The World Changed When Men Stopped Wearing Hats

My Grandfather always wore a fedora whenever he and I would walk down the streets of Greenpoint Brooklyn in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. I would watch old movies on TV and noticed that all men wore suits and ties and hats even to the ball game. What happened to change that piece of male haberdashery to be banished?

If memory serves, the hat disappeared when Kennedy became president. As I look back on it he seemed to set the fashion statement that men would be capless and hatless and the fedora would be back in the hatbox it came in never to be seen again.

Lately we have seen some reemergence of the porkpie with some of Hollywood’s elite and some of the more outstanding male black athletes sporting very smart fedoras.

I know you might be thinking that we do wear hats, baseball hats but that goes only for informal wear not as business attire or a date with the woman in our lives.  And to be frank I am just too old to wear a hat on backwards, askew or making my ear the front of my face. 

I think that men became emasculated when they stopped wearing hats.  We lost some of our masculinity as the battle of the sexes heated up and man acquiesced to the women’s liberation movement. Men have to reclaim some of the territory they gave up with not so much as a left jab in the air.

Why did men stop wearing hats?  Was it really about a fashion choice?  If it were like women’s fashions wouldn’t wearing a hat make a comeback? The bustle never did but a hat?  It must have more meaning than just a bygone piece of attire.

After all a hat keeps us warm and I don’t know about you but I feel so much more toasty when my baldpate is covered from the elements. We go from indoors to the seat of our car and its just a few moments and maybe we really feel we don’t need a hat. Despite that   I think wearing a hat can make a comeback and it makes us distinctively male.  I even think the significant other in our lives might like it and it sets off our face rather well too. 

What is, is

A Friday pre-dawn spin in the world of Svengali had me pondering about 2011 and the challenges that face us at Equinox. As we all have experienced, it is not always about personality that moves what we say and do and where we workout. Sometimes it is about principles. Where am I going with this?  Well to be frank the membership at our club is going through some growing pains. I for one thought about change but as I have written Woodbury is a village and the other club across town is well just a gathering of masses but to be fair those members with young children are better served elsewhere as much as I hate to admit it . Some people took to the newness and the size that Lifetime offered. And in the world of competition both clubs can coexist because they appeal to just different audiences. I saw a longtime member come back but there are others that have not had their fill just yet and to be realistic they may never come back. The attitude about that prospect can easily be somewhat cavalier and answered by that new age phrase: It is what it is. (I hate the energy in those words)  

I chose not to post this in either spin blog lest someone get the wrong idea or get upset that my reporting is slanted in anyway.  When I write about spin class it has always been about the energy and the experience not about what was missing or what I thought was lacking. The idea that some members have left might carry a bigger impact on our instructors than the hardcore members like me who will never change. Part of what makes an instructor tick is not only their charisma and skill set but the energy they get collectively from a full room that is rocking. Just some random thoughts from me but for now what is, is.

 One thing is for certain, things will always change even when it seems uncomfortable at first because it might not always end up that way.