# What happened to hats? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548 "2005-11-04T21:08:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/21 "2005-11-05T17:07:33Z")
Women still wear hats. To put together a look, one needs to know how to accessorize. That includes hats. Dressup hats like the one worn to church in the 1950s are definitely out as far as I can see, except maybe in certain Southern Baptist congregations on Sunday in places like Dallas (I’m guessing, I don’t go there). But as a semi-casual accessory, like for a summertime garden party, an elegant straw hat is still chic. Even a semi-casual look needs the wearer to be put together and accessorize. Just IMHO. Hats are still useful for two things: style and to keep the sun off. Men may still wear hats for the practical second reason if they’re going to be out in the sun a lot. There will always be the offbeat sharpster like **friedo** who likes to cut a dashing figure with a fedora, and I say more power to 'em, men have a right to accessorize too. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/22 "2005-11-05T17:14:01Z")
More from author Neil Steinberg: > [@](#): > > First, dress-hat sales did not tank after Kennedy’s inauguration. They had tanked long before — decades before. The peak year for men’s hat manufacture in the United States was 1903, a year that also saw a widespread hatless fad. By the mid-1920s, hatlessness was a major problem for the industry, which was in free fall by the late 1940s and early 1950s. Men’s dress-hat sales in the United States in 1960 were half of what they had been a decade earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/23 "2005-11-05T17:15:57Z")
FWIW, I’ve taken to wearing a porkpie hat. I have a black wool one, and a coconut straw one. I’ve been thinking of getting a fedora, only I’d have to get a suit and trenchcoat to go with it. The suit would not be practical, but the trench coat sure would be! ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/24 "2005-11-05T19:56:18Z")
I still wear a hat most of the time. A Stetson most of the time, a custom-made cowboy hat for formal occasions. It keeps the sun out of my eyes and the rain off my face & the back of my neck. It provides a surprising amount of warmth in the winter (although it doesn’t help the ears), and helps prevent sunburn. I can take it off and wave it around to move cows in a different direction or intimidate an aggressive bull. It softens the blow when I hit my head on a tree branch or door frame. Most important, though, I like the look. And while hats are a lot less common these days, there’s certainly no shortage of caps–especially among the younger males. ---
**Author:** ![pocelene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/0ea827/32.png) [@pocelene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pocelene)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/25 "2005-11-05T21:29:08Z")
> [@Usram](#): > > Nah, Kennedy was just following the trend. Hats were already on the way out by the time he was elected. There was a fig fuss made by the tuxedo industry that he didn’t get inaugurated in a top hat, so he bowed a little and carried one. ---
**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:** [November 5, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/26 "2005-11-05T22:43:34Z")
Walloon: 1903 was the peak. 1904 We went to war. Japan and Russia were at each other’s throats. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/27 "2005-11-05T23:31:00Z")
> [@InvisibleWombat](#): > > I still wear a hat most of the time. A Stetson most of the time, a custom-made cowboy hat for formal occasions. It keeps the sun out of my eyes and the rain off my face & the back of my neck. It provides a surprising amount of warmth in the winter (although it doesn’t help the ears), and helps prevent sunburn. I can take it off and wave it around to move cows in a different direction or intimidate an aggressive bull. It softens the blow when I hit my head on a tree branch or door frame. You can drink out of it Lay down on it It really doesn’t matter You can carry smokes And money, folks In a big ten-gallon hatter It’s the greatest thing To ever hit the scene In the last two hundred years And if you have no hair up there It’ll fit over your ears _My Girl Don’t Like My Cowboy Hat_, Hank Williams, Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2005, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/28 "2005-11-05T23:57:42Z")
Someone on this board once made the observation that, if you look at fashon trends over the last century or so, you see a steady move towards less elaborate, more casual clothing. If you look at those really old Post-Civil War photos, you see women wearing big poofy dresses, and seemingly every guy wore a full three-piece suit and tophat everywhere. Over the decades, that style of dressing has gradualy diminished, and now the majority of people wear suits or dresses only on special occasions where formality is expected. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/29 "2005-11-06T00:13:46Z")
> [@Harmonious Discord](#): > > 1904 We went to war. Japan and Russia were at each other’s throats. Who is “we”? Not the United States. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/30 "2005-11-06T00:27:28Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Someone on this board once made the observation that, if you look at fashon trends over the last century or so, you see a steady move towards less elaborate, more casual clothing. . Then, how comes that we’re stil expected to wear something really inconveniet and serving absolutely no purpose at all, namely a tie? People wore the most ludicrous stuff during various eras, however the most pointless and inconvenient generally went out of fashion after at most some decades. But the tie has been around forever and doesn’t seem to be willing to be replaced by something new and equally useful like a feather head crest or colored ribbons hanging down from the forearms. ---
**Author:** ![Barnes\_N.Noble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@Barnes\_N.Noble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barnes_N.Noble)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/31 "2005-11-06T00:33:44Z")
> [@](#): > > If you look at those really old Post-Civil War photos, you see women wearing big poofy dresses, and seemingly every guy wore a full three-piece suit and tophat everywhere. But does that give an accurate picture (pardon the pun)? In the post-Civil War era photos were a rare thing. Most people would wear their best clothes for a photo. And photos would be more likely to be taken at important (and likely formal) events. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/32 "2005-11-06T00:57:54Z")
Hat lovers- Come visit Oakland! I’ve seen nothing but hats since I’ve got here. Men in suits and fedoras. Women in cake-like church hats. Young folks in berets and newsboy hats and the rest in beanies and baseball hats. I think part of it is that this is a city. Most people walk for short trips (and have lots of places to walk to) and even when you drive chances are you’ll end up parking far away. City folks spend a lot more time exposed to the elements on a daily basis. I know I bought my hat because when I walk around Lake Merritt after work, the sun shines in my eyes. Nowdays, most of us live in the suburbs and go straight from garage to garage, and we rarely really need to spend much time outside in inclimate weather. And so few of us wear hats or hang around people that do. Poverty may also be a factor. Poor people know the value of dressing for the weather- indoors or out. When you can’t just pop in to your nicely heated home, you learn the little tricks to keeping warm. I think part of it is cultural. Black people seem to be way more in to hats than anyone else. Formalware is really really different in a Black community than outside of one. How does this factor in with other trends? I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/33 "2005-11-06T01:04:14Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > … Hats are still useful for two things: style and to keep the sun off. … And for warmth in certain parts of North America anyway, at certain times of the year. I wear one of my wool ski hats to work at least a couple of weeks out of the year and I don’t care if it looks dorky, it’s freakin’ cold out there! ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/34 "2005-11-06T03:08:05Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Screw hats, what happened to spats?! Spats are “old hat.” Hats have been ‘blocked.’ ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/35 "2005-11-06T04:03:34Z")
I’m just glad hats aren’t in. I have a melon the size of… a melon. The only hats that fit this head are made of knit. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/36 "2005-11-06T04:22:08Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I’m just glad hats aren’t in. I have a melon the size of… a melon. The only hats that fit this head are made of knit. A pain I know all too well. I have a 7-3/4 hat size but in a hard felt hat I have a hard time getting a good fit as my noggin is wider relative to front to back length than most. Some hats fit okay like a couple of crushable fur felt fedoras I have but cowboy hats tend to warp the brim a little when I put one on. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/37 "2005-11-06T05:25:02Z")
I can remember my Dad owning and wearing a fedora in the 1950s, but I have no active memories of events where he was actually wearing one. (My Dad was a firm believer in (and repeater of) the adage that if one was trapped behind an idiot driver, the odds were excellent that if you got a chance to pass, you would discover that the idiot was wearing a hat while driving.) I recall getting a hat somewhere between the ages of 7 and 9 to wear to church (and looking forward to Sunday when I could wear it for a while playing “detective” based on some TV show where the private eye wore a hat), but that lasted only a year or so. I’m pretty sure that Dad had stopped bothering with hats except for special occasions long before Kennedy was inaugurated. I cannot find a single photograph of my Dad in a hat, although there are a lot of Easter photos prior to 1960 taken outside with him wearing a suit. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/38 "2005-11-06T19:59:10Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > Then, how comes that we’re stil expected to wear something really inconveniet and serving absolutely no purpose at all, namely a tie? > > People wore the most ludicrous stuff during various eras, however the most pointless and inconvenient generally went out of fashion after at most some decades. But the tie has been around forever and doesn’t seem to be willing to be replaced by something new and equally useful like a feather head crest or colored ribbons hanging down from the forearms. I wasn’t talking about what you’re expected to wear in a formal situation. In decades past, plenty of guys wore a suit all the time, even if they were just going for a walk or something. Anything less would be considered indecent. This sort of “casual formality” has mostly died out, and these days few people wear suits outside of a formal setting. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/39 "2005-11-07T01:42:04Z")
> [@Padeye](#): > > A pain I know all too well. I have a 7-3/4 hat size but in a hard felt hat I have a hard time getting a good fit as my noggin is wider relative to front to back length than most. Some hats fit okay like a couple of crushable fur felt fedoras I have but cowboy hats tend to warp the brim a little when I put one on. You’re just shopping in the wrong places. I have a size 8 (!) head. Stetson stopped making size 8 hats a few years back, and I wrote a letter to the president of the company, saying that I’d been wearing their hats since I was a kid, and I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to anymore. He wrote back telling me I could go to any Stetson dealer in the country and special-order a hat. They’d be happy to make it in my size. My wife found a fedora that’s just a little tight on me, which means it would be large on you. I found a great Australian hat at an art fair that fits me well. There are custom hat makers all over the country. They have a measuring device that uses a collection of pins to determine the exact shape of your head. Custom hats aren’t cheap–my last one cost $425–but they fit perfectly and look sharp. Yes, **Padeye** , there are hats in our sizes. They may be hard to find, and sometimes they cost a bunch of money. But I think it’s worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548/40 "2005-11-07T01:59:22Z")
> [@Phase42](#): > > You can drink out of it > Lay down on it > It really doesn’t matter > You can carry smokes > And money, folks > In a big ten-gallon hatter > It’s the greatest thing > To ever hit the scene > In the last two hundred years > And if you have no hair up there > It’ll fit over your ears > > _My Girl Don’t Like My Cowboy Hat_, Hank Williams, Jr. In northern Ontario we have hats that are much larger than that, as you can see from this photo of me wearing one: [http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/24520040.jpg](http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/24520040.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-hats/329548.md?page=3)