Mad Hatter
A thought I have had the last few days and that in a lot of ways ties back to last week while I was at Pennsic is about hats. I found this particularly true last Friday and again this eve, both times when I put on a hat while doing something so I could leave off the sun glasses. A little background is in order first I suppose – for most of my adult life I have not been one to wear sunglasses so much. On the occasion when I have done so I usually go for the cheap ones as it would not do for me to sit on, crunch, or otherwise just loose a more expensive pair.
Having said that, I have manged to have two pair for almost a year and a third pair for nearly three-quarters of a year. generally I find that the lenses are always dirty though (perhaps that is a wearer problem and I do hope I never have to end up actually needing glasses) or even scratched up, which is part of why I have three pair now. So what does this have to do with medieval stuff and hats?
Historically everyone pretty much wore a hat of some sort anytime they went out. This could have been as simple as the cloth over the head with ties to a bit wide felted hat with lots feather, ala cavalier style. I really got to thinking about this as I used to have a big wide-brimmed felt hat and truth it probably still is in a box somewhere in the storage unit. I thought about it even more when I started to realize my 12-13th century tunics were allowing way to much sun exposure to the back of my neck. Said exposure would have been covered by the hat in question and eliminated the rather nasty sun burn I have on the back of neck in a nice rounded out U shape. Ironically I refused both an offer to have one purchased for me and resisted the thought myself because of the potential one in storage somewhere.
Fast forward a bit – I have always been under the impression that a good hat, pulled low, in the brightest sun is nearly as effective as a pair of sun glasses. I personally feel that a good hat is much less hassle and is the major reason I have worn out a good western style hat over the last several years and have replaced it – and have gone through several eventually getting icky truckers hates. I like the looks of other hats, but really like the western brim, which does give that extra shade in addition to blocking the sun from one’s eyes.
I have always been under the impression that hats fell largely by the way side in American culture because of the lack of hat on the young dashing president initialed JFK. Certainly the presidents prior to him generally wore hats and those afterwards did not. After some thought today while in the sun with just my hat though, it occurs to me the dashing young JFK also is seen in film reels often with dark shades on his face. It leads me to the question of did he abandon the hat because of the stylish look and easy availability of sunglasses in the late 1940′s and 1950′s? Was the hat that every respectable man of the first half of the century wore a fashion that faded because of the lowly darkened glasses lens?
** – image of who else, the Mad Hatter from the Disney classic Alice in Wonderland.
Good question there Liz in regards to Jackie's pill box hats. I admit (totally realizing the sexual bias this seems to imply) that I have never given that side of hat question much thought. You can bet that I will raise my level or awareness about that going forward though.
I like to try on the church lady hats when I go into J.C. Penny. Just a little feminist note: What about the popularity of Jackie's pill hat?
I've always wondered the same about cloaks. My cloaks are some of the most versatile pieces of clothing that I have owned. One in particular has been used for rain, a light jacket, a winter coat, a blanket, a pillow, and bedding. In fact, for three Pennsics, I brought no bedding and only a few cloaks, as I was constrained for space where I was living and didn't have the room for the air mattresses and the like that I use now. I would be overjoyed if cloaks ever came back into the modern wardrobe.
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