Men and idiot fashions

[fpb]

Women are supposed to be more obsessed with fashion than men, but, in a sense, the opposite is the case. Men not only accept fashion - and stupid, damaging, worthless fashions - much more uncritically than women, but become its slaves for centuries at a time.

Two (related) cases in point. One day Louis XIV of France discovers that his hairline is receding. From then on he wears wigs - and being Louis XIV, his wigs are monstrous and absurdly overripe. This rivets the fashion for wigs, one of the most ridiculous fads the human race has ever seen, on the whole male sex of Europe for a good 150 years; it takes the revolutionary age to put an end to it, when one would have supposed that its discomfort and expense would have made it vulenrable to the very first change in fashion. In fact, its fossil still haunts British courts of justice.

But even that pales compares with the collective stupidity by which the whole sex is still held in thrall today. At least those wigs, ridiculous though they were, did something to cover the head. But when, half a century ago - half a century! - an ambitious and popular American politician began to ge hatless to show off his fine and well brushed head of hair, suddenly - BOOM! - every man who watched TV and reads the papers geban to go hatless. And it has not changed since: the sex that goes bald in middle age refuses to wear hats. To wear one has become a kind of affectation or assertion - think of Terry Pratchett's fedora - instead of something that should come natural under the fury of a blazing sun or in the cold of winter. And there is something rather despairing about the way that many still young men, as soon as they see their hairline receding, start shaving their heads bald. Get a hat, you fools, and save yourself the time and nuisance! But hats are so rare that it has actually become a bit of an administrative exercise to buy one.

I just bought a cap - and my hair, mind you, is still mostly thick and l. And I hope the men reading this stop and think a little about the follies of fashion.

Comments

[capnflynn.livejournal.com]

I do wish hats for men would come back. My husband has a couple, and my does he look dashing!

[bookwrm17.livejournal.com]

I second the desire for hats to come back - for both sexes. Men's hats are very handsome, and women's hats, when not overstated, do wonders to tie an outfit together.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

I love hats, but the problem is that women's hats aren't available in sizes. I have a huge head and a lot of hair--my riding helmet is a size 7 5/8. One size fits all---doesn't.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it. I was lucky to find the cap mentioned in the post; it's a size 60 (European). I know, I know, I'm a bighead.

[eliskimo.livejournal.com]

We need another politician to wear hats. That's the common factor. Harrison Ford may wear a classic fedora or Justin Timberlake may wear a trilby and they'll be trendy for a couple seasons, but that's all. Ditto with other stars who wear porkpies, poorboys, or the occasional Greek fisherman's hat. As long as they are seen as "trendy" they'll never be adopted by the rank & file who wish to appear "serious." This is probably why the one hat that is nearly de riguer for the under 25 set in North America - the baseball cap - has not made the leap the world of business fashion (not that I think that would look good, mind you; I'm just saying it is the most popular men's hat these days).

And then there are the purely practical hats which do continue to be worn, but which will never make a sartorial leap: Bucket hats and Tilley's for the sun; toques and inca caps for the cold. Around here at least those are strictly relegated to weekends and vacations.

Of course, my brother used to wear a fedora all the time until his wife told him it made him look "old".

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not just any politician. What Louis XIV - The Sun King - and John F.Kennedy have in common is that they were at the absolute political top of their time. They were heads of state of the most powerful state in the West at the time, and very visible. Perhaps Obama might have managed it.

Hear, hear

[johncwright.livejournal.com]

I have been wearing a fedora since I was old enough to afford one. It comes from a more finer era.

Ah, Hats

[saturndevouring.livejournal.com]

I've always wanted to find one that was "me," but it's proven difficult. Especially in Arizona.

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

Hats, yes! Even golfer's caps and driving caps, maybe.

But can we please, please, please stop this horrible trend of every male in America wearing a baseball cap? This goes double for the guys still wearing the same old faded one they've worn since high school. Under the age of 20, fine. But I cannot take seriously a man in a baseball cap if he's over 20, unless he's a professional ball player, or currently playing baseball/softball. I'll make an exception for guys WATCHING baseball at the ball park.

Gene Kelly was pretty good at hats, IIRC.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Baseball caps don't look to me like they cover much, either. They look flimsy and permeable. That is, they look as though they don't do the things that I say hats should do - protect balding male heads from sun and rain.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

They do offer pretty good sun protection, and the visor keeps the sun out of your eyes. My BF wears them all the time in the summer, and he's mostly bald. I'd borrow them but his are all too small for me. ;)
He also has a cowboy hat but he's not allowed to wear it to the stable under penalty of being slapped with it. lol

[fpb.livejournal.com]

In my imagination, cowboy hats and horses go together like a horse and carriage and love and marriage. I take it that's not the case over there?

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

There's a huge rift between the people who ride Western and English in the upper levels of horse showing over here--a lot of the Western riders think the sport horse people wear "sissy" show outfits and don't know how to train a horse because we don't ride them until they're at least 3 years old, and the sport horse people think Western show people (particular those who show Quarter Horses/western pleasure) are horrid horsemen as they ride the hell out of their horses when they're only two years old, and do really dodgy things to their horses to get them to go in a head-dragging "frame" for the show ring. There's a lot more detail than that, of course, but having worked at a barn that showed western pleasure, I've seen some pretty abusive stuff. About the only place you see western pleasure horses go along more "naturally" is with the kids at 4-H shows and high school equestrian teams.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.

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Hmmm. <a href:"http://fpb.livejournal.com/136770.html">I've got a guy you ought to like</a>, I think. You'll certainly have heard his name.

[elegant-bonfire.livejournal.com]

OMG! Caprilli! Over here he's considered the father of the modern "forward seat", which all of our hunter and jumper riders use. He's well known in classical riding. :)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

He was a great man. The invention of the forward seat was only a part of his program of renewal of horse riding, and indeed of the whole Italian Army. Typically, Mussolini undid most of his innovations, and that was disastrous for the armed forces.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

Hats are pretty easy to spot in Seattle, at least, though that may not be the sort of restoration you had in mind -- I'm afraid one can't spell "hipster" without "affectation".