# who was the first person to wear a hat backwards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 19, 2004, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989 "2004-02-19T08:22:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/41 "2015-10-17T21:18:50Z")
In an amusing anecdote from Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller mentions his drunken buddy wearing his hat “assways” when they stumbled into a church. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/42 "2015-10-17T21:19:11Z")
> [@Who\_me\_1](#): > > I doubt anyone can claim to have first worn a hat backwards. Baseball catchers have been wearing their cap backwards since long before the 60’s. I think the essence (if not the literal word) of the OP is when the idea of wearing a hat backwards as a _fashion statement_ originated. Like others, I have very little doubt that wearing a hat backwards for practical purposes has been around for a long time. > [@hogarth](#): > > I also thought about bicorns/cocked hats; some people wore them skinny-end forward and some people wore them flat-side forward. There’s a very good point here. Is it always the case that a hat has a “front” and a “back”, or do only _some_ styles of hat have a recognized front half and back half? If there is a distinction, who set or sets the rules? GQ Magazine? Some medieval tailors’ guild? The king? Your mom? ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/43 "2015-10-17T21:42:57Z")
Another amusing tale of hats changing direction: there was a case of a group that changed how they wore their hats in the 12th century, and not just for style reasons: > **[Pope-Pourri: What You Don't Remember From Catholic School](https://books.google.com/books?id=nY_YjyW75L8C&pg=PA84&dq=pope%2Bhat%2Bsideways%2Bhorns&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMIyrDZubzKyAIVRJmICh1wyQPX#v=onepage&q=pope%20hat%20sideways%20horns&f=false)** > > How many Catholics know that a priest invented the fax machine, or that monks were the first to make coffee, champagne, and pretzels? How many know why St. Elmo is portrayed in art with his intestines hanging out, or why St. Maximus is often shown... > [@](#): > > Historical Note: The mitre started out as a short pointed cap, but by the twelfth century it had grown much taller and evolved from the closed cone shape into the open, two-pointed (one in front and one in back) version that popes wear today. > > The only difference: The popes of the twelfth century wore theirs sideways. > > That created a problem: The points reminded people so much of the devil that they became known as horns so the popes rotated their hats ninety degrees. They’ve worn them that way ever since. - Pope-Pourri: What You Don’t Remember From Catholic School ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/44 "2015-10-17T21:51:07Z")
I am shocked and astonished that on _this_ board, the most basic of questions has not been _extensively_ addressed - what constitutes a hat? Head covering protecting from the sun? Something like [this](https://www.heritagecostumes.com/secure/images/products/8520.jpg) would qualify. I’m sure that sometime in the multi-millennial span of ancient Egyptian civilization, some with-it dude took it upon himself to wear the nemes backwards, with a Uraeus cocked jauntily to the side, to enhance his standing with the ladies, thereby rendering his choice a stylistic one. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/45 "2015-10-17T21:53:46Z")
Strictly as a style choice, check out this [1938 photo of the Brooklyn Dodgers clowning around.](http://tommcmahon.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/21/babedodger2b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/46 "2015-10-17T21:56:48Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I also thought about bicorns/cocked hats; some people wore them skinny-end forward and some people wore them flat-side forward. Probably not the _same_ hats, though. A fore-and-aft bicorne may have different-sized or -shaped brims front and back, while a hat to be worn athwart is balanced. Placement of straps, cockades and badges is different. More to the point, perhaps, they were generally (as in the Napoleonic era) worn as an element of uniform, so the mode would be dictated by the wearer’s service and rank. [That a similar uniform hat might have a different ‘orientation’ depending on the wearer’s rank goes back much earlier.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galea_(helmet)) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/47 "2015-10-18T16:04:26Z")
Backwards is nothing, in the Middle Ages, it became fashionable to wear your chaperon ([hood](http://www.revivalclothing.com/ProductImages/hood_BurgundyWool.jpg) with looooong tail) by [sticking your head into the face-hole and wearing it as a hat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaperon_%28headgear%29#Using_the_wrong_hole). And that’s the way most people think of it being worn, as that’s what features in Late Medieval art. But it’s the same basic construction as the earlier hood. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/48 "2015-10-18T16:58:59Z")
Since this is a zombie, I’ll post a video of [how to remove a ball cap](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqp1bGuiHHs) (a bit of bad language). ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/49 "2015-10-19T08:30:49Z")
For a while in the 1980s, anyone at my school who wore their cap backwards to look cool was mocked as a wannabe “Axl Rose.” I am sure he copied the look from LA street gangs. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2015, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-first-person-to-wear-a-hat-backwards/229989/50 "2015-10-19T09:20:19Z")
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