Real Men Wear Hats

11/10/2009

I really like men in hats.  And by hats, I mean hats - and not baseball caps.  A baseball cap is just that, a cap.  It’s not a hat.  Let’s face it, baseball caps are nothing more than the tee shirt of hats.  And, unfortunately, just like tee shirts, they’re everywhere!  But that’s not what I’m talking about.  By hats, I mean real, Joe Friday, Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra hats.  The type of hats that men just don’t wear anymore.  The type of hat that does not go with a tee shirt. They are not just a thing on top of your head to hide your bald spot or your bad hair day.  They are pieces of your wardrobe, extensions of your personality.  They can make you mysterious and yet they are functional.  With the right placement, they can add or erase 10 years from your face.  What’s not to love about hats?

I admit that these days, a man in a hat is not all that common.  At least not in the circles I travel in.  They are definite attention getters at the grocery store or on the soccer field.  There never seems to be more than one person wearing a hat at one time.  I’ll also admit that when I see someone in a hat in the crowd, the first thing that pops into my head is  “Where’s your horse?” - but  really, I do like them!  While Wes and I were on our first vacation together, he bought a hat, but not the type of hat I’m referring to here.  He bought a big, fur, Russian hat.  It made sense, since it was February and it was northern Canada.  Believe me, it was cold.  Everyone up there was wearing them.  But not me.  It was our first vacation together and there was no way I was going to mess up my hair putting on a big fur hat.  My head got numb within seconds of stepping outside, but I looked good!  The hat looked nice on Wes, and given his eastern European lineage, kind of made him look like he worked for the KGB.  I was glad he bought it because I knew it would keep him warm during our vacation but I doubted that I’d be as happy to have him wear it once we got back home.  He pulls it out every now and then and the look on MJ’s face when he threatens to wear it out in public is absolutely priceless.  But it is a nice hat.

I wonder why men have stopped wearing hats.  They are practical and for the men I know, practical is usually good.  I mean, it still rains out and it still gets cold.  In spite of the Hair Club for Men, men still go bald.  My guess is that it’s because they do not go with men’s wardrobes of today that mainly consist of jeans and tee shirts.  How very uninspiring.  I think we all wear way too much denim.  Is it possible to go anywhere these days where the majority of the crowd doesn’t look like they just came from working in the yard?  I really like getting dressed up to go out.  I understand that may be partly due to the fact that I no longer have to dress up to go to work and it’s always more pleasurable to do something because you want to and not because you have to.  While I don’t believe that every man in every restaurant needs to have a jacket on, neither do I think they should have a tee shirt on.  Remember ‘business casual’?  It’s now wedding attire.  This summer, my mother and I spent an evening out on the town.  We went to our favorite four-star steak house and then to a show at Symphony Hall.  It was a beautiful night in the city.  A great night to walk the city in a skirt and high heels.  A great night for a nice meal in a restaurant that blessedly does not have a children’s menu.  I was more than a little dismayed to see that our restaurant had become popular with the pre-game crowd - who were all dressed in their Red Sox tee shirts and baseball caps, many which stayed on their head throughout the meal.  I put on perfume for this?  How very tacky.

I have a friend Mark, who lives in England.  He recently sent some photos from a party that he had gone to.  It was a house party thrown by some friends.  I’m not sure that they were celebrating anything in particular.  It was just a bunch of friends spending an evening together.  Every person there was dressed as if they had just come from visiting the Queen.  Men were in tuxedos or dress suits.  Some were in kilts.  The women had each pulled out their favorite little black dress and many had clearly had their hair done.  It looked like such a lovely party.  The type of party I’d love to attend.  I’m sure that I haven’t been in a group of friends during the last 5 years when at least one person wasn’t wearing their slippers.  We need an extreme makeover.

Maybe going to a party in a tuxedo is a bit much to ask.  But would it be that difficult to branch out beyond the standard uniform of jeans and a tee shirt when stepping out?  Give it a try.  Break out of the pack.  Start at the top and buy a real hat.