Aside from baseball caps, men don't really wear hats much. Neither do women, come to think of it.
What brought about this change?
2007-09-15 08:30:56 · 12 answers · asked by The Doctor 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
Interesting question, one of the best I've seen on here for some while. I lived through this change - my father always wore a hat when he went out - a trilby (is that 'fedora' on American English?). My mother nearly always wore a hat - to go to church etc. If she didn't have a hat she would wear a headscarve. As a schoolboy, I always had to wear a school cap. My father-in-law, who died 3 years ago at over 90 always wore a cap when he went out. Of course, in England, in the early 20th century headwear was a sign of social class. The working class wore soft peaked caps, the blue collar workers/office clerks the trilby, senior officials/foremen etc a bowler hat and at the top of the social scale, a top hat.
Why did they stop being worn? A great deal changed in the 1960s and wearing of hats was one. the rise of motorcar ownership could be another. It was one of those sea changes in fashion which happens from time to time.
So far as the ladies as concerned, my wife is always looking out for an occasion on which she can wear 'a big 'at' - althought normally she doesn't wear one!
2007-09-15 09:27:13 · answer #1 · answered by rdenig_male 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
That's the way people used to dress in the 30's, 40's and 50's. Men wore suits and some wore hats. Women wore dresses, gloves and hats. There was more formality in dress at the time,
2016-03-13 04:22:47 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Thank JFK for this. He was a very popular President with a very popular and stylish wife. He did not wear a hat, some think it was due to the thickness of his hair. Anyway, he went hatless, the men of America followed his lead and the rest is history.
2007-09-15 12:08:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pre-1950s most Americans were farmers. They spent their days in the sun. Protecting themselves from the sun was critical, thus hats. Because only the rich were pale, they kept out of the sun, light skin was stylish.
As families left the farms for the suburbs in the 1950s, the pasty skin style became less and less attractive. (Plus we have sunscreen to protect our skin).
It didn't help that the counter-culture of the 1960s shunned the fashion of their parents (not only did hats become less popular, but women started to wear pants in larger numbers).
2007-09-15 08:41:45 · answer #4 · answered by Downriver Dave 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I think JFK killed the hat. He had great hair used it to his advantage. Going hatless made him seem more open and approachable. People started taking to the bare head look because of him. Suddenly, hats seemed real confining, reressive, a reminder of hard times of the depression and World War II.
2007-09-15 08:40:24 · answer #5 · answered by austin_renaissance_man 2 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Too many men (and women} wear hair care products now. Half the men out there look like porcupines now. Pimps wear hats though!
2007-09-15 08:35:56 · answer #6 · answered by Christina S 1 · 4⤊ 1⤋
Why don't u show your faces like the 1940?
2013-12-17 21:44:21 · answer #7 · answered by Reinaldo 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because theres less manual labor jobs that you work out in the sun and they were mainly to prevent skin damage and later skin cancer.. i know bcuz my dad used to farm ALOT and he didnt wear a hat that much and he got skin cancer on the tops of his ears and his skin looks a little different than normal
2007-09-15 08:40:09 · answer #8 · answered by cody 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i don't know because that was 40 or 50 years ago people don't like hat's as much. is you name from that doctor who show?
2007-09-15 11:00:13 · answer #9 · answered by Broken Windows 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋
The spread of automobile ownership.
2007-09-15 09:05:29 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋