|
Boys and men wore hats and caps much more commonly in the past. No well dressed boy's outfit in the 19th and first half of the 20th century would fail to include a hat or cap. The difference being a cap is a close-fitting head covering resembling a hat, but differing
principally because of the absence of a brim or by having a brim that
only partially circumvents the crown.
There are a great variety of styles for hats and caps. Until the
mid-18th century boys simly wore the same hats wore by adults. When the style of dressing boys in sailor suits developed, sailor hats became the first
specialized hats for boys. A great variety of hat and cap styles for
boys developed in the 19th century. Some styles like the
classic sailor hat lasted for generations. Other styles were more short
lived. Some styles were fanciful creations purchased by mothers, but not
well received by the boys and never became popular.
HBC has just begun collecting information on this subject. We have acquired some information on basic cap types, but our understanding of these caps is still quite limited. In many case we do not fully understand the origins of these caps, when they were
made, what the caps were used for. We incourage HBC readers to conrribute what they know about these caps. Four cap styles emerge as the most important over time, sailor caps, peaked school caps, flat caps, and baseball caps. There were, however, many other types of caps worn by boys. The information that we have acquired on boys caps include the following:
It is difficult to understand today when boys all over the world now seem to wear the same cap style--baseball caps. Boys from different countries once doffered signicantly as to the caps they wore. American boys wore flat caps, British boys peaked school caps, and French boys berets. Some basic information about cap trends in dofferent countries include the following.
Photograps taken of any large group as late as the 1950s show most boys
and men wearing caps and hats. Beginning in the 1960s head gear quickly
passed from the male fashion scene. President Kennedy who assumed
office in 1961 played a key role in the decline of the hat.
President Kennedy may
ave single-handedly killed the hat. When he walked down
Pennsylvania Avenue that cold January day with no hat on his head, he
ended the era of the dress hat for men. The
inauguration parade
was watched by millions and confirmed the decline of the hat that had
already began. And it was not just men. John-John alsp rarely appeared in a hat,
but like his father had a copious head of hair.
One American mother remembers how it was for men's fashions in those pre-Kennedy days.
Even at an afternoon baseball game, the guys were decked out in their finest fedoras. Not that we want to dress up all the time far from it but people looked better in pajamas back then than they do in the leisure wear of today. I remember the first time I flew on a plane. It was 1976. I was eleven years old and it was a BIG to-do. We laid out our outfits the night before and made sure our shoes were polished and our fingernails clean. While comfort was an issue for the long transcontinental flight, neatness and propriety were even more so. Ripped jeans, sneakers, and sweatshirts were out of the question. All us kids, and my parents too, were dressed in our nearly Sunday best. We weren't the only ones either. The plane was full of people decked out in their finest, ironed attire. Even those folks who looked like they might ordinarily be garbed in a sloppier fashion sucked it up for the fact that they were traveling. Coach class doesn't mean no class. A couple of weeks ago I flew from Texas to Newark. While I'm not one for ironing, I did lay out my clothes and made sure they were neat and clean for the voyage. That's more than I can say for some of the other passengers. Oh, some of the men were wearing hats alright filthy, mangy baseball caps topping off their faded t-shirts and holey jeans. I'm not against jeans. I practically live in them myself, but can't people make sure they're hole-free, or at least CLEAN, when going out into the world? Even the people in first class, who obviously can afford a new pair of pants once in a while, were not exempt from looking unkempt. I may sound like your mother, but I don't see why cleanliness and intentional tidiness is considered so taboo by today's fashion standards. It seems to me just a matter of respect, both for yourself and for your fellow man, to not look as if you just rolled out of bed. I'm all over overalls and t-shirts, but is it too much to ask to try to look nice once in a while?
The extent to which men and boys once wore hats and caps is
a little difficult to understand as currently caps and hats are rarely
worn, except for the ubiquitous baseball caps. While caps are common
during the winter,
for the rest of the year it is rare to see boys wearing caps other than base ball
caps. It was very different only a few years ago. Boys wore very formal
caps and hats in the late 19th Century, many variations of
sailor hats. In addition to these formals hats, many more informal caps
have been worn by boys.
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Headwear Pages:
[Return to the Main headwear page]
[]
[Hats]
[Berets]
[Hair]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web chronological pages:
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Navigate the Historic Boys' Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
