Why do we not wear hats anymore?

I recently came across an anniversary of a riot in New York in 1922. Can you guess what it might have been for? It was for men to wear…… straw hats! Yip, straw hats! This made me think of the riots happening now, but for much different reasons compared to then. Why would someone riot over wearing or not wearing a hat?

A little background into this strange historical event - straw hats were a summertime accessory that came about in the 19th century. Men would wear these for activities such as boating and other sporting pursuits. I picture men rowing in Cambridge, England with their cream suits and straw hats. By the 20th century, men in cities wore these in the summer months - going into the office, wearing a straw hat anyone? There was an unwritten rule that it’s all very well to wear a straw hat in summer, but they must be removed by September 15th, each year. And if the hats were not removed, and put in the wardrobe until next summer, then it was acceptable for your work colleague to destroy your hat.

So from the 15th of September, if any man wore his hat after this date - then he was at risk. Newspapers even warned men of the impending date, and that they would need to change to another style of hat. It had started to become a tradition that youths would knock off straw hats from strangers for fun and destroy it in front of them. It was seen as acceptable that after that date, anyone wearing a straw hat was wearing it at their own peril! So from the buildup of this date, and the fact that men didn’t want to be told what to wear and when - there was a riot. Fun eh?

This anniversary made me look at other styles of hats and wonder why people stopped wearing them altogether?

Nowadays, you might see people wear wooly hats in winter, or caps/summer hats to shield from the summer sun. But hats were once a huge part of life - people wouldn’t leave their home without something to cover their head - why did it stop?

Maybe one contributing factor could be from the car. Cars were only owned by the wealthy from the turn of the century, but as time progressed to the 1950s/1960s - it was common for families to own a car. Cars had a roof and would be low, making it more work to wear a hat inside - compared to earlier when cars had more room and would often be open-top. That meant you certainly needed a hat to protect you from the outside elements.

There’s a theory that President Kennedy started the fashion of having a bare head of hair. It seems to be that from the 1960s men, in particular, gradually stopped wearing hats, and showed off their full luscious locks. With the 1960s, came rock music and long flowing hair for men, or the flowers in the hair movement - the more freedom loving hippies let their hair grow and didn’t wear hats. President Kennedy’s wife Jackie wore hats, and even made the pillbox hat fashionable - but she often didn’t wear anything on her head either.

Even as the fashions were changing - People who worked the land still found hats a useful shield. working class men in the open environment, needed to wear a hat to keep paint or grease away from their hair - particularly at a time when people didn’t shower as much as we do now, this would have been important. But the fashion of the hat had already started to slip.

For centuries head coverings have been worn. Whether by the wealthy - headdresses, crowns, scarves/veils, wigs, and hats were worn to demonstrate wealth and power. in religion, hats were worn to show status and propriety. Also if you were poorer, like a maid - you would wear a cap to show your status/place too. I may talk about the history of hats in another blog post, this one is primarily about why hats are not worn now.

Another factor in the decline in wearing hats could be from sunglasses. Sunglasses became an accessory in the late 1920s, and were much easier to wear than to have a hat on all day - with the possibility of it getting in the way, or the wind blowing it off! By the 1940s, sunglasses were worn by many and became a common sight in summer. at the same time sunscreen was introduced, so people could wear lotion rather than rely on having a hat on at all times.

It’s sad, I think hats are great? They are a practical accessory. They keep the sun off your head it summer, keep you warm in winter and keep you dry when it’s raining. They could even be used to greet people too, with a tip of the hat.

Hat styles come in and out of fashion, but generally in today’s world we don’t wear hats - with exception for a summer hat and a winter hat.

How many hats do you own? We should bring them back in full force, everyone should have hats for different occasions. Bring a bit of romance and elegance back. Well that’s my thoughts - let’s not have a riot about it!

L x