Men’s Hats: Styles and Etiquette

The hat market (haberdashery) was a profitable area in the days when a man would put a hat on his head just as often as he did a pair of shoes. America was a great exporter of hats, centering this business in the New York and Philadelphia cities, where the best quality of hats was made. To the man of the era, a good hat was both an investment and the most-valued part of his outfit.

World War II introduced lighter hats, which one advertisement declared to be “almost military in their trimness”, to save material for the war effort. Color choices were patriotic, given names such as “Freedom Blue”, “Cadet Gray”, and “Service Tan.” But when the soldiers came home, they were weary of organization, regulation, and keeping their heads hatted. The late 1940s saw only one in four men donning a hat daily. More and more they were worn only for sports or business. Nor were hats appealing to the younger generation. But hats would remain a necessity for the classic leading man of the silver screen for quite some time.

Gary Cooper with fedora

In the forties, the soft felt hat—“typical of the vigorous character of the man”—was a predominant favorite. The decade saw hats with thick bands (sometimes a bow on the left side), and were worn tilted to the right. The typical look of the early years was the larger, broader brimmed hat (standard brim, 2 ½ inches wide); during the war, brims were reduced. Many hat styles of the time were left over from the previous decade, though the hats of the forties saw evolutions in different shapes. The classic 1940s man sported a gray fedora with a black band.

One 1946 hat advertisement declared looking one’s best meant “picking the right clothes, including your hat, for the right occasion.” The job of the haberdasher was to aid his customer in selecting a hat to flatter his face, as well as being proportionate to his body type. Hats came in a variety of grays, blues, browns, greens, and black.

Different styles of fedoras

Along with the proper hat went the proper etiquette. If a man ran into a friend, the man would touch the brim of his hat in a polite gesture. If he encountered a female acquaintance, he removed his hat while speaking to her, donning it again either if the weather was bad or they continued walking. If he happened to see his wife in public, he would lift his hat as a sign of respect. Toward strangers, a man tipped or lifted his hat. A man could leave his hat on if he were in a public corridor or an elevator. However, he removed his hat in other indoor areas, in houses, while driving, during funeral processions, and while the national anthem was played. It was imperative to hold it in a way as never to reveal the inside of the hat.

The staple hat was the felt one, normally made of fur from the European rabbit or the South American nutria. Sometimes different mixtures of furs were used. As the 1946 edition of The Encyclopedia Americana explains, hat-making was an involved process. First the prepared fur went through a chemical process (“carroting”) to bring out texture and interlock the fibers. After being passed through various machines, the felt was weighed and divided into portions. Through “felting” the felt was formed into a cone about three feet high and six feet in circumference. Sizing came next when the cone was shrunk in hot water. Delicate kneading and rolling followed which, if not done by a skilled worker, easily flawed the hat. Then came dyeing, stiffening, shaping, and cutting (“pouncing”). After other processes, including heating and pressing, the brim was shaped (“flanged”).

This 1947 advertisement illustrates the different styles of summer straw hats.

While the fedora was the most widely worn hat of the 1940s, there were also various other styles. Straw hats, such as the Boater (widely recognized as being a trademark of Fred Astaire’s) were made from imported straw braids and given pleated hat bands; these were worn from late spring to early fall. Panamas, despite the name, were often made in Colombia and Ecuador, woven from the leaves of the Toquilla Palm.

The Homburg, claimed by politicians and gangsters, was a formal high hat with a wide band. The new, revolutionary hat of the 1940s was the oval Porkpie, popular on college campuses and with jazz musicians. The classic “cap” as it was simply called, was worn for labor (particularly by the working classes), hunting, and sports (usually golfing); it was flat with a short visor.

Photograph Credits-LEE HATS: Pinterest; GARY COOPER: aurorasginjoint; FEDORAS (2): cartoonsnap.blogspot; STETSON 1947: Etsy; STETSON SUMMER: vintagerecipeblog.