With the alternate fashion thread devolving into Predator invisibility suits and color-coordinated long johns, here's my attempt at a more serious, if still light-hearted, question.
John F. Kennedy killed the men's hat industry when he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue bare-headed at his Inauguration in 1961. (Or so goes the popular version of the story.) And Jackie's pillbox died that day in Dallas in 1963. Today we're reduced to baseball caps on men and ???? for women.
So what if Kennedy wore a Homburg and the hat retained its hold on the American head? I'm talking trilbys and snap-brim fedoras and women's bucket hats and berets. Fedoras and long hair on men is an unlikely combination. Or is it?
Or: What would it take to bring back formal headwear for men and women? Hats were originally designed to keep the head warm in a population that spent a larger proportion of its time outdoors and in marginally heated buildings, not running from the front door of the overheated house to the overheated car and from the car to the overheated office.
How about a new energy crisis that requires homes and offices be kept at 60 or 62 degrees and requires people to spend more time walking to and from bus stops and train stations because they can't use their cars? Or what if the 1973 energy crisis never ended?
Any other ideas?
John F. Kennedy killed the men's hat industry when he walked down Pennsylvania Avenue bare-headed at his Inauguration in 1961. (Or so goes the popular version of the story.) And Jackie's pillbox died that day in Dallas in 1963. Today we're reduced to baseball caps on men and ???? for women.
So what if Kennedy wore a Homburg and the hat retained its hold on the American head? I'm talking trilbys and snap-brim fedoras and women's bucket hats and berets. Fedoras and long hair on men is an unlikely combination. Or is it?
Or: What would it take to bring back formal headwear for men and women? Hats were originally designed to keep the head warm in a population that spent a larger proportion of its time outdoors and in marginally heated buildings, not running from the front door of the overheated house to the overheated car and from the car to the overheated office.
How about a new energy crisis that requires homes and offices be kept at 60 or 62 degrees and requires people to spend more time walking to and from bus stops and train stations because they can't use their cars? Or what if the 1973 energy crisis never ended?
Any other ideas?