How Hats Communicate Chivalry

Image courtesy of Th3 ProphetMan

Since I was a teenager in the early 1980s which was also when my Dad reached the age of 50 I had long ago decided that when I reached the age of 40 I would go from wearing a baseball hat to wearing one of those nicer ones men used to wear.

My Dad looked really awful in a baseball hat when he turned 50. His hair was not always short enough at the time to make it look good, but that was part of the hair style back then to begin with.

So flash forward to the past year. Men have lost their "cache" of being real men, and I guess when things got bad enough I decided that I needed to fight back as best as I could and this meant going from very casual dress code at work to emulating what men wore in the 1940s and 1950s...a suit, a tie....and a fedora hat.

The fact that I bought one so close to the opening of the fourth Indiana Jones movie is just pure coincidence. And I've noticed too that other men, young and old are also starting to wear the nicer hats.

I think it is all a part of men wanting to be men again, and deciding that when women told us guys from the late 1980s that we "should get in touch with our feminine side" was just pure rubbish to begin with.

The story goes that until the early mid 1960s all men wore a nice hat like the one above, whenever they went out beyond their home. There was a certain protocol that also went with wearing such a hat, rules that have been forgotten by men, such as when you're in an elevator. If you're the only man or if the elevator is full of other men you are allowed to keep your hat on. However, once a lady steps onto that elevator and until she/they leave you must take it off and carry it in your hand beside you.

You're also supposed to tip your hat to a lady that you know when you pass her on the street. I have never been taught this and I'm finding it hard to remember, but I know eventually it'll be as easy as second nature the more I practice.

And I suppose that to take this to the next level, as a man, you can act more gentlemanly, and use the hat as a sort of "prop". For example, this afternoon on my lunch hour I was waiting for the bus. A young lady was passing me by, and for a second she kind of glanced at me and my hat. What I should have done, and I think what men used to do in such a circumstance, is to tip their hat slightly and say something like "Afternoon, ma'am". But like I said, I need experiences like this to form or recall a protocol that I really was not mentored in.

What does this mean though? Why am I doing this? Aren't we really past all that formal stuff and just talk lazily like "Howz it goin', man"? I think that just like the dress code has slipped too far to the extreme, the way we talk to one another has also slipped. Therefore, I am all for bringing back civility to the way men and women talk to each other in our everyday lives. In the years ahead it may mean the difference between a nicer, more civil city, and one that is more meaner and less friendly than it is now.

See also:
Art of Manliness - The Perfect Hat For Your Face
AskAndyAboutClothes.com - Etiquette for Hats and Caps
The Fedora Lounge