Moving on fromthis closed thread, any explanation about lack of hats in the modern US would also have to explain why a similar move away from headgear in the UK and Europe too.
Also, feel free to post your hat puns here.
Dehatification is likely just part of the trend of deformalization of clothing in the western world. That, and fewer people spending less time outside in the elements, where hats had the purpose of protection from the sun, rain, and wind. And I believe hatlessness is the trend in most parts of the world where they don’t act as traditional religious/tribal identifiers.
The premise of the old thread was wrong. JFK had nothing to do with the decline of hats for men. It was cars, hard to get in and out of with a hat on, especially as cars reduced in size, especially for commuters. This trend started before JFK became president.
For women I assume the change in general attire and hairstyles made a difference though I don’t recall any stated reason.
In fact hats are still very common among men and women in the form of baseball caps, compact, utilitarian, and often an expression of your sports preferences.
I assumed it was part of some sort of cap and trade policy.
A beanie in winter, some form of sun protection in the summer, and a helmet when on a bike. You rarely see me without one.
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Thank you for resurrecting the topic.
I, for one, lament the fact that modern men aren’t always in hats. I think it’s cool. In fact, I’m strongly considering an investment in one I can wear with a suit during the winter. Probably not a fedora (too big), but maybe trilby, homburg or a pork pie.
If anybody can recommend a quality brand, I’m interesting in browsing the stock.
This is what I’ve heard, too. Men increasingly rode in cars to travel (as opposed to more public accommodations), which required you to remove your hat while you rode (to avoid hitting the top of the car). This made hat wearing more inconvenient.
Also, modernity made it it less necessary. In addition to the change to personal vehicles, society also changed out dirt roads for paved ones. With less time walking, and less dirt and dust in the air, men had a reduced need to cover their heads. Or so I’ve heard.
Up until about the mid 1950s cars were quite tall. If you watch the Jay Leno’s Garage YouTube videos, in the one where he shows off his 1950 Nash, I think, or perhaps it was his similar vintage Plymouth, he talks about the enormous amount of headroom and how it was specifically designed to be tall enough for a man to drive while wearing a hat. Then in the late 1950s Detroit introduced “longer and lower” designs. Which begs the question, which came first? Did men stop wearing hats because car roofs had gotten lower? Or did Detroit start designing lower cars because men weren’t wearing hats anymore?
As **Moriarty **pointed out, cars reduced the need for men to wear hats. Hats were outdoor wear, once inside a man removed his hat.
First of all, I always wear a hat (and I’ve pretty much stopped wearing baseball caps).
I don’t really buy the car hypothesis. I think it’s more likely that it was due to the the decline in use for haircreams. People started moving away from the “greasy kid’s stuff” in the 50s, which meant a hat messed up your hair. So people did without.
Here is an article that discusses the demise of the hat amongst middle class me
Interestingly, it credits it to a combination of factors: the increase of cars, the decrease of people outside in the dirt, dust and grime, and changes to hairstyles are all included.
I knew a woman who loved one particular hat. it was the kind without a top, just basically a bill to keep the sun out of her eyes and a band that went around her head. The only adornment was a Nike swoosh. She worked for them and enjoyed displaying the company name on her hat. She carried that chapeau everywhere she went so that it would always be available on a moment’s notice. It was, you see, her trusty ad visor.
I once bought a fedora, a red one, people would linux to see it.