Hardly any men wear hats any more, apart from beardy hipster geeks in the city, and half the time you see them wearing cutoff jean shorts, riding a flourescent yellow stupid fixed-gear bike at the same time. Wearing a hat in a weird way just to be ironic or "edge" doesn't count. Behold this Dobbs ad from 1961, when hats were "absolutely
vital for business".
Here's Serious Business Guy sitting in the seamless orange void that the Moroccan guy uses for an office. It looks like the SBG is trying to land a deal selling fabric to the Moroccan guy. Weird. I'd think it would be more likely for the honky guy to buy fabric
from Morocco. Clearly, SBG is waiting for Turban Guy's decision - a perfect opportunity to pose for the camera and look seriously businessy in your Dobbs hat... with a backup hat ready to go just in case of Sudden Hat Failure (SHF).
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| Just in case. |
See? Hats are so absolutely vital that you need a spare, to avoid the trauma of being without a hat even for an instant. Know what? If SBG was really thinking, he'd just wear both of them, in case one blows off.
This was 1961, which I'm going to call "Mad Men" era, because that's the only way anyone understands The Sixties now. In Mad Men Era, hats were standard. I have to admit, this Serious Business Guy looks pretty cool, despite his rather surprising combination of a brown hat with a grey suit. I think he needs to reach for the grey backup to his left. When did hats fall of the "must have" list? I'm not sure. Probably somewhere in The Late Sixties or Early Seventies, when nobody wanted to look like their dad any more.
This is a little disappointing. I think it would be nice if the old hat thing came back as standard, but I'm not sure how it would need to happen, to actually stick. The annoying hipsters will tell you that hats are back, but their judgement is flawed. They also think that flip flops are okay in winter. Well, I guess you've got your neck beard to keep you warm. Lame-ass hipsters wearing hats doesn't mean they're "back". Quite the opposite. Annoying douchebags like this guy only prove that hats are definitely NOT back, and can't come back until retards like him knock it off. Would someone please punch this guy?
I'm no hat guy, so I'm going to cautiously call the hat in the Dobbs ad a fedora. Indiana Jones wore one, but his had a wider brim. I think it's still a fedora, though. According to Wikipedia, the fedora style hat comes from a play in 1882, in which Princess Fedora wore a hat similar to what we now identify as a fedora. Weird. Here are some other non-fedora hats, just for trivia's sake.
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Homburg: Sterotypical British
business guy hat. |
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Trilby: The straw version is
favored by Chicago Hipsters. |
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Pork Pie: Required for
playing the blues. |
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Derby: Other stereotypical British
business guy hat. Also required if you
are a very strong mouse.
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| Click for big. |
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4 comments:
I find it odd that this advert for hats features a man wearing a type of headgear that is not produced by the company doing the advertising. The turbaned man might be in the background, but he is still pretty prominent. I guess they are saying that you will even fit in among Sikh fabric merchants wearing your Dobbs hat. Maybe his spare is a gift for the Sikh, who can perch it on top of his turban.
I can't wait for Chicago hipsters to start wearing turbans. When they unravel they'll get tangled in the chains of their fixies.
Whatever it takes to get a hipster's head stuck through a bike wheel, I'm in favor.
Thanks for reading, Anon!
[-Mgmt.]
Hang on! Hats are on the way back, not as de rigor but as a personal choice, like wearing a beard. Hat sales are pretty good at present. I am a child of the 60s and never wore a hat until a decade ago - now I own at least one of every hat you picture except that stupid pork pie, as well as half a dozen of the so-called Panama hats (which were originally, and still are, made in Ecuador, and can cost as much as $1K for the best of them). I began wearing hats because I am a chrome dome who doesn't wish to experience skin cancer which is a considerable risk for men in that area, but I found that I really like hats. It is quite likely that Mr. Businessman in the ad has chosen silk swatches for handkerchiefs for his breast coat pocket and they will actually be made up while he has a few smokes (as essential as his hat at that time, it seems).
Hot damn! A sign of hope! I have a fedora that my friend gave me after his dad passed away. It fits perfectly, but I never wear it because I'd feel silly. Here's hoping for that one day when The papers announce that it's once again to wear it. Thanks, Richard!
[-Mgmt.]
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