Arguments For A Good Hat

[The Wiser Hatter]

Found this while surfing around tonite.
http://lifeasahuman.com/2010/humor/arguments-for-a-good-hat/

 

[randooch]

Amusing read, but I'd have to strongly disagree with :

"Except for Harrison Ford, there are no poster guys for stylish hats."

 

[fmw]

Thanks for the chuckle. That was entertaining.

 

[Duper]

Thanks for sharing.

I recall my "The early warning system sounds" moment clearly.

I do however know that even if I had hair as thick the grass on Tiger Woods lawn I would still wear a hat. I only wish I had found the lounge and started purchasing good hats sooner.

 

[monbla256]

Well written and some interesting thoughts on "Hatting" I like this the best in the whole article ... "Ask her if your new covering will embarrass her when you go out in public together . . . but never reply if she uses your question as an opening to find out whether you think her new dress makes her bum look fat."
GOOD ADVICE

 

[Feraud]

Oh Bruce...

The demise of men’s hats as a required piece of apparel, as they were in dad’s day, can be laid directly at the feet of President John F. Kennedy

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

The whole JFK reasoning has more to people spending more time in cars and the styling of cars changing. Look at the roofs of cars in the 40's and early fifty's. Then look at cars in the sixtys.

39 Chevy Deluxe.

56 Chevy.

66 Chevy

Just look at the head room on those 40's and 50's cars. You could get in the car with your hat still on. Not so easy with the 60's cars and the cars of today.
I always have to watch how I sit down when wearing a Fedora and getting into my car so the the crown doesn't hit the roof. Wearing my newsboy's never a worry. Today's baseball cap is the decendant of the newsboy caps.

 

[scottyrocks]

Today's baseball cap is the decendant of the newsboy caps.

Both types got their start in the late 19th C. In fact, 1860 is the date given for the first recognizable baseball cap that was worn in a baseball game. So either they both got their starts at around the same time, or the baseball cap predated the newsboy cap by a few years.

The flat cap, however, can be traced back to the 14th C. The only thing a flat cap and newsboy cap have in common is that they have a bill, and the folding of part of the crown's material over the bill. Otherwise, the crowns are built differently.

 

[Fletch]

The whole JFK reasoning has more to people spending more time in cars and the styling of cars changing.

"When the legend becomes fact - print the legend."

 

[Engrishman]

The whole JFK reasoning has more to people spending more time in cars and the styling of cars changing. Look at the roofs of cars in the 40's and early fifty's. Then look at cars in the sixtys.

I like how the article covers both bases, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus as to which came first.

The demise of men’s hats as a required piece of apparel, as they were in dad’s day, can be laid directly at the feet of President John F. Kennedy... This new, liberated style even had an impact on the auto industry. Cars were designed with lower rooflines because men no longer wore hats like Bogart (or smoked unfiltered Camels) when they sat behind the wheel.

It's now a chicken-and-the-egg scenario: Which came first? Did JFK's vanity set the trend for men leaving their hats at home, allowing automobile manufacturers the license to lower car roofs? Or did car companies squash hat wearing by releasing cars with lower and lower roofs, forcing trendsetters (like JFK) to leave their hats at home? Correlation does not equal causality, after all.

 

[Rat Pack]

I bought my first "cap", a Kangol after a week in a convertible on Maui. Although I have a "full" head of hair, it's always been baby fine, so I know very well the the "scalp on fire" feeling he mentions

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Don't be fooled by the height of the rooflines.The cars of the 60s had lower rooflines,but you also sat lower in the seats. The 40s & 50s cars had higher sitting bench seats,thus less headroom than one might expect.I own 2 trucks from the 50s,and they dont have the headroom you might think,but lots of guys wore fedoras while driving.Some of th 40s cabs were really tight.

 

[Lefty]

scores - literally, scores - of threads on this subject [JFK/hatlessness]
Hat sales have been declining since at least the early 30s.

 

[Hoyt Clagwell]

Biltmore Hats sales increased during the 30s and 40s. In 1957 they opened a new plant had nearly 400 hatters putting out 2400 hats a day.That was one third of the hats made in Canada at that time. 7200 hats a day. Somebody musta been buyin em.