As far as fashion goes, I’m a romantic. Throughout the years, I have idealized previous generations’ fashions and have dabbled in many of them. It’s rare that I can pull off these fashion statements to any degree of believability but that has never, and probably WILL never, stop me from my dabbling. I appreciate and admire most clothes that are well made; therefore, today’s garments tend to bore me and, time again, I turn a longing eye to vintage designs, fabrics, and workmanship.
But it’s not just the outfits that catch my eye and imagination, I’m also a sucker for the accessories. Give me a set of day gloves, a structured oversized no-nonsense handbag with a ‘kissing lock’ closure from the 50s, and a matching set of earrings and brooch, and I’ll play quietly for hours.
And I love hats!
I wore a pillbox hat for my wedding, bought and wore a top hat while travelling in Australia during the 80s, was inseparable from a faux fur-lined ushanka (Russian trapper hat with ear flaps) for an entire Montreal winter, and I’ve owned hats that bring to mind the Andrew Sisters, an Argentinian gaucho, and Humphrey Bogart. Not all at the same time.
Although I adore hats, the truth is that I have no where NEAR the passion for them that the folks in New York City had during the 1920s. Back then, hats were a sacred rite and definitely not to be trifled with. And I’m not talking about women’s fashion here. The men of 1920s New York knew a thing or two about their accessories and they went to crazy lengths to preserve the traditions they’d built around hat-wearing. Specific hats were worn in every season and for every occasion.
Straw hats were meant as a summer hat. Boaters, fedoras, and Panamas were all perfectly acceptable and lovely summer hats to wear, with the boater being the overall front runner. But there was an unwritten rule in men’s fashion at the time that straw hats were only to be worn until September 15th each year. In fact, that date was so hard and fast that it was referred to as Felt Hat Day. If a man were found to be wearing a straw hat after Felt Hat Day, it was entirely appropriate for any of his colleagues or friends to knock it off his head and destroy it right there in front of him. Of all the…!
The gentlest rebuke inflicted on complete strangers found to be breaking the no-straw-after-September-15th rule was ridicule and vicious taunting (as only a man wearing a felt hat can mete out), and it was not uncommon for youths to knock a man’s hat off and stomp on it before running away, satisfied that their elders’ fashion wrongs had been righted. This was such an accepted protocol that the newspapers would remind their readers a few days in advance that it was almost time to switch to their silk or felt hats in anticipation of Felt Hat Day.
The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 was started by teenagers. Surprise. It was only September 13th, and straw hat lovers still had another couple of days to revel in their hats before retiring them for the season. The free rein to ruin other people’s things could not come soon enough for a gang of teens who heralded from what is now the Chinatown area of Manhattan, and they started removing and stomping the straw hats of workers from a local factory. This they found so satisfying that they decided to move on to the dock workers. It was a mistake to even try those shenanigans with dock workers, and their victims immediately turned on them and started fighting back. More youths and more dock workers joined in the brawl, and it spilled over onto the Manhattan Bridge that connects Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn. Traffic came to a standstill while the police tried to sort out the melee and several arrests were made.
The next evening, the brawl continued and intensified! Gangs of teenagers swarmed the streets armed with sticks to hit hats off heads and some even affixed a nail to the ends of their sticks to make sure they were able to get a solid hook on the hats. Those who put up a fight against having their hats snatched and smashed, were beaten by the rabble and several men were hospitalized with serious injuries from the beatings. The size of the mob of straw-hat-hating teenagers grew to a reported 1000 strong as it moved along Amsterdam Avenue on the West Side of Manhattan.
There were a number of boys who had snatched and smashed hats but who had been overpowered by their prey or by-passers and held until the police arrived to arrest them. Of those who were old enough to be arrested, most chose to be fined rather than to be put in jail. Those who were underage had their parents called for their retrieval, along with the instruction to deal with the boys at home. Gulp.
Sanity and reason eventually returned and the heated hat snatching and squashing lessened with the passing years, although a man was murdered 2 years later for wearing his straw hat after September 15th. Oh, for crying out loud!!!
What helped to diffuse the madness was that the straw boater, the preferred style for smashing, drifted out of fashion for men, although the Panama hat remained a fashion darling for both sexes throughout the decades.
As I noted, my own love of hats is far less devoted than this example, but I will be the first to admit to being reluctant to pack away my outrageously wide brimmed beach hat at the end of summer each year. However, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be making sure that it is tucked safely out of sight in time for Felt Hat Day on September 15th from now on.
When push comes to shove, I’m a hat lover, not a fighter!
