A Guide To Men's Hat Styles
Hats are slowly becoming a daily accessory for more and more modern gentlemen, reminding us of a time in America when men wouldn’t leave the house without one.
Men’s hats come in many shapes, sizes, and fabrics. So to make it easier for you, we’ve broken down the basic hat styles, offered a little background history, and provided some pointers for adding them to your wardrobe.
A fedora is typically creased lengthwise down the middle of the crown, then “pinched” near the front on both sides. Fedoras have become widely associated with gangsters and Prohibition, which coincided with the height of the hat’s popularity in the 1920s to early 1950s. They were a daily accessory for many American men until JFK, a style icon in his own right started making public appearances sans-chapeau and started a 40-year trend toward general hatlessness.
A good felt (or straw) fedora has a sturdy but flexible brim that can be “snapped up” or “snapped down” in the front or back, allowing you to mold the brim and achieve the perfect, slightly-askew shape. My favorite is unlined and MJ).
The trilby has a shorter (thus narrower) brim which is angled down (“snapped down”) at the front and turned up at the back, versus the fedora’s wider brim which is more level and flat. The trilby also has a slightly shorter crown than a typical fedora design.
It reached its zenith of common popularity in the 1960s; the lower head clearance in American automobiles made it impractical to wear a hat with a tall crown while driving. It faded from popularity in the 1970s when any type of men’s headwear went out of fashion. They had a moment of rising with 90’s boy bands and cheesy musicians, but lately, they’ve landed closer to being a symbol of nerd culture, especially cheap versions made of synthetic fabrics.
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