Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette! In today's video, we'll be discussing a
classic and distinguished warm weather hat for men, the straw boater, as well as
how to wear it with style. Regular viewers will know that we're no
strangers to covering hats on this channel, we've already got videos on the
fedora the flat cap and the Panama hat as well as a video on how to find the
right hat for your face shape. Also, be sure to check out our recent three-part
series on hats which covered terminology and construction materials basic hat
etiquette and a guide to the trilby Homburg and porkpie styles you can find
all of these videos by clicking the banners at the right. Today's video though is
all about a summer hat with a rich history, the straw boater. First, let's
cover its physical attributes. Straw boaters are most typically made from a
type of stiff flat straw referred to as Sennit. This can be any type of flat and
naturally colored straw and it's typically plaited or braided at angles
to construct a straw boater. The finished boater will be slightly elliptical in
shape and it will also have a flat brim and a flat crown, also known as a
telescope crown. And a boater will most typically feature a solid or striped
grosgrain ribbon that runs around the crown. By the way, if you're unfamiliar
with any of this terminology you can find our video on that subject here.
Speaking of terminology, the boater is also known by a wide variety of other
names including the Basher, the Skimmer, and the Sennit hat among others. Now that
you know what makes a boater a boater, let's touch on the hat's history.
Interestingly, it was worn by women and children as early as the 1860s but it
wasn't adopted as a staple of menswear until about 20 years later in the 1880s.
Much as the fedora was also originally a woman's hat, so too was the boater. Once
adopted into a man's wardrobe, however, it quickly
became popular as a formal summer hat, the warm weather alternative to the
Homburg. It experienced its greatest period of popularity in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries and was most frequently used not just as an everyday
summer hat but also for boating and sailing activities hence its most common
name. Boaters have also been seen in a variety of other applications, however, as
one example, given that FBI agents like Melvin Purvis were frequently
photographed wearing boater hats, they developed a reputation as being
something of an unofficial uniform for the FBI prior to World War II. This has
been immortalized in movies like "The Sting" for example. Since 1952,
the boater has also been part of the uniform of the Princeton University band.
You can see this in such places as a cover of Sports Illustrated magazine
from October of 1955. Speaking of Princeton and its contemporaries if
you'd like to learn more about Ivy style you can find our video on that subject
here. Other notable wearers of the boater
include entertainers like Maurice Chevalier and Harold Lloyd as well as
businessman John Jacob Astor IV who was killed in the sinking of the
titanic. Fashion designer Coco Chanel was also fond of wearing boaters and she did
a lot to keep them popular among women in the early 20th century. Before we move
on from our historical overview, here's the story of a rather interesting
tradition, straw hat day. Back in the days when it was proper etiquette for
all men to wear hats whenever they were out of doors,
straw hat day was the day when men switched from their felt hats to their
straw hats seen as the beginning of summer. Of course, the exact date of straw
hat day could vary from place to place. For example, in Philadelphia, it was
usually on May 15th whereas at the University of Pennsylvania proper, it was
always on the second Saturday in May. As you might have guessed, it's cold weather
counterpart would be felt hat day which usually occurred in September or
October in most locations. In some cities, groups of rambunctious young men would
seize and destroy any straw hat that was worn after felt hat day in the fall. In
New York City in 1922, this destructive habit would escalate into the straw hat
riot which lasted eight days involved a mob of around a thousand hat destroyers
and resulted in a number of arrests and injuries. So as you can see, hats were
taken much more seriously back in the day than they are now.
Let's just hope if you wear a hat stylishly, it doesn't incite any riots!
While the widespread practice of wearing formal hats disappeared by the
middle of the 20th century, straw hat day and felt hat day were
memorialized in a New York Times editorial in 1963. Fast-forwarding now to
the present day, where might you still see boaters being worn?
Unfortunately, boaters are a bit of a rare sight these days although they can
still be spotted in certain settings. Examples would include sailing or rowing
events like we mentioned before as well as theatrical or musical performances.
You may recall that straw boaters are a standard feature of many barbershop
quartets, for example. Boaters are also frequently seen as part of school
uniforms in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. A notable
example of this would be at Harrow school in London where boys wear boaters
with shallow crowns and wide brims that are frequently referred to as Harrow
hats. Because of an historical association between boaters
and political rallies held in warmer months, you'll sometimes see inexpensive
boaters made from foam or plastic at political rallies in America, even today.
So now that you know all about when the boater has been worn, let's talk about
how to wear it well if you choose to do so today. These days, many men are
hesitant to wear traditional hat styles for one simple reason, they're afraid
that they're going to look out of place and truth be told, this fear isn't
completely without merit. After all, if the hat doesn't match the
wearer's outfit in terms of formality or doesn't match his face shape, well, things
are going to look a little bit off as with anything. However, confidence is key.
So if you're armed with the basic guidelines we're about to give, you
should be able to pull off a boater with no trouble. As we mentioned earlier, the
boater is a fairly formal summer hat roughly equivalent in terms of formality
to the Homburg as such, it's going to look best in its traditional setting
with a blazer or with a summer suit of matching jacket and trousers. and on the
topic of summer suits you can find our recent video on that subject here. Also,
given that the Homburg is the traditional headwear choice for
black-tie ensembles most of the year, the boater can also be worn with black tie
in the summer. A hat band of black grosgrain will look best with a full
tuxedo but warm weather black-tie ensembles can be livened up a bit more
with a colorful hat band and for more information on Black Tie head wear of
all types as well as black tie in general you can take a look at our newly
renovated black tie guide on the website here. Given that the boater will often
feature a fairly substantial brim, remember to consider how it relates to
your face shape and for a refresher on that topic, you can find that video here.
In general though, wider brims will complement long oval faces whereas
narrower brims are going to complement squat rounder faces. Meanwhile, as you
might have guessed, men with strong and chiseled facial features will look good
in almost any style of hat including the boater.
In conclusion, while the boater takes a bit more confidence to pull off these
days than the Panama hat or the straw porkpie, it can certainly be done and now
that you've got our tips for wearing one well you should feel free to rock the
boat a little bit this summer. As should be obvious my outfit in today's video is
centered around my straw boater it's in a light shade of Sennit straw and it
features a grosgrain hat band of alternating Navy
and red stripes I've paired it today with its traditional complement that
being a navy blazer this one happens to be double-breasted and it features gold
buttons my shirt is light blue with white stripes and my tie is a two-tone
knit tie from Fort Belvedere featuring navy and red changeant silk my cufflinks
are also from Fort Belvedere today they're gold plated sterling silver in
an Eagle Claw design and they feature lapis lazuli as the stone
I chose gold cufflinks today to harmonize well with the gold buttons on
the Blazer my boutonniere also from Fort Belvedere is a relatively new design
it's a cherry blossom in light pink my pocket square is light blue to harmonize
well with my shirt and its edge is red to go with the tie and the hat band my
trousers are in a light khaki color and my socks are also light blue to go with
the shirt and pocket square rounding out the outfit today are my shoes which are
cap toed Brown Oxfords from Allen Edmonds of course you can find the tie
boutonniere and cufflinks as well as a wide variety of other accessories in the
Fort Belvedere shop here