Hats are my new thing

[Samanator]

I'm pretty sure that Michael was referring to the time we met at Topper, and I was almost certainly wearing one of three hats - my summer straw hat, or my standard all-year felt Aussie hat, or maybe one of my tweed caps. Once I find a hat I like, I tend to wear it until it's almost embarrassingly dirty (felt hats are hard to clean, as Spooky discovered.) I have been bald for 25+ years, and I have rather pale skin prone to burning, so I consider them a necessity.

As for style, I try to find shapes that don't make my pumpkin-head look even fatter than it is. The design language of hats is surprisingly subtle. The best styles for someone depend on their head shape, hair style, tall-short-thick-thin etc. Thin-brim fedoras look like pencil erasers on my head, and wide brim western hats look like I'm doing cowboy cosplay, which definitely doesn't fit my personality. Best for me are the Aussie outback-style medium flat brims, some styles of "Panama" with medium brims, and vintage-style driving caps.

Here's some cropped photos of my everyday hats and some specialty hats that I wear for dressy or other occasions.

Picking mushrooms in my everday standard felt Aussi. My most perfect hat.

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British Tweed driving cap - another favorite, which travels with me when I fly because it squishes well. (Dinner with friends in Gdansk 7 years ago.) I have worn this hat since 1990 or so...

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My favorite straw summer hat. Getting a bit dirty after 30 years of wear.

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Comparisons - three brimmed "outback style" hats - my fave on the left, a Stetson on the right. Brim size affects the "western-ness". I have two other Stetsons that I don't wear because they are way too "cowboy", I guess due to the brim shape.

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Speaking of Aussie... when I was in Southeast Australia in 2012 for some concerts, our host gave me an authentic vintage outback hat with very wide brim. It's quite a rare treasure here in the U.S. - my standard everday outback for comparisons.

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Regarding caps, I like both of these styles. Note the differences between "drivers" on the left and "newsboy" on the right (also maybe a golfer's or caddy's traditional cap.)

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Casual and dressy "straw" (fiber, raffia or whatever.) The one on the right is one of several "Panama" shapes and the best one for my head. I purchased this one to wear at an outdoor wedding (that I was officiating) on a hot day in wine country. It looked quite dapper I think.

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You had on one of the off white felt hats. i'm thinking the one with the ribbon. You also had on one of the caps the last time I was out.

[hayday]

I've worn a metric crapton of ball caps over the years. They're a frequent souvenir purchase and I've received many as gifts. I wore a cowboy-type hat when I was a kid, 1980ish, but it didn't take. I've accumulated a lot of hats.

[Samanator]

I've tried to look for hat pictures and this one is the only one I found so far. This is from the light the night walk in 2017 which Lisa and I were top fund raisers for the charity six years in a row. Who knew then that one of my best friends son would benefit from this. God's kind of funny that way.. Here is a tweed driving cap I wore that night..

[Raza]

Almost, but different. Hat shapes are subtle. Monkey D. wears a Japanese farmers' hat (mostly for rice paddies but not for the actual rice pickers, who wear wider brims I believe, to block the sun; maybe more for the farm foreman?) Again to emphasize the fine subtle language of hat shapes and brims - at least as many variables as watches, in terms of shape and design. So many cultural and class implications as well. I have only begun to appreciate some of this language - much of it is underneath our unconscious code of dress. Many people don't realize that a tuxedo and top-hat (suitable for a "groom" at a wedding) come from the working class in Victorian England, a carriage driver and even chimney sweep: the association being that the husband is servant to the wife.

I love that stuff, it’s so fascinating. I listen to a podcast called Shmanners where they talk a lot about the history and context of etiquette rules, but have expanded to things like biographies of lesser known historical figures and things like that. So much of our current societal norms can be traced back to Victorian and Regency England.

I still remember in an episode of Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess being aghast when the men wore short coat tuxedos to dinner. I know that’s post-Victorian era, but still. Edwardian, I think.

If it’s okay with you, though, I’m going to continue to imagine you as a stretchy, good-natured, perpetually hungry pirate.

[Raza]

Question for you hat people…what do you do with the hat while you’re driving? Do you take it off? Can your car accommodate your hat?

[Samanator]

Question for you hat people…what do you do with the hat while you’re driving? Do you take it off? Can your car accommodate your hat?

I have two of these on the head rests of the second row seats of my Lincoln. It works pretty well and has many uses.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5QQ58M5...sin_title&th=1

[Raza]

I have two of these on the head rests of the second row seats of my Lincoln. It works pretty well and has many uses.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5QQ58M5...sin_title&th=1

Huh. Interesting.

[skywatch]

Question for you hat people…what do you do with the hat while you’re driving? Do you take it off? Can your car accommodate your hat?

In my Toyota Highlander, I keep hat on because there's room. In my wife's old 328i, I toss it in the back seat.

[Raza]

In my Toyota Highlander, I keep hat on because there's room. In my wife's old 328i, I toss it in the back seat.

I feel like so many cars have poor headroom these days. In my brother’s S5, my hair touches the headliner sometimes. And I’m 5’8”, so it’s not like I’m some towering giant. I have way my headroom in my 435i.

[Mediocre]

Question for you hat people…what do you do with the hat while you’re driving? Do you take it off? Can your car accommodate your hat?

In our Explorer, it sits in the passenger seat or on the dash. In the Rover there is enough headroom to keep it on