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Men's fashion is dreadfully boring, but one thing we used to have was a profusion and proliferation of different hats we could wear.

I know the m'lady meme and mall ninjas have forever cursed the fedora (as well as the actually, that's a trilby crowd), but those memes postdate the decline of the hat by several decades.

Currently, we only have baseball caps and beanies in common circulation, with impractical-for-sidewalk-use cowboy hats being the only extant outlier.

Does anyone long for the return of the hat and/or have any insight into what caused their decline?

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[-] spudsrus@aussie.zone 10 points 3 days ago

I ignore fashion and wear hats for good sun protection because Australia... Trend to opt for a legionnaire large enough to cover the face if needed.

Something like this:

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

Women don't wear hats much either. I only do at the beach, or sometimes the Korean Grandma visor to do yardwork, but never really for fashion. I do have a witch hat, I guess that is for looks but certainly not fashionable. It's too hot here to really wear anything warm; and like OP, once I put head and hair in a hat I'm not whatever the standard size is.

I don't really love hats on guys, it makes me think they are hiding balding. I like bald guys fine, the hiding it is what I don't like.

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I don't really love hats on guys, it makes me think they are hiding balding. I like bald guys fine, the hiding it is what I don't like.

Have you considered that they might be wearing a hat because their head is cold?

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Not around here, no. To keep the sun off, yes. Those are generally deeply unfashionable hats like my grandma visor is on me, though. Or those baseball caps.

I think OP was talking about hats as a fashion accessory though.

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

I don't really love hats on guys, it makes me think they are hiding balding. I like bald guys fine, the hiding it is what I don't like.

Intellectually, I know that's preposterous. I hope you know that's preposterous too.

But now this anecdote will exist as a speck of dust in the corner of my unconscious: the possibility that someone's assuming my hat-wearing form is trying to hide my very-obvious baldness. I now wear my hat in defiance of your assumptions, and that's heavier than I planned for my hat fashion.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Yes I know it's my problem, not the hat wearing man's problem. It's from seeing guys on stage using hats that way, I think.

[-] Widdershins@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

They need to bring back nacho sombreros with queso in a divot at the top

[-] modus@lemmy.world 20 points 3 days ago

No one is stopping you from wearing anything. You can wear a Fez covered in glitter if you want.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago

I'm bringing back the Fez. Aaaaayyyyy....

[-] Earthwormjim91@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Brother, that’s the Fonz.

Fez is from That 70s Show.

[-] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I still wear a covid mask. It's still useful for disease prevention and looks nice.

[-] facelessbs@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

And that is 100% okay. I just recently stopped but sure enough I put it own anytime I go to the dr or pharmacy. And all my coworkers that say they don’t feel good I just say go home. We will make due with out you.

[-] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 3 days ago

Cars. Blame cars for the lack of hats.

The car has a roof and climate control. Hats are much less needed for staying comfortable when moving around outside if you're taking a car.

Any type of hat that has a brim on the back cannot be worn in a car with headrests. Many cars lack the headroom for tall hats. You have to remove your hat to get in the car. Its enough of an inconvenience to cause its decline.

The one kind of brimmed hat that is common today is the baseball hat. The brim is only in the front; the hat isn't tall. You can just wear it in the car without thinking about it like most other garments.

So unless you're content being the "hat guy," (you can definitely make the hat work) your only option is to abolish the automobile as the primary mode of transport. Good luck!

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

Perfect. I hate cars, love hats. I have my villain origin story now. Thanks.

[-] Doomsider@lemmy.world 59 points 4 days ago

The current state of modern men with hats.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

i see his friend in the blue cap on the other side figured out what the brim is for.

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

The price of being cool

[-] disregardable@lemmy.zip 52 points 4 days ago

You know you can still buy hats, right? Like any kind of hat you want. They're still made. It's just, we spend much less time outside, and outside is also much less dusty.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 11 points 4 days ago

I know. And every time I try to find a hat in a store, they are all too small. So I guess that leaves online, but that's a different experience to trying on the exact hat you're going to buy.

I've played with the idea of buying a hat stretcher to broaden my thrifting possibilities..

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[-] Bahnd@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

I want tricorns to come back in style

I just think they are neat.

[-] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 3 days ago
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[-] randombullet@programming.dev 8 points 3 days ago

I wear a bucket hat. Keeps the sun off my head. Do I care what I look like?

Not at all. It's colorful too.

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[-] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 25 points 4 days ago

Fashion should be about your expression, not about what is popular. If you long for something, wear it. The only thing that really made the fedora/trilby toxic was that a bunch of people jumped on a hype train because they viewed it as a short cut to being fashionable. Making it inherently inauthentic. The speed at which they ditched those hats only proved the point that they were wearing it not for themselves, but for the opinion of others.

Authenticity will always be fashionable. Not everyone will like your style/fashion. What matters is that you love your style more than anyone, because then the opinion of others won't matter.

People still make those old hats. Measure the size of your dome. Find one you love. Wear the shit out of it.

[-] BurgerBaron@quokk.au 21 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Wear whatever you want. People are boring dipshits on average anyways, so why value their whining.

[-] Hirohito@fedinsfw.app 22 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

"Hat guys" wear bucket hats and flat caps these days

eta

7QKh6w9EPW5eXah.jpg

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[-] Almacca@aussie.zone 16 points 4 days ago

I'm a keen wearer of hats. Balding man living in the skin cancer capital of the world. My daily is a felt pork pie hat, but I have a few fedoras in various brim widths and colours, and my most recent was a genuine Panama hat that I probably spent too much money on for special occasions that I actually haven't worn much. I somehow lost my old faithful flat cap, which still upsets me, and I have a beanie with the slogan 'bald as shit' embroidered on the front for winter. I feel a bit naked if I go outside without a hat these days.

I can recommend The Hat Store if you're in Aus. Not sponsored, just a satisfied customer.

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[-] rhelawyn@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

I’d have to find that excellent video again but essentially the answer is pretty simple: cars. Basically the purpose of the hat pretty much disappeared over night once everybody started riding inside them (sun and rain protection). Moreover, they were very impractical to keep on while driving so people stopped taking them out with them and yeah, poof.

Anyway, this summer I did what I said I would never and bought myself a magnificent, expensive Panama hat. And yes, it so happens to be a fedora (I know, I know). I love it, I instantly got a dozen compliments on the first week, and I decided I would single handedly revive the fashion. Join me.

[-] EtnaAtsume@lemmy.world 8 points 4 days ago

If we join you, then we are spoiling your ambitions of doing it single-handedly.

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[-] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 6 points 3 days ago

I wear a flatcap every day. I consider this to be a hat, for all intents and purposes.

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[-] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have a minnetonka outback hat. Its leather and its 20 years old, I wear it whenever I have the chance. I get comments and compliments every time I wear it.

Be the example, wear that hat you long to see.

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[-] deft@lemmy.wtf 5 points 3 days ago

You have to do it fashionably. Most men can't do that. They wear a fedora without a skincare routine, they don't wear fitting clothes and often don't work to smell nice.

The result is similar to people who drive shitty cars with a stylized paint job. It just looks worse than a regular paint job now.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago

A skincare care routine is pretty far off the scale of what men do to take care of themselves, but I know what you mean (and have had natrually good skin). Everything is slovenly, but they put a fedora on top and think it makes them Gary Cooper.

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

The anti-hat people can fuck off, I wear what I like, although most of the timt it's a Greek fisherman hat, and I own them in about eight different colours. I do have a trillby and occasionally wear it.

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[-] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

I bought this beauty from a gent on the Internet. I have hat for days.

[-] Kolanaki@pawb.social 15 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have hat for days

Looka like you have hat for just one, specific day.

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[-] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago

I don't like hoods or umbrellas so I wear hats in bad weather. Or strong sun.

Baseball caps are ok for bad weather since it stops the rain getting on my face, but if it's really tipping it down I'll often wear a waterproof, waxed-cotton bucket hat I have. In good weather I have my trusty tarp hat which is awesome.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

Oh, yes, we also have hoodies, but it drives me absolutely crazy how useless cotton is in the rain and the cold.

[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

I have a waterproof hoodie that looks like cotton. Unfortunately it doesn’t breathe or stretch like cotton, and most importantly the hood doesn’t stand up enough to keep the rain off

Fashion? Why?

I do wear a wide brimmed hat to shade my face and neck on sunny days. Exposure to sun causes cancer.

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I wear a coolie or conical straw hat when doing yard work.

[-] prex@aussie.zone 12 points 4 days ago

A wildcard vote for the bunnings hat:

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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
138 points (94.2% liked)

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