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Age concern

Big Man

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,781
Location
Nebo, NC
I don't think wearing a fedora makes me look any older than I am (I'm 54). I do think wearing a fedora makes me look more "authoritative".

It will be interesting to see what some of the younger members think about this topic.
 

irb

Familiar Face
Messages
94
Location
Mesa, Arizona
Well, to some extent; but it might depend on the actual age of the person wearing it. A 12-year-old wearing a fedora isn't going to look 40, but a 25-year-old might get mistaken for someone a bit older, sure.

I think our current fashions and media try to keep men boys and women girls. I see boys in their 30s acting and dressing like they're still in high school, for instance. Now, I don't necessarily have a problem with that in the sense that people ought to do they find rewarding; but it does mean that fewer and fewer people (men and women) are putting childish things aside when they're no longer children. As I see it, more people are dressing as if they were younger, which means that wearing more classic styles might in fact, make you look older.
 

ScottF

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,748
A friend who worked at an up-scale clothing store used to complain every time he saw me wearing a fedora - said no one under 70 should be wearing a fedora. Well, one day he dressed up for an interview and put on my Borsalino (in avatar). He now owns it :)

I think it just adds to a young attitude which involves bucking trends (or reviving trends), so perhaps it makes me look younger?
 
Messages
10,524
Location
DnD Ranch, Cherokee County, GA
My wife & son say that there are certain hats I have that are "old man hats". When I wear them, I look like an old man. I am much more concerned with my skin looking older from not wearing a hat that wearing of the hat making me look old.
 

tortswon

Practically Family
Messages
511
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Actually quite the opposite for me...

I'm 57 and am often around younger people (in their 20's) because I teach college and I also have many nieces and nephews in that age range. They tell me my hats make me look younger and more hip. I think what you wear with your hat and how you wear it makes all the difference. It's what I call, "hattitude." Best, Sam
 

Thwack

Familiar Face
Messages
65
Location
Upstate NY
[huh] Actually the opposite. I get carded at liquor stores and tabacconists more when I wear my hat then when I don't.
 

Big Man

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,781
Location
Nebo, NC
Cigarband said:
I was wearing my Panama Bob Cuenca yesterday at the Supermarket, and a Woman half my age chatted me up and gave me her number. She said she loved the HAT!


Hopefully, you are over 40 ... :D
 

Dewhurst

Practically Family
Messages
653
Location
USA
I have no idea if any of my fedoras make me look older. My wife assures me that it is the face that determines how old a person looks, not the hat.[huh]

Besides, all of my fedoras are pretty dressy (I don't really go in for the "adventure" fedora so popular these days) snap brim affairs, so that may make some kind of difference.
 

m000m000

One of the Regulars
Messages
114
Location
Finland
tortswon said:
I think what you wear with your hat and how you wear it makes all the difference. It's what I call, "hattitude." Best, Sam

This, more than anything.


Last year I was attending a decennial birthday party of an older relative of mine together with my mother. The weather was rather bad, so I was wearing a trench coat over my grey suit, topped of with a light-grey Dobbs - Not vintage or anything, just your usual usual modern things you'd expect anyone to to wear at an "informal" dress event such as this.
We were both somewhat soaked by the time we arrived as there was a fair bit of walk from the car park and we only had one of those tiny foldable umbrellas which don't really cover much anything, especially when windy, so I let my mother hold it so she could at least keep her hair dry. As we arrived, we were greeted by the hosts, and then proceeded to hang our wet overcoats in the vestibule.

So, my mother was catching up with some more distant relative whom had come to look around who had arrived. It was an older lady a bit younger than my mother, and someone who I myself didn't recognize at all. As I'm about to lift my mother's overcoat on the hanging rack, I hear this ladyperson ask my mother (divorced as of 7 years prior to when this event took place) "If the male person accompanying her perhaps would be a new companion of hers?"


...I'm in my mid-twenties.


It's a somewhat amusing story (that got told around a lot that evening lol), and while there's more circumstances to it than just hat and clothing, I really doubt the lady would have asked the question if she'd met us on the street in everyday casualwear ;-).
 

Delthayre

One of the Regulars
Messages
258
Location
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Age adds distinction, youth piles on annoyance

I think that wearing a hat does make me look older, although my beard has a like effect, so its difficult to ascertain how greatly the hats contribute to that.

That is not, however, in any way a cause to me for, "concern."
 

Tomasso

Incurably Addicted
Messages
13,719
Location
USA
Dewhurst said:
it is the face that determines how old a person looks, not the hat.
Bingo!!!

And the same goes for clothing. Really, we see it here at the Lounge everyday with young guys wearing vintage.
 

J.J. Gittes

A-List Customer
Messages
375
Location
Chinatown
I'm 16 and wear my hats fairly often, most of the time my vintage whippet look alike. A lot of people think I'm older, but I don't think its as much of the hat as it is the way I talk and act. Not sure though. Could a be either or a combo.
 

Erik

One of the Regulars
Messages
177
Location
The Rockies
"Do any lounger feel that wearing a fedora makes them look older?"

I do not. My wife and several friends disagree. I'm convinced that it is because they associate fedoras with older times and the older people who hail from them.
 

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