at the beach, or sometimes the Korean Grandma visor to do yardwork, but never really for fashion. I do have a witch hat, I guess that is for looks but certainly not fashionable. It's too hot here to really wear anything warm; and like OP, once I put head and hair in a hat I'm not whatever the standard size is.
I don't really love hats on guys, it makes me think they are hiding balding. I like bald guys fine, the hiding it is what I don't like.
Intellectually, I know that's preposterous. I hope you know that's preposterous too.
But now this anecdote will exist as a speck of dust in the corner of my unconscious: the possibility that someone's assuming my hat-wearing form is trying to hide my very-obvious baldness. I now wear my hat in defiance of your assumptions, and that's heavier than I planned for my hat fashion.
Yes I know it's my problem, not the hat wearing man's problem. It's from seeing guys on stage using hats that way, I think.
Have you considered that they might be wearing a hat because their head is cold?
Not around here, no. To keep the sun off, yes. Those are generally deeply unfashionable hats like my grandma visor is on me, though. Or those baseball caps.
I think OP was talking about hats as a fashion accessory though.
I ignore fashion and wear hats for good sun protection because Australia... Trend to opt for a legionnaire large enough to cover the face if needed.
Something like this:
I wear a bucket hat. Keeps the sun off my head. Do I care what I look like?
Not at all. It's colorful too.
Bucket hats are back anyway, I literally got one as swag from an Electric Callboy concert
but does it? the brim is really small.
the head and face, while connected, may have different sunlight requirements.
Yeah it seems to work well for me. I do keep it pretty low over my face.
Because having a hat is a huge pain in the ass.
I sometimes find wearing a hat to cause a headache, but never ass pain. You may be using it wrong. Have you tried reading the instructions?
Bruh... You wear them on your head, not your ass.
No, my hair is glorious.
They need to bring back nacho sombreros with queso in a divot at the top
This really depends on what types of events you attend and the people you associate with. I rarely see baseball caps (and almost never a cowboy hat), but I routinely see flat caps.
Check out whatever merch shops have at whatever events you attend. Most sell hats of some sort, and probably more than just baseball caps.
Or, better yet, just wear whatever you want to wear without worrying about how others see you. Making your fashion choices based on how others will see you will never make people respect you.
I want tricorns to come back in style
I just think they are neat.
Fashion? Why?
I do wear a wide brimmed hat to shade my face and neck on sunny days. Exposure to sun causes cancer.
No. I yearn for ponchos and scarves and sashes
I already wear a hat pretty much every day.
All those pins pointing right at your skull, gives me the willies, i get worried enough about the press stud in the centre of a baseball cap
I'll never be this cool 😭
I have no hair on top of my head, so I'm always wearing a hat. A Tilly in the summer and a toque in the winter. But I don't wear them for fashion purposes, strictly functional.
What I do wish would come into fashion are robes. So comfy and functional!
Ah, a toque is a beanie hat, as far as I can tell.
Do you mean bath robes or wizard robes?
I'm thinking more like Coruscant fashion:
I will always reference these when the lack of men’s fashion comes up. I don’t think these would suit everyone, but it’s just an example of how much more we could push.
Those look nice, but they don't look all that comfortable or functional.
I don’t think most of these work outside party settings, but the same can be said about a lot of women’s fashion.
Here we go again...
In my country those are the prerogative of old age.
In australia they have been adopted by skinheads (left), and neo nazis (skinheads right) although explicetly at war memorials
There are leftist skinheads hanging around war memorials, in Australia?
Yes, I keep waiting for the male pattern baldness to really commit to hat wearing; it'll be my consolation prize for getting older.
I knew a guy going through chemo and he was always wearing these lovely Tibetan hats.
I've always wanted to give a bowler hat a try, but it seems like a slippery slope - bowler hat this week, tricorn next month, then we're into powdered wigs...where does it end? Do we even want it to end?
What draws you to the pilgrim hat?
Getting Washington Had a Hundred Dicks vibe from the Pilgrim Hat now....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA
You have to do it fashionably. Most men can't do that. They wear a fedora without a skincare routine, they don't wear fitting clothes and often don't work to smell nice.
The result is similar to people who drive shitty cars with a stylized paint job. It just looks worse than a regular paint job now.
A skincare care routine is pretty far off the scale of what men do to take care of themselves, but I know what you mean (and have had natrually good skin). Everything is slovenly, but they put a fedora on top and think it makes them Gary Cooper.
nope. not any more than I want ties all the time. both two confining. The exception is practical ones. LIke a wear an umbrella hat and would love the og rice farmer type
The Mortal Kombat/Big Trouble in Little China hat?
Those are pretty bad ass, but bulky.
eyup. keeps the rain and sun off and you can do the think where you sit and pull your knees up to your chest and protect your whole body but then its elevated from the head so does not trap heat.
Just waiting for ones I'd actually use. Cowboy and old-school hats don't really fit me, but berets are kind of hipster and don't either, so yeah.
Wear the hat you want to see in the world!
It's sad because hats are so practical, I was at an outdoor event on the weekend getting toasted in the sun with just a trucker hat, because I didn't have the balls to wear my much more practical and protective cowboy hat
This is when I wear my tilly hat. Less ostentatious than a stetson and much better ventilation. Granted, it's not as elegant either.
Baseball cap with a tea towel tucked under it (or if you're really fancy, hemmed on)
Was the problem with cowboy hat that it obstructs the view for the people behind you?
Nah, 100% an embarassment issue
What do you think people would assume about you if you wore a cowboy hat? Or is it just you don't like to draw attention to yourself?
I probably would assume you were trying to make some kind of statement with a cowboy hat, even though its origin was obviously utilitarian.
It's just not wanting the attention/conversations
you might like the hat historian on youtube
I have a tall stack of kangol caps waiting in the closet for this.
No
I have good hair so I never really got into hats until recently. I realized I don't mind getting wet when it's raining a little, except I want protect my glasses from getting rained on. So I bring a hat but skip the jacket, unless it's raining heavily. I feel like carrying around a jacket isn't worth the trouble. Plus my apartment has a covered garage. I can only get so wet in the few seconds it takes to get inside from parking. Plus most of my jobs have had covered parking.
Personally I don't like how hoods block your peripheral vision. I have a fondness for the old hat + trench coat combination, although I own neither. I just like a waterproof baseball cap.
I think you're the first to bring up transportation; the disappearance of walking as a mode of transport is my #1 culprit.
I'm thinking about getting a fez, probably a good handmade one. Fezes are cool.
How One Of The Last Fez Makers In Cairo Keeps A 600-Year-Old Tradition Alive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYPXGqtacpw
You can just wear a hat, I have a toque I'm quite fond of.
No. Don't feel strongly about hats. Wouldn't want to live someplace where wearing a hat is expected. I'm a band T-shirt and jeans kind of guy though.
I do not care at all about fashion. I throw on a ballcap if it's sunny and I'm doing yardwork or it's raining and I want to keep the rain off my glasses. More rarely, if out in intense sun for a long time, I have a couple of other hats. That's the extent of the time I'm wearing hats (and that's more because I need to than ever want to).
I wear a wide brimmed straw or wool hat when I'm outside. Skin cancer runs in my family. I don't really care what other people think about it.
??? Winter is coming.
I'm not sure where you are but, around here it's pretty common to have some kind of hat. As you mentioned it's usually a baseball cap but, we do have sunblockers(I think thats the name?), fisherman caps and occasionally straw hats.
I have never been a hat guy though, I occasionally will wear a ball cap but it's only if I'm going to be outside a lot.
Yes, outside of trucker/baseball caps, we do seem to fulfill the utilitarian need to shade our heads and shoulders from the sun in the most boring ways possible. Women do wear some delightfully large straw hats to garden and to go to the beach.
Eh. In winter I wear my wool fedora. Rest of the year I wear flatcaps as smart casual, snapbacks with street style or my Tilly when I’m up and about outside the city.
I wear a coolie or conical straw hat when doing yard work.
I don't like hoods or umbrellas so I wear hats in bad weather. Or strong sun.
Baseball caps are ok for bad weather since it stops the rain getting on my face, but if it's really tipping it down I'll often wear a waterproof, waxed-cotton bucket hat I have. In good weather I have my trusty tarp hat which is awesome.
Oh, yes, we also have hoodies, but it drives me absolutely crazy how useless cotton is in the rain and the cold.
I have a waterproof hoodie that looks like cotton. Unfortunately it doesn’t breathe or stretch like cotton, and most importantly the hood doesn’t stand up enough to keep the rain off
I've seen bucket hats as well. Occasionally, a fedora
I got a beanie with a short bill that I wear when it's cold.
I wear hats. This is just confounds me.
And I am far from balding. What?
Last when it was too hot outside for my noggin (which happens rarely hereabouts, even though I'm balding), I tore a square of white cloth from the rag heap in garage (meant for motor oil and suchlike), folded into a doube triangle, and tied the whole mess onto my noggin (apex goes behind, hypotenuse on the forehead, knot behind again).
What's that called? A bandana? Probably not a turban.
That's a do-rag; and it works for anyone with hair. I used to wear one working outside and it squished out all the insulating air in my hair so ḧeat could transmit insted of be trapped.
Depends on where you live. Sunhats are pretty normal around the world. Other types of men's headwear are commonplace in specific countries, and some religions have religious men's headwear.
I cannot say that I long for the return of hats, as I do not enjoy wearing hats. More power to you in your quest for hats.
Back in the day I chuckled when David Lettermen said that anyone who wears a fedora after the 1950's looks like a dick.
I long for the day when facial hair falls out of fashion again.
ew why. I cannot stand clean shaven. Beards are beautiful
I do not like my chin these days, but I am heartily sick of the middle-age goatee.
No, and I hate that it somehow became socially acceptable to wear them inside.
let me hide my baldness!
Why though? It’s a normal thing people’s bodies do. I also don’t get the whole “oh no a bald patch you must instantly go full cueball” attitude people sometimes have.
My reply was mostly tongue-in-cheek on my part. I'm actually really happy with being bald these days (finally) but it took a while and it's a wild transition. Losing a full head of beautiful hobbit hair after having it for a quarter of a century is a pretty jarring adjustment when it happens in just a year or two.