Probably has something to do with the rise of the Beau Brummel aesthetic as the ideal for men’s clothing. (Women did wear tricorns, but then it was as an adoption of male fashion; they didn’t start as hats for women.) Anyway, Brummel is the one who popularized the perfectly tailored garment as the epitome of good taste. It was fashionable at the time to have a very vertical line – like a Classical column. A tricorn widens out the top of the line a lot more than a top hat does. A stovepipe also makes the wearer look much taller than a tricorn does. Brummel, despite his death in 1840 in France from syphillis, started a stranglehold on men’s fashion in the 19th century, and quality men’s clothing has never really recovered from his influence. In modern times, I would say the tricorn never made a comeback because, unlike the top hat, the initial reaction isn’t one of elegance and sophistication. It’s one of, “Hey! You look like the Quaker Oats guy!” I’m pretty sure that isn’t the effect most people are going for in the daily ensemble. The three-corned hat just in our cultural consciousness as a fashionable item.
Of course, these are all my own vague memories. I’ll have to go and look at 200000 Years of Fashion and whatever else the library has later today. I’ll also go and look up what Granny’s hat would be called, though I’m fairly confident that at that point, it would have just been a hat, maybe a bonnet. There are a coupleversions to choose from. Granny probably would have called it a bonnet.
I could have sworn that I posted to this thread on its first go-around.
I heard (no cites, just a WAG) that the origin of the tricorn was that as wide-brimmed hats age from wear, their brim goes floppy. The easiset thing to do with the big floppy brim was pin it up in the tricorn shape. Somehow the fashion caught on.
But did kids carry backbacks way back then? When I was in public school from 1964 through 1975, believe it or not, people just carried their books in their hands. And if you were a guy you had to carry them in one hand, at the hip; if you used both hands and held them facing forward you’d be carrying them like a girl.
Regarding homburgs and fedoras, I get from old movies the impression that fedoras were considered to have a bit more flair than homburgs; the latter were the sort of hats that would be worn by successful but stuffy and dull businessmen. Is this true at all?
Trilbys and fedoras are the same thing. The term “trilby” is more commonly used in Britain and the term “fedora” is more commonly used in the United States. Interestingly, both names come from plays in which the hats were worn.
I think that Slithy Toves is referring to GI backpacks. If I understand correctly- Man gets government issue Smokey Bear at boot camp. It’s big and takes up too much space when not worn. Either, soldier sent the things home, or they simply gave them back to the supply depot. So either the kids end up with hats free from older brothers, or they could buy the unwanted hats cheaply at surplus stores.
My Own Hat Question
What exactly do you call the hat the Shadow wears?
I’m just working from memory, here, but I think the Shadow wore a snapbrim fedora with a very wide brim. They went well with the exaggerated zoot suit in the 40s. This style came back in the 60s as an accessory for pimps, or so the movies told us.
As far as I know, I’ve met only one pimp in my life. He was a sharp dresser, but nothing like the movie pimps.
What are those caps called that eastern European workers wore back before WWII? Some of the characters in the REM video for “Losing My Religion” wear very similar caps. Most importantly: Where can I get one?
Re Granny’s hat in those photos, a bonnet ties under the chin, while Granny’s flat little hat just perches on her head. I think Granny might call her headwear a “goin’ to church” hat.
In at least one episode Granny did wear a bonnet when she and the Clampetts were forced to dress up as Dogpatch-type denizens for some television commercial Drysdale got them in.
This is another of those occasions when you can’t entirely trust Wikipedia: in the UK only the narrow-brim hat is called a trilby, and the wide-brimmed hat is a fedora – they’re not seen as interchangeable terms. Thus, from the examples they give of fedora wearers, Indiana Jones wears a fedora, but the Blues Brothers definitely sport the trilby.
I want to know what this type of military cap is called. It’s a hat which was sometimes worn by soldiers in the Soviet Red Army during the 30s and 40s. It’s very weird-looking with a pointy top.
Hey, I have one of those! Bought it off Ebay. Of course, living in the SE USA, there aren’t that many days in the winter that I can wear it. (Still don’t know what it’s called, though.)
And I think Granny’s hat might have been a style of “pancake hat.”
