Hats

[Balog]

I've seen his personal style. He can bring it on. :D

[Monkeyleg]

Somewhere is a photo, taken in the 1950's, of my grandfather out fishing in a rowboat, wearing a fedora and suit.

It was just the way men dressed.

I've seen younger guys wearing fedoras and what are obviously Goodwill suits, but they look classy.

[Balog]

Oh, with a suit fedoras are very nice. No question.

[Matthew Carberry]

He can deliver a withering, umm, well, you know...

   

That's "blithering".

I can be a "blithering" _____ . 

I'll have to pull together some more casual photos than my suits. 

Until then, for your further consideration...



Both hats are fedoras, Craig Schaeffers is beat up, but still a fedora.  Only the father is wearing a suit, but it's a heavier wool suit and used as fishing attire.

Another from the same film (which had very accurate period costuming).



2 fedoras in different states of repair and a flat cap.  That's casual men's wear right there and a lot more classy than a ball cap.  There are no clothes in that movie you couldn't wear today and still look "normal".

My thing is not so much "wear hats for the sake of wearing hats" but dressing with a bit of comfortable and practical mature style (long pants and shirtsleeves, shoes or boots, not tennies, jacket when needed) even when you are relaxing and being casual, even out in the woods.

The culture of youth in this country since the Sixties has us all dressing like children (short pants and sneakers and ball caps) into our dotage instead of dressing like men when we grow up.

[crt360]

Cut a cowboy hat brim down to 3" or less and it becomes a fedora, for instance, LBJ wore a fedora with a cattleman's crease style crown bash. 

They are just a high crown felted hat with a moderate brim, nothing fancy at all, you don't even need any sort of band.  Eminently practical in all weather conditions.

I've even got a nice, wide-brimmed, camo hunting fedora, but I've never found the right opportunity to wear it.

[Harold Tuttle]

the snap up brim feature of the aussie bush hat has great utility on windy days

[wmenorr67]

I wear ball caps 80% of the time.  15% of the time I am wearing a "cover" because I am on duty with the guard.

[Gewehr98]

The culture of youth in this country since the Sixties has us all dressing like children (short pants and sneakers and ball caps) into our dotage instead of dressing like men when we grow up.

Isn't that a somewhat subjective assessment?

IOW, speak for yourself, Junior.

You can dress like a grown man sans fedora. Honest. 

[Balog]

Strong statements of an objective nature about something as malleable and constantly redifined as fashions are funny. "I like the clothes of random era A so that's what real men wear." Which is funny, cause everyone knows real men wear stockings and powdered wigs.

[Gewehr98]

And codpieces.

Huge codpieces, the bigger, the better. 

[Balog]

And codpieces.

Huge codpieces, the bigger, the better. 

So big people think you're trying to stimulate the economy with em.

[Harold Tuttle]

i have been known to wear a tricorn out to home depot

[Balog]

i have been known to wear a tricorn out to home depot

http://www.armorvenue.com/colonial-gifts-and-accessories/pirate-and-colonial-tri-corner-hat/

[Harold Tuttle]

hat porn:
http://www.baronhats.com/JamesBond.htm

[Nick1911]

Hmm... I think my problem is that while I think baseball caps look sloppy and unprofessional, I also think fedora's and the like look out of place, especially on men younger then 40.  At a minimum, it would take wearing a suit jacket to not look theatrical.  The Tilley might work, I'll have to see one in person.  Alternatively, I might need to just start dressing better, but that has it's own complications.  My usual work attire includes a button down shirt, no tie, and jeans or khakis.  Wearing a suit jacket would look out of place at my job.

[Harold Tuttle]

the night stalker:
http://www.baronhats.com/kolchak.htm

[Matthew Carberry]

Yes, you can dress like a grown-up without wearing a hat.  But you can't do it in shorts and a t-shirt and sandals when you aren't actively recreating near water (for instance).

And to deny the cult of youth in this country since the '60s seems odd to me.  Look at advertising and the various medical "breakthroughs" constantly being advertised and how they are pitched.  It isn't enough to want a fulfilling adult life, it has to be an adult life that mimics the activities and mentality of youth.  You can't be an active 50, you have to be a "hip and youthful 50 who is the same as when he was 20, yo!".

As for clothes, it isn't so much a particular "style" I'm advocating as a sense of appropriateness in attire.  If you are working out, wear work-out clothes then change into normal attire to interact with others in public.  You wouldn't wear a bathing suit while working in a restaurant (obvious beach examples aside) or as a doctor or in a grocery store, why would you wear sweats and sneakers when going to any of them?


As for hats looking out of place, that's a familiarization problem.  Think of the first time you wore a gun, thinking how obvious it must be and how it must just scream out to those looking at you, but after a while it became second nature and you realized that most people don't care even if they notice it at all.

Fedoras are the same way.

Anyway, I've said my piece.  I'll just sit back and wait for y'all to come around. 

[erictank]

I wish tri-corner hats were still socially acceptable....

Don't be a fashion-trend follower, be a leader!  

Contribution to the thread: I wear my fedora (an Indy-style fur-felt one from Australia) most places I go, in work clothes or casual - haven't tried with a suit, as I only have a grey suit and the hat's brown.  I've had plenty of compliments on it, and I think a grand total of one negative comment, which got blown off, as it deserved.  I wear it because I like it, which is reason enough.

[Gewehr98]

Cool.

Thinking about wearing a zoot suit to my interview this Friday.

Wish me luck, y'all.   

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

So big people think you're trying to stimulate the economy with em.

This?  Oh, this is just my stimulus package.  Doing my part for the county, you know.

[Manedwolf]

The most unusual hats I see around here are when the elderly Brazilian men wear the German Trenker-type hats with their Sunday best.

It's like a small fedora with a peaked top instead.

[seeker_two]

And codpieces.

Huge codpieces, the bigger, the better. 

In Texas, we call them "belt buckles"..... 

[AJ Dual]

Hmm... I think my problem is that while I think baseball caps look sloppy and unprofessional, I also think fedora's and the like look out of place, especially on men younger then 40.  At a minimum, it would take wearing a suit jacket to not look theatrical.  The Tilley might work, I'll have to see one in person.  Alternatively, I might need to just start dressing better, but that has it's own complications.  My usual work attire includes a button down shirt, no tie, and jeans or khakis.  Wearing a suit jacket would look out of place at my job.

Same exact boat here...  Even though I don't need to look professional, the ball cap does not offer any ear or neck coverage from the sun.

The Tilley is close to what I'd want, but it's not quite it...

This is close, http://www.rei.com/product/631470 but honestly, even though it's "all weather" I fear it'll be hot in summer. Of course being neurotic as I am, I don't like the mesh-top fedoras or even big silly vent gromets...  I might just go for it anyway. I suppose mixing in a t-shirt and cargo shorts with that hat, I'll look Gen-X enough...

I actually have a Columbia nylon cap like this: http://www.rei.com/product/778061 somewhere in our camping junk, but it looks so goofy, I'd almost prefer melanoma, or having half of mother nature's detritus stuck to my gooey sunscreen slathered neck...

[Manedwolf]

Same exact boat here...  Even though I don't need to look professional, the ball cap does not offer any ear or neck coverage from the sun.

[AJ Dual]

Maned, for shame... you skimmed my post, pay attention to the second part. 

I actually have a Columbia nylon cap like this: http://www.rei.com/product/778061 somewhere in our camping junk, but it looks so goofy, I'd almost prefer melanoma, or having half of mother nature's detritus stuck to my gooey sunscreen slathered neck...

I'll take blisters and spending my golden years having cancer lasered off my neck over looking like I'm AWOL from the Foreign Legion...  At 36, I'm "just not there yet" in terms of not giving a flying-flatus about how I look, putting comfort above all else.

Perhaps when the family genetic predisposition for brown Haggar slacks hitched to the armpits and threadbare Hanes white t-shirts kicks in around 60 years old or so, I'll revisit the idea of wearing a desert kepi about.