Tell me about hats! I don't wear one yet, but I've noticed that Mr Livered often sports a natty fedora, and Lorac also looks very dapper in his hat. The other day I got off the train (I believe 'alighted' is the right word) and saw a studenty looking lad wearing a bowler. It really suited him, and it made me wonder about the demise of hat wearing, given that they can look so fashionable.

What happened to hats? Apparently, one very practical reason for wearing one was to keep warm on public transport, while another was to protect your hair from the ravages of urban smog. Since the introduction of the Clean Air Act, hair has never had it so good. Hats, on the other hand, seem to belong to a bygone age.

When I was a child it was already unusual to see someone in their 20s or 30s wearing a cap, but school kids wore them. The milkman wore a cap, and old men clung to theirs as though trying to wring a few remaining memories from the fabric of their years.

Do you wear a hat, and if not why not? Is it time for a hat rennaissance?

A hat or cap covers up the undyed roots or bald patch hence the expression 'bearded hat man' in the latter case.

I have always worn a hat of some description, back in Blighty I wore a flat cap like andy cap, and I brought it over here, had it for 7 years until the ex washed it, and killed it! over here in bama hats are still common with all ages, as they are in Texas, so over here they are quite in-fashion, perhaps its because they still have their original function of keeping the sun off in summer, or the cold out in winter, I have a few for different jobs, a straw hat in summer does keep you cool, but its not good to wear when you have a bonfire as they tend to burn easily (as I found out last summer)

Do you have a knotted handkerchief as well? I used to call flat caps or tweed caps 'supper caps'.

i think you are right to start this thread and I agree with you.

Im a lazy hat wearer. Perhaps we all wore hats in the cold weather?

I wore one of those wooly icelandic ones which cover the ears and tie under the chin.

I think it suits me.

However, we are talking aboiut hats as a characteristic.

I believe it is linked to shamanic qualities.

A hat and a staff are, I believe linked to artistic and shamanic qualities, and one wears them as an eccentricity.

Is it not the case that in general society dislikes difference and really wants people to confrom and be the same. Even wearing a distinctive hat again, is not tolerated so easily.

Im not sure, perhaps I lack the confidence to accentuate myself in that way.

I will think about it and browse shops with hats !

BB

no! I saw enough of those on the beach or Blackpools sea front when I was a kid,

and whilst in a hat emporium I was listening to the salesman give his pitch to a young lady:

"oh madam, anyone can have nice hair, but it takes some one with style to wear this! a hat is like the icing on the cake, it would still be a cake without it, but it just isnt finished"

I wear hats in extreme weather; a baseball cap or sun hat in hot weather to keep the sun off my head and a hat with peak and ear flaps in the winter but it's made of nylon and lined with fake fur so it's not a deerstalker hat.

People used to wear hats in all weathers. It something I cannot get my head around.

GADGET wrote:


It's what Monty Python's gumbies wore. I didn't see many as we only went to sedate beaches with Victorian esplanades such as Penarth or remote ones.

the belly button wrote:


It's like that at festivals. People wear odd hats in order to be spotted by their friends in the crowds and not lose each other. There was a craze for Pete Doherty style military caps (very South American junta) and fedoras (very Mad Men) in 2007. Then the following year I caught sight of the man himself sitting all forlorn in the back of a Ford Escort as it was being driven past.

I love hats. In the late 80s I had a dozen hats, including a bowler and a Top Hat. For the last 6 or 7 years my favourite hat has been a black leather stetson.