Reactions when you first start wearing brimmed hats.

Alan-Eby said:

I think with a proper (and often more than proper) amount of confidence one can wear just about anything. I'm known as the eccentric one in my group as it is, so there wasn't much reaction to the addition of hats, other than a few of my friends have started to, tenativley, wear hats.

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I agree, I am a history teacher as you can tell by my name so I love all things history. That includes style so when it became financially reasonable to purchase a few fedoras to go with my suits I did it! It goes without saying that our style on this board isn't mainstream but I love my throwback style with my bow ties and fedoras. Just the way I was made! Guess I should have been born in the 20's

Alan-Eby said:

I think with a proper (and often more than proper) amount of confidence one can wear just about anything.

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True enough, but in my opinion there is misplaced confidence, and well-placed confidence. It always helps if the thing you're wearing has something going for it, the more the better.

Part of it may be the familiarity of hat-wearing. The more you wear them, the more comfortable you feel. The more comfortable you feel, the more confident you are, then
you don't feel like you're doing something strange or unusual and it shows.

I get a fair amount of comments when I wear my hats, which is any day I'm wearing something dressier than jeans and a tshirt. Most of them are by and large good comments, being a college student now most people my age identify the fedora with the "mafioso" look. I find the young men in my classes are the ones who generally attempt to make fun of, or make rude comments about my style of dress. And it is usually about how I wear a shirt and tie to class most days versus my hat. The ladies in my classes either don't say anything or are generally very complimentary. When someone makes a snide remark about my sartorial choices, I usually tell them it's not my fault that their parents never taught them to dress properly or that they weren't gifted with a sense of style and panache.

danofarlington said:

I have also noticed that interaction between hats and clothes. A few of my dress hats positively won't go with casual clothes, and a few of my casual hats, like a dirty and stiff old OR, positively won't dress up. In any case, hats and better clothes seem to go together.

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You guys have such complex lives Having to "match" stuff up !! I grew up watching my father wear his 5 hats with anything he put on and it looked fine !! He had 2 dress fedora's, 1 dress western and 1 "old" fedora and 1 "old" western. The dress hats got worn with a suit or sport coat, the "old " hats got worn with the rest of his clothes. he was a proponent of the KISS principle and has passed it on to me. I have 6 felts and 8 Panama's and pretty much do the same as my father. Life's to short to make it complex JMHO

I've been wearing hats for about a month now. About the same time, I started dressing much nicer too. The people who have known me the longest are the ones who seem to react the most. At first they were surprised at the hats. There were some snide remarks about the door-to-door salesman selling encyclopedias or vacuums, but for the most part people said I looked sharp. They haven't seen me without a hat since I started. I'm noticing that some of the other guys at church are starting to dress better, too. My wife and I are hearing comments from the guys and their wives: and it's all positive. I like the way I look and my wife loves it. The opinions of the other people hardly matter. Hatophile described my experience: the longer I wear hats, the more comfortable and confident I am, and it shows.

Agreed monbla, I can't say I got it from my Dad, but what I'm wearing doesn't generally dictate my choice in wearing or not wearing a hat.

monbla256 said:

You guys have such complex lives Having to "match" stuff up !! I grew up watching my father wear his 5 hats with anything he put on and it looked fine !! He had 2 dress fedora's, 1 dress western and 1 "old" fedora and 1 "old" western. The dress hats got worn with a suit or sport coat, the "old " hats got worn with the rest of his clothes. he was a proponent of the KISS principle and has passed it on to me. I have 6 felts and 8 Panama's and pretty much do the same as my father. Life's to short to make it complex JMHO

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Amen!

I am a fan of the STephen Fry Jeeves and Wooster series and I am still trying to figure out, in episode one, what was wrong with Bertie's suit that Jeeves won't let him wear on the train.

On the other hand, I have to admit that I've been caught wearing a cowboy hat or even a dress fedora with a Hawaiian shirt, even when I'm wearing shorts.

One of the advantages to reaching AARP discount status and being known in your home community for wearing hats ALL the time is that people get over being shocked and just leave you alone.

Sam

Sam Craig said:

Amen!

I am a fan of the STephen Fry Jeeves and Wooster series and I am still trying to figure out, in episode one, what was wrong with Bertie's suit that Jeeves won't let him wear on the train.

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I wondered that too as it is a beautiful suit which he wears extensively in other episodes. It could be that Jeeves considers it a town suit, not suitable for a trip to the country. He does recommend a Harris Tweed. (I know, I should get a life...)

It all depends on where your self confidence is and the type of hat you are wearing. Is the hat appropriate for the situation? I'm sure if I walked around downtown Los Angeles or New York in a tall, 6" wide brimmed Western Stetson, people will stare because I look out of place. If I do the same with a fedora, people shrug it off and just remember "a guy in a hat" with no real judgement placed on it.

Of course what you wear along with your hat has a lot to do with it. A nice fedora looks silly if you are dressed in shorts and flip-flops. Same with a ball cap and suit. Of course people will stare at that.

If you have a lot of self confidence, you think people are looking at you because they like what they see. If you don't have a lot of self confidence, you think people are looking at you because you look silly.

Once I hit a certain age, I stopped noticing if anyone was looking at me. When I do notice someone staring, I believe they are wishing they had the self confidence to get away with wearing a hat like mine. It's how I feel that gives me self confidence, not how others think I should dress. That is especially true with the vintage wearing crowd. You can't go by how others feel about your clothes.

I presume the tweed would better withstand the period of sitting on the train without wrinkling the fabric as much ... though I really believe it could just as well be a matter of style and appropriate atire, as well.

At any rate, what you cannot argue is whether Jeeves is correct or not.

If I ever get to take a long train ride again, I will make sure I am wearing tweed.

Jeeves CANNOT be wrong!

Sam

Sam Craig said:

Amen!

One of the advantages to reaching AARP discount status and being known in your home community for wearing hats ALL the time is that people get over being shocked and just leave you alone.

Sam

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You are SOOOOO right about age !! I think the WHOLE "Reactions when you first start wearing hats" thing is very much a generational thing. I guess we have reached the point of being as my daughter told me when I reached 60 "... now you are an official Old Fart daddy " There's something to be said for not having to deal with some of those "important" things anymore

Onward thru the Fog

Yeah,
I just don't want to end up like the old guys who came to Kiwanis meetings 30 years ago in tweed suits that still had bits of the former week's Kiwanian lunch on the lapels.

It's a very short trip from "character" to "crank"

Sam

monbla256 said:

You are SOOOOO right about age !! I think the WHOLE "Reactions when you first start wearing hats" thing is very much a generational thing. I guess we have reached the point of being as my daughter told me when I reached 60 "... now you are an official Old Fart daddy " There's something to be said for not having to deal with some of those "important" things anymore

Onward thru the Fog

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I'm not a senior citizen but I sure do notice that as the years progress, I get away with more and more that made me look silly a few years ago. I've been smoking a pipes for the past 20 years and I used to get stared at like crazy when I first started and now, I just look "right" with a pipe. It's nice to not look young....................... sometimes!

Sam Craig said:

Yeah,

It's a very short trip from "character" to "crank"

Sam

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Amen to that, brother.

Bebop said:

I'm not a senior citizen but I sure do notice that as the years progress, I get away with more and more that made me look silly a few years ago.

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I agree with that. When I was about 50, the balance tipped between "I am afraid of hats because it might put people off" to "I don't care as much what they think, I'm doing the hat thing." Yes, people cut you more slack when you're older. Less peer pressure, more room for individuality. I am guessing I got away from peer pressure somewhere in my 40s. I still care what other people think, but the balance tipped a lot as I got older. Or, maybe we're just irrelevant.

Sam Craig said:

Yeah,
I just don't want to end up like the old guys who came to Kiwanis meetings 30 years ago in tweed suits that still had bits of the former week's Kiwanian lunch on the lapels.

It's a very short trip from "character" to "crank"

Sam

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I'll agree about the food, but I think it takes a bit longer to get to crank than we think. As Gerry sang "...what a long strange trip it's been" I am enjoying some of the liberating aspects of being "older" in life. There's something assuring about a good hat that wears well on you , and you KNOW it, and you put it on every day as you go out in the world. as i say:
Onward thru the Fog

I could care less about what people passing by think of me, but I honestly have the say that in Chicago I have NEVER gotten one bad comment about any hat that Ive ever worn. Most people love it and want to know where I got it. Ive had people in their 50's tell me that my hat looks just like their fathers when they were kids and it brings back a sort of nostalgia for them. It makes me smile. I'm only 26 years old, but I will be the first one the admit that on the whole, most people from my generation don't know sh*t from sh*t and are so much more ignorant of most things than prior generations. Obviously there are many exceptions to that rule on the whole, but I just feel that as technology increases and arts get lost such as, shoe making, hat making, etc, people want to laugh and smirk at things they don't understand and don't care to understand. I know so many people that would rather spend their whole life concentrating on "American Idol" than learn about world history on a vacation, or take a camping trip, or build something with their bare hands. I had an epiphany one day while taking the train to work. I was standing next to a girl who had a purple mow-hawk, shaved sides of her head, 4 nose-rings, tattoos all up and down her boy, a lip ring, and those huge ear plug things. I said to myself. If she has the confidence to walk out of the house every morning, just figuring that EVERYBODY will be looking at her, and still doesn't care.....then I'm going to wear my hats, and look like a well put together person because I want to. Its that simple. If we are lucky, most of use get to spend 75-90 years on this earth, so I figure that in those years, I'm going to do what makes me happy and be the best person I can be. If some guy wearing pants below his ass, sideways ballcap, a shirt that's 4 sizes too big, and untied gym shoes wants to snark at my hats, then I hope he realizes that as much as he's laughing, I will be laughing at him at least 100 times harder. I think our society has lost some of its flair and classiness from even 50 years ago and I think for all us fedora loungers that still have class and brains, we should be proud every time that we put on our hats. It represents a time that once was and hopefully will represent a time that will be once again.

Joshbru3 said:

.... If we are lucky, most of use get to spend 75-90 years on this earth, so I figure that in those years, I'm going to do what makes me happy and be the best person I can be...

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Wise beyond your years Josh. Well said!

gtdean48 said:

Wise beyond your years Josh. Well said!

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Right on.