# What happened to men's hats?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 7, 1999, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598 "1999-11-07T05:51:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)
#### Post date: [November 7, 1999, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/1 "1999-11-07T05:51:00Z")
I’m sure this has been covered somewhere before, but just when, where, and how was it decided that hats are no longer a part of serious men’s wear? Seems like I heard something about it ending with JFK’s inaugural, but I’m not sure. I think I’d look pretty good with a hat. Maybe I’d go for a watch chain, too, and big shoulder pads and a Clark Gable moustache. But that’s another story.
DHR
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [November 7, 1999, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/2 "1999-11-07T07:16:00Z")
Also around the same time JFK stopped wearing hats, Sean Connery stopped wearing them in James Bond films. Bond fanatics can probably pinpoint that year more accurately. Bond wears a hat in “Dr. No”, but I don’t how often he wears one in others.
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### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [November 7, 1999, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/3 "1999-11-07T07:20:00Z")
The popular belief is that when JFK eschewed a hat for his inaugural, the whole men’s hat fashion collapsed. Funny you should mention Clark Gable, 'cause he did the same thing for undershirts when he appeared in _It Happened One Night_ in 1934. When he took of his shirt in front of Claudette Colbert and revealed he was wearing no undershirt, the sales of these garments plummeted.
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TT
“Believe those who seek the truth.
Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide
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### Author:  [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)
#### Post date: [November 7, 1999, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/4 "1999-11-07T19:26:00Z")
The reason I’d always heard was that cars started being made smaller. Men had to remove their hats to get in and out of their cars and eventually just stopped bothering.
No idea if it’s true or not, but it’s kind of an interesting theory.
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Leslie Irish Evans
[http://leslie.scrappy.net](http://leslie.scrappy.net)
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### Author:  [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)
#### Post date: [November 7, 1999, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/5 "1999-11-07T19:36:00Z")
Hey, thetre was a thresd on this already. We are discussing formal wear in mPSIMS. Come join us.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [November 8, 1999, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/6 "1999-11-08T02:33:00Z")
See the “baseball caps” thread. Men do still wear hats.
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)
#### Post date: [November 8, 1999, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/7 "1999-11-08T03:00:00Z")
## Here’s the old [Men in hats](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003098.html) thread on the exact same topic.
Back off, man. I’m a scientist.
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### Author:  [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)
#### Post date: [November 8, 1999, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/8 "1999-11-08T23:27:00Z")
Last February when I visited NYC I walked most of mid-Manhanttan in jeans, hiking boots, a tan parka and my favorite fedora - which happens to be green/brown camoflage. It was comfortable but I soon began thinking I must really look like hick who just fell off the haywagon. I apparently didn’t _look_ as clueless as I felt because three different people asked me for directions on the subway platform and I had yet to figure out which direction was uptown or downtown. I neglected to buy a proper New York brim while I was there but I plan to correct that as soon as possible.
P.S. But I did dress presentably when I saw _Miss Saigon_.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [November 9, 1999, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/9 "1999-11-09T17:13:00Z")
So is it true men wear baseball hats backwards cause they don’t come with instructions on which side faces forward?
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### Author:  [@Minxsmom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minxsmom)
#### Post date: [November 10, 1999, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/10 "1999-11-10T06:32:00Z")
Well, I bought my S.O. a beautiful grey felt fadora last year. I can bearly get him to take it off. Finally, in late April I stole it - I had to to get him to stop wearing it - I gave it back two weeks ago. While mens hats are not technically in _style_, I don’t think people really care one way or the other.
Womens hats are a different story. I LOVE hats. I cannot wear hats outside my house or a formal garden wedding, because I cannot bear the looks I get. I have gotten the strangest looks and comments when wearing hats. _sigh_
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [November 10, 1999, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/11 "1999-11-10T06:49:00Z")
JFK did wear a tophat at his inauguration, at least when he was going to it. But I think he took the hat off for the rest of the ceremony and the parade.
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### Author:  [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)
#### Post date: [November 10, 1999, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-mens-hats/4598/12 "1999-11-10T06:52:00Z")
Everyone knows it started with that band “men without hats”.
we can dance if we wanna…
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The only way to rid yourself of temptation is to yield to it–Oscar Wilde