Top Hat

Was it a subconcious and collective decision by the male population of the world to go outside and about their business without a hat?

The whole thought process behind this momentous culture and fashion change must have started somewhere and with one individual because it appeared to have taken place overnight.

When was that momentous day?

Well, certainly towards the end of the decade that was the 1950's. In the preceeding period, in fact going back centuries, the wearing of a hat was a defining thing about your social status, affleunce, influence and intelligence.

I was fascinated to read about the passing of a Law in England in 1571 which made it compulsory and under the sanction of a fine or other equally draconian penalty for those over the age of 6 to wear a hat on Sundays and on National Holidays.

What hat to wear was also dictated to a large extent by your position in the hirearchy of the society of that period. Those of noble or gentlemanly standing could afford and were expected to wear a real hat, something to set them apart from the masses. At the other end of the social scale would be the impoverished and those still in poverty but fortunate enough to be bound in servitude or an apprenticeship. Their headgear usually comprised a basic wool or wool/silk mix flat cap, a bit like a Tam o'shanter. The imposition of such a law may have been primarily to boost a fledgling, emerging but still very much a cottage based textile industry . Lobbying by interested parties with vested interests may not have changed much over subsequent centuries on the basis of the success of the Elizabethan wool mix sales drive and forerunner of the 'Buy English' campaign.

Whatever the background of a person in 16th Century England it was very rare to come across anyone bareheaded. It may have been considered in the utmost bad taste and of poor culture to show forehead, crown, a head of lice infested hair , ringworm ravaged patches or just a plain bald pate.

The hat served as a symbol of respect and was also a means to express support for or against a particular idea or movement. In the former use the taking off, or doffing of a hat was expected in the company of your betters and elders. The throwing up of a hat was the simplest method of showing agreement and sympathy for a cause.

Phrases have persisted in the English language from the halcyon days of hat wearing. If a person of lower class was in need of alms, sustenance or just a favour then the practice of approaching a potential benefactor involved holding your hat in reverence as in 'cap in hand'.

Whilst citizens were compelled to wear a hat it was not a reason for rebellion or protest. The type of hat imposed on the wearer soon became established as a form of social identification, a badge to be proudly worn to show where you were from and that you were happy to remain firmly entrenched there with no real prospects or inclination to better yourself.

Fast foward a few centuries and hat wearing was heavily influenced in the 1930's and 1940's by the role models of the Big Screen. What better way to emulate the matinee idols of the time than mimicking them in their choice of hat and also their style of wearing it, tipped back as Bogart, tipped forward as Alan Ladd, askew as Cary Grant, optimistic and hopeful as James Stewart.

The other essential accessory for any hat was of course a cigarette with the glow of the tip made cool and chic under the brow of a homburg or fedora.

Any photograph of a streetscene or social gathering in the 1950's, anywhere in the western world emphasised the popularity of hats amongst the male population.

What appears to have sounded the death knell for hat wearing was the decade of the 1960's, a time of big expansive hair, expressions of individualism in huge gatherings, protests about everything and nothing and the real beginnings of social equality. Being upwardly mobile and not ashamed to admit it meant that the symbol of oppression and social stereotyping, deep set in the psyche of the male population just had to be left at home on the hat stand or relegated to the children's dressing up box.

My Grandfather, Dick was of that generation of not being properly dressed without his hat and was, to my fond recollections the last of a long line of my family and ancestry to maintain the trend and fashion on a daily and not just high day and holy day basis. My own Father went through a hat stage but then again that was part of the uniform of a Scout and followed by National Service.

Hat wearing today has come around full circle from the 16th Century but in a more sinister guise. The popular choice by far is the baseball cap but unfortunately this has become more a symbol of an underclass and as a badge of honour attracting unwanted attention and perpetuating a poor representation of those who wear them by the media. In the making of snap judgements about an individual, which is a trait of the less trusting in our society, the baseball cap immediately differentiates and condemns the wearer even though the motivation to be so attired is more of a fashion than any intentional social statement.

Myself and hats?

I attribute my bald head on the poor conditions imposed on my scalp by many years in my youth of the compulsory wearing of cub scout caps and, later, scout berets. I still live in hope of getting a phone call from a firm of lawyers who can guide me through the process of suing for loss of hair and opportunity on a no win, no fee basis.