Once upon a time hats were worn by virtually everyone. A person was in fact considered undressed if he or she went out in public without a hat. Furthermore, not just any hat would do, but rather the proper hat for both the times and the season was required. Hats being de rigueur in society lasted millennia with the mode for men over the past few centuries passing from cocked hats to top hats to bowlers and skimmers, and finally to fedoras. Then, about a hundred years ago, small niches of society (wealthy women, ivy league athletic fraternities, horseless carriage enthusiasts), claiming the banner of non-conformity began going hatless. This sartorial heresy movement limped along for a number of decades having some limited effect on the hat wearing status quo. Then in the early 1960s, the tipping point occurred. Growing rebellion against authority and conformity and those hoping for a new day and order found an icon in a hatless American president. In very short order, hats were not cool, showing hair was cool.
Fortunately for those of us who make our living selling hats, the story does not end here. Ironically, the issue that crippled our business some decades ago – that hat wearing was conformist and contrary to individual expression – is what will save it today. As author and economist Virginia Postrel writes in “The Design of Your Life” (THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING, 2004), “Ours is a pluralistic age in which different styles can coexist, as long as they please the individuals who choose them.” What is salient for those of us selling hats today is inherent in Postrel’s next comment, “All this choice required technological and business innovations, but the shift expresses deeper cultural changes too. The extension of liberal individualism – the primacy of self-definition over hierarchy and inherited, group-determined status – has altered our aesthetic universe. Try as they may, official tastemakers no longer determine the ‘right way’ to look.” Those of us surviving in this industry understand this message loud and clear. We cannot keep bread on the table or send our kids to college on the strength of gray fedoras alone. Hats will sell – one style at a time to one individual at a time. We were caught off guard in 1960, but that lesson should give us an advantage in this new day and age. One’s hat is now a personal form of expression – a very specific means by which the individual differentiates himself or herself from the pack. Today, we hat sellers not only can survive, we are well positioned to lead.
Fred Belinsky
The Village Hat Shop
