A Little Something for the Guys

I don't often pick up too many items specifically for the guys - but I was asked by a friend if I could keep a look out for a few items and my cute boy was willing to model a couple of the hats that actually fit his rather large noggin (grins).

Here's what I found:

The Fedora:

A little history lesson - The term fedora was in use as early as 1891, but it wasn't a men's hat, but a women's fashion statement!

The 20th century version that we all know and love came into use in about 1919 as a men's middle-class clothing accessory. Its popularity soared, and eventually it eclipsed the similar-looking Homburg by the 1920s and really hit a peak in the 1950s when gangster movies became popular and movie stars brought the fashion new life.

The 1960s saw an end to the trend of men wearing fedoras when the style became more long hair, free-movement and casual.

It wasn't until the 1980s when pop stars like Michael Jackson came along that the fedora was made popular again.

Now fedoras are hip again, especially vintage throwbacks like the one C is sporting!

The next men's hat style I focused on was the flat cap.

The Flat Cap:

 This particular hat style can be traced back to the 14th century in Northern England, parts of Southern Italy, and in Scotland and Ireland. When Irish and English immigrants came to the United States, they brought the flat cap with them. This style of cap is also referred to in some parts of the UK as a cheesecutter cap because of its wedge shape, not too unlike our cheeseheads up north!

Flat caps tend to be made of wool, which started as an Act of Parliament in 1571 to stimulate domestic wool consumption and general trade. The act decreed that on Sundays and holidays, all males over 6 years of age, except for the nobility and persons of degree, were to wear caps of wool. The Bill was not repealed until 1597, though by this time, the flat cap had become firmly entrenched in English psyche as a recognized mark of a non-noble subject.

 Flat caps were almost universally worn in the 19th century by working class men throughout Britain and Ireland, and versions in finer cloth were also considered to be suitable casual countryside wear for upper-class English men (hence the contemporary alternative name golf cap). Flat caps were worn by fashionable young men in the 1920s.

Oddly enough the hat style has stayed popular due to Irish and Scottish decedents in cities like Boston and New York, bringing the style a whole new life!

I'll be posting these hats to my Etsy shop soon - wouldn't your guy look fine in one of these!!