# How Do I START A Trend? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922 "2006-10-18T12:46:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/1 "2006-10-18T12:46:58Z")
I like hats 9those sharp 30’s style fedoras, like Jack Nicholson wore in “CHINATOWN”. I would like to encourage their return to fashion-how would i do this? I can’t start a ternd by myself-would i have to pay famous people to start wearing hats? suppose I had a few million $ to blow-could I contact brad Pitt’s agents and arrange for him to start wearing hats 9in return for a fee, of course0? or would it be better to pay for ads for hats? It’s like the "abckwards’ baseball caps-how would i get young people to adopt this trend? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/2 "2006-10-18T12:48:26Z")
You’d really be milking the chimp trying to start a Fedora trend. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/3 "2006-10-18T13:49:18Z")
\*Slaps \*\*Ludovic \*_with a wet trout._ Welcome to the Aughts, **ralph124c**. Fedoras are gone, never to return. Much as I may miss them, they’re not coming back. Mostly 'cause they’d look really stupid with baggy jeans and hockey jerseys. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/4 "2006-10-18T14:07:14Z")
The trick to any fad is _not caring that you like like a complete tool_. Wear a fedora. (I wear an Akubra, FWIW). Go out in public with it. As long as you don’t care that it’s not in fashion, people will tend to think “Wow, that guy’s a trailblazer! Doing the whole hat thing. That’s out there, man.” They might also think “What a dickhead!”, but pay them no heed. They’re just jealous they never thought of wearing a fedora with jeans, a pair of hiking boots, a Mambo Loud Shirt, and a brown leather jacket. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/5 "2006-10-18T14:13:04Z")
There’s an interesting book called _“The Tipping Point”_ which talks about how seemingly small things can become large phenomena. Things like the grunge movement starting in a small group on people in the PNW and spreading like wildfire. At a certain point a fad becomes larger than is stoppable if the initial group moves on to something else. It’s an interesting little book, and should be available at your local library. Wearing hats would be far better than the current boomer trend of shaving their balding heads and wearing a VanDyke. StG ---
**Author:** ![Twinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@Twinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twinkie)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/6 "2006-10-18T14:23:19Z")
I wear a fedora-type hat. It looks kind of like [this one](http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com/page/H/PROD/fedora_hats/0110-blk), only it’s tweed and has no feather. It was my uncle’s – he wore it in bad weather. When he died, I took it as a memento, and I wear it in the rain instead of carrying an umbrella. It’s been almost 2 years. Now that the Fall / Winter fashions are out, I see the same style, feminized, in lots of women’s stores. They’re prettier than mine, like [this one](http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/2904393/0~2376779~6006941?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6006941&P=1), but I’m OK with that. I wear it even though it’s too big and makes my hair look funny. I don’t wear it to be hip, ya know? Bottom line, though, is that it’s already almost a trend, and obviously, _I_ started it 🙂 . Of course, I’m female, so that doesn’t help you too much. You like the hat? Wear the hat. The world will follow – eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/7 "2006-10-18T14:29:07Z")
The fedora has already made it’s fashion comeback. Kid Rock, Ashton Kucher, that pasty thing that was dating Kate Moss for a while there, all of them rocking fedoras. A quick Google turned up [this teen fashion site](http://teenfashion.about.com/od/trends/tp/coolhats.htm) that ranks the fedora as the #2 cool hat to be wearing. Looks like you’ll have to find a new trend. I suggest those hunting hats with the rabbit fur ear flaps. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/8 "2006-10-18T14:46:09Z")
There’s a cute Connie Willis novel called [Bellwether](http://www.amazon.com/Bellwether-Connie-Willis/dp/0553562967/sr=1-1/qid=1161182414/ref=sr_1_1/104-1317897-0539939?ie=UTF8&s=books) about a social scientist trying to figure out how fads get started. From wikipedia, \*bellwether \*is the term applied to a person or group of people who tend to create, influence or set trends. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/9 "2006-10-18T15:09:59Z")
I have to admit that the first thing a Fedora hat reminds me of is a getto pimp. Sorry people, it just does. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/10 "2006-10-19T01:23:11Z")
If you bankroll Indiana Jones 4, that might jumpstart a Fedora trend. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-start-a-trend/376922/11 "2006-10-19T10:43:36Z")
[QUOTE=StGermain] Wearing hats would be far better than the current boomer trend of shaving their balding heads and wearing a VanDyke. [/QUOTE] I must have started that. I’ve been doing that for about 12 years now.