Why Did Men Stop Wearing Hats [0:00:00]
Antonio: I’ll tell you why men stopped wearing hats, because they were tired of looking like
this. Beautiful. Now, I know we got a hat wearing crowd out
there, but I think it’s safe to say that the vast majority of men do not wear a hat
on a regular basis. But, 70 years ago, pretty much every man walking out of his house wore
hat. So, why did men stop wearing hats? They guys
over at the Gentleman’s Gazette looked to answer this question. Let’s see how they
did it. [Music]
Preston: When looking at old photographs or watching old movies, you’ve probably heard
people comment on the copious amount of hats worn in them. And, when discussing previous
eras, you’ve probably heard the often overused phrase that a man wouldn’t leave the house
without a hat on. Phrased another way, it’s all about the hats.
Why is this? Well, it’s one of the clearest visual signifiers that differentiates the
good old days from today. Antonio: This is a solid point. You really
can’t see a transition in time frames, in time periods based off of headwear. I mean,
it’s something so obvious when we look at the person’s face and we look at these older
movies, we see them outside, we see headwear everywhere.
I’d say that the only place where you see as much headwear being worn today is the military,
where pretty much if you’re outside you are covering your head with a cover.
Preston: At least within the context of the lineage of classic menswear, men today are
still wearing suits on a day-to-day basis, even if they are becoming less common. But,
the hat is increasingly rarely worn. Antonio: Now, Preston, I’m going to disagree
with you here. I think men are wearing caps, just not the type that they used to normally
wear. No. In the colder weather, what are we grabbing?
Watch caps and they work because they’re functional. Here in Wisconsin, occasionally
you had someone who wear hat like this, ushanka, that you know is pulled down.
Baseball caps, everywhere, look around. You’re a football coach or maybe you just simply
going to hit the lake, sometimes you’re wearing that full rounded cap.
Preston: In the summer months, of course, you may see a baseball cap or two to shield
the wearer’s eyes from the sun, at least when it’s worn in the traditional orientation.
Or you may see various types of wooly hats in the winter...
Antonio: So, he does a pretty good job of addressing my concerns, although, I still
think baseball caps lids, I see them everywhere. Preston: Rather, we’re discussing hats of
the 19th and 20th centuries such as the [sound effect].
Antonio: Now, gents, that was a lot of hat styles. If you want an infographic, down in
the description of today’s video, I’m going to link over to an article at RealMenRealStyle.com,
my website. It has a complete infographic on all the different styles of hats out there
to make it easy for you. Preston: These were the classic types of headwear
that would adorn any man’s head when he was out and about for business or for leisure.
Antonio: Now, we keep seeing these hat styles right here, the bowler. Are you familiar with
this? I know you guys over in England wear this all the time. No, just kidding.
It’s really gone out of style. And in the United States, it really didn’t have as
much of a presence. Although, a little bit of history, this hat right here was actually
worn out west by a lot of people, but it was quickly traded for a hat with a wider brim
because, yeah, this just did not cut it when it came to that southern sun.
Preston: What happened and what changed and why did men stop wearing hats?
Well, in order to answer... Antonio: All right. So, we’re just going
to freeze this frame and enjoy this image of Sven Raphael Schneider. You know, I love
you, man. But, I want the world to see you in all – I didn’t realize you had that
much hair. That is amazing. All right. We’ll move on, in a second.
Preston: Well, in order to answer that question, we’ll have to dive into the history of hats.
Hats have been around since before historical records even began.
In fact, the oldest surviving example of prehistoric clothing that we’ve found does include a
hat. Specifically, it’s one made of bear skin worn by Otzi the Iceman.
Antonio: All right, gents. Absolutely love that they brought in history, that they’ve
given us this story. I didn’t know anything about Otzi here and the fact that, yeah, 5000
years ago his outfit included that nice hat. Sounds like it did not save him. I wonder
what his story is. But, yeah, just goes to show that men have
been wearing hats for a long time. I like that. Good job.
Preston: However, this must not have worked too well because Otzi had clearly lost his
hat a little while before he died. The first thing that humans naturally shield
from... Antonio: All right, gents. So, I just wanted
to take a second and just appreciate what Raphael Schneider is doing here for us. He’s
going above and beyond when it comes to B-roll. Man, Raphael, you rock.
Preston: Hats have been worn for various other reasons including fashion to show association
or even to show social status or class. For an iconic example of this, we can look
to the late 19th and early 20th century with the clear distinction between the upper classes,
who wore top hats and the lower classes, who wore flat caps.
[0:04:57] Antonio: All right, gents. So this is a really
interesting point. Let me know down in the comments if you like to see me actually make
a video talking about this the difference social status of different hats and what they
represent, upper class, lower class. I have to admit, I love my flat cap. So, I
guess, you know, you kind of know where I come from.
Preston: To dive further into some of the various reasons, we can go back a bit further
in history. For example, in the Middle Ages, you can see hats like the coif, which were
worn for protection or the chaperon, which were worn for fashion.
Through the 1800s, most of our favorite modern hat styles were born. The bowler hat came
along in the mid 1800s. And the 1880s gave us both the fedora, although it wouldn’t
become a men’s hat until the 1920s. Antonio: Ah, that’ a little bit of history.
The fedora started off as woman’s hat and eventually migrated over to the men side.
I did not know that. Preston: By the turn of the 20th century,
there were many different hat options available to men and the fedora cemented itself as a
predominant option replacing the top hat, homburg, and bowler...
Antonio: Wow! Just look at this picture right here. Very clearly, you can tell that guy
right there did not get the memo to wear a hat.
Preston: The fedoras popularity was also cemented due to its frequent appearances in movies,
where stars like Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart wore it. And in the 1950s, musicians like
Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin continued to make it popular.
In the 1960’s, the closely related trilby hat...
Antonio: All right. That was a solid start to the video. I can see why this video did
so well. In seven minutes, we just went over 7,000 years of hat history. What if like you
have seen a little bit of like me talking about hats around the world especially protection,
not just from the cold, but also the sun and some of the other what, you know, helmets
and stuff like that. But, I get they wanted to get to the question
is why did the hats disappear, so hopefully they answer that.
Now, gents, one of the advantages of wearing the right hat for your face is it help to
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Preston: The decline in hat wearing is often attributed to President John F. Kennedy going
hatless at his inauguration in 1961. But, in fact, this isn’t true. And further, JFK
actually revived the tradition of wearing a top hat to one’s inauguration, which had
been dormant for a short time. Antonio: I appreciate them addressing this
thing with JFK because so many people it’s an easy explanation. They want to believe
it, but it’s not true. There were a number of factors that conspired against the hat,
at least my understanding of it. Let’s see what Preston has got to say next.
Preston: More significantly then, we think we’ve got four main reasons why hat wearing
declined. And the first of this is climate control.
One of the biggest reasons for the loss of hat wearing is likely that we now have better
control over our indoor climate than we used to.
Antonio: All right. So, I really appreciate this explanation because it does make sense.
And it also works with the explanation of the disappearance of a number of other menswear
staples that we saw about a hundred years ago such as the vest and long thermal underwear.
Preston: Our second reason then is notions of social class. Before the world wars, social
class was an incredibly important aspect of western society and people were absolutely
expected to know their place. But, after the horrors of war brought every
social class just a bit closer, we began to focus more on the individual rather than on
the class in which they resided. As a result then, the practice of wearing clothing and
particularly hats to signify yourself as part of a distinct group...
[0:10:00] Antonio: All right. So, the second reason
I think is complete BS. People are all about social status. I mean, yeah, not politically
correct. A lot of people, let’s all look at a person’s heart, let’s all, you know,
sing Kumbaya and hug. No, people are all about stratification. People
want to look great. We’re all in this world of competition looking for mates. Yes, there
is agreement and, yes, you can oftentimes achieve more by finding partners to work with,
but you’re going to make a choice of partners. You’re going to go with the partners that
have the most value. You’re going to go for a mate that is healthy. Now, I understand
that things happen in life. The reality is people still dress in the way,
they still wear clothing, they still wear accessories, they still wear even headwear
that signifies, hey, I’m part of this groups, I’m part of this club.
Yeah, we may not want to be saying, I’m part of this upper class or I’m part of
this class over here, but we do want to send that signal, I’m part of this tribe. And
if that interests you, good. If not, stay away because we know we’ll kick your ass.
Preston: Perhaps the biggest of all of these reasons though is the increasing prevalence
of highway systems and automobiles over the 20th and 21st centuries.
The next time you’re on a train, in the subway, or on a bus or tram, look for up or
consider how much headroom you have above you. Simply put, modern cars aren’t built
to accommodate the hat styles of old. Early automobiles did somewhat accommodate
these hat styles... Antonio: Now, this point right here, I can
get behind. This one makes a lot of sense. What we saw obviously, people start having
individual cars, less public transportation, less head space. You’re simply going to
take your hat off and all of a sudden, it becomes an inconvenience.
Match that with the modern head rest, all of a sudden, yeah, it’s just something that,
yeah, it’s difficult to start wearing these wide brim hats.
Now, gents, if you like headwear whether it’s baseball cap, watch cap, an ushanka. If you
like flat caps, you like trilbies, you like the cowboy hats. You know anyone know what
this is down in Australia? Guys, this is an Akubra.
If you like these type of hats, do me a favor. Smash that like button. By doing this, you
let the YouTube gods that YouTube algorithm know that you’re enjoying today’s video.
Preston: For everyone else, the invention of motor cars made taller hat styles mostly
impractical. Furthermore, stiffer hat styles like the bowler or homburg could also be crushed
or misshapen by lower ceilings, whereas the fedora and trilby are naturally crushable
and can be packed and stored more easily. Antonio: And that’s a solid point. I know
whenever I’m wearing a piece of headwear traveling, I’m always thinking even if it’s
something that’s supposedly can be crushed, I don’t want to crush it, then you got to
reshape it. It’s just a pain in the butt what if it’s actually gets crushed really
bad and it doesn’t return to its shape. So, it is something that whenever I’m traveling,
oftentimes I will wear the piece of headwear throughout my travels and just be very careful
and I have to baby it. And then, you – I mean, of course you’ve got hat boxes, but
those are huge and, yeah, just a pain in the butt.
Preston: We did say that there were four main elements to this list though, which brings
us on to our fourth, the internet. In the last decade and a half or so, hats
like the fedora and trilby have gained an increasingly negative reputation thanks to
internet memes from websites like 4chan, reddit, and tumblr.
Indeed, for some younger members of our audience, when we mentioned fedoras, they might first
think of the infamous tips fedora meme. Antonio: I have to agree. This is something
that so many men they think that, okay, I’m going to look like this guy if I end up wearing
a fedora or a hat. And the thing is you got to find the right one for you and right with
that, you’ve got to develop the confidence. Now, I’m sure Raphael and Preston and all
the guy, Kyle, I’m sure that they actually have videos that they talk about this. But,
I recommend if you are going to get a hat, go to a hat store, get one fitted. Find something
that you really like and practice wearing it at home around nobody.
Because guess what? Eventually, one day you’re just going to feel great. You’re going to
forget it’s on your head and you’re going to walk out and go to the store and you’re
going to get a compliment. All right, gents. Overall, I’ve got to say
Preston did a great job. Maybe I would have watched it at about 1.5 speed to get him talking
a little bit quicker, but he laid out his case. I think they did a solid job.
Now, guys, if you enjoy this type of video, you’re going to absolutely love this one.
Again, Gentleman’s Gazette, but this time, Raphael Schneider is the star of this video
and he calls people peasants. Seriously, guys, you got to watch this video.
It just cracks me up every time I hear him say it, but, yeah, and a few other things.
So, check out the video, guys, it’s a good one. I’ll link to it right here.
[0:14:43] End of audio