The Hat Wardrobe

Fifty years ago, the hatmakers association told men that they needed a dozen hats in order to be well dressed (the same people believed a man needed twenty suits and two dozen pairs of shoes). That wardrobe included a high silk top hat, a folding opera hat, a black or midnight blue soft hat, a derby, a homburg, a snap brim, an off-the-face (whatever that was), a lightweight felt, a sports, a straw sailor, a panama and a semi-sport type. Annually, the Hat Style Council would present the man it annointed as the "best-hatted men of the year" one of each, though it strikes me that those were the men least likely to need them.

As hat wearing declined, the Hat Institute of America declared that men actually could get by with only five hats, or six if he needed a cap for the country. It's a sign of the state of the hat that neither the Hat Institute not the Hat Style Council still exist as a functioning institution.

Men wore hats when they spent much of the day outside. They provide shade and keep the head warm. The former function has been taken over by sunglasses, which are considerably more convenient to store when they're not needed. The requirement for warmth has been reduced by a combination of central heating and the automobile.

The hats we need today depend on when we wear them. If a man has but one dress hat for winter it should probably be a charcoal fedora that can serve to show respect outdoors at a burial. The fedora is a city hat that's compact enough to deal with the challenges of low automobile roofs. Men who drive convertibles with the tops open most of the time might well choose the more elegant homburg instead. Also known as an Anthony Eden, after the post-war prime minister of Britain who favored them, the homburg is the most formal hat after the topper.

May to September is straw hat season and neither fedora or homburg is appropriate in the Northern hemisphere during those months. Instead, the made in Ecuador panama is the prince of straw hats (it certainly takes a princely income to afford a hand woven superfine Monte Cristi). The round topped optima is the classic version, and it folds for travel.

The heart of my hat wardrobe is for more casual pursuits. Men still wear hats for practical reasons while playing at sports such as fishing and golf. James Lock & Co offers a selection of tweed caps that keep the sun and rain out in stylish fashion, and I confess to a liking for their straw boater for walking down the fairway in summer.

In the United States there are still a variety of suppliers for quality hats. I've had good service when I purchased linen caps from Hartford York, though I suggest that shoppers will want to be careful to avoid brands with the poor taste to place their name tag on the outside of the hat band. To re-purpose an old New Yorker cartoon, "If my parents had wanted me to wear my name on my hat they would have named me Borsalino."