# thoughts on boater hats



## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

I work with an older gentleman, a European-born former US diplomat who always turns up impeccably dressed in pure trad. A Yalie, for course, from back in the day.

Anyway, today he came to the office with a straw boater hat. Wheat colored straw and a black ribbon band. Looked fantastic.

​Any of you wear boaters? Can we stage a revival?


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## straw sandals (Apr 14, 2010)

I have one, but it takes guts to wear it in New York. I usually get to the door and change my mind, swapping it out for a panama. 

I'm all for a revival, though! Let's start by getting the FBI to start wearing them again.


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

A _boater_? They're okay, I suppose, if you sing barbershop . . .


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

A black band seems so unsporting.

I'd totally have a boater but they cost a lot for a somewhat fragile seasonal item. I'm not sure why people think a straw boater is more anachronistic or daring than any other type of hat.


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## Hitch (Apr 25, 2012)

We keep a few captive locally. In fact their annual Rose Festival is in early June.


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

Harry Truman wore a boater and he was a former haberdasher. If that's your style, go for it. I still say they look like a barbershop quartet.


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

IMHO the straw boater just oozes youthful privilege, intrepidness, jauntiness, rakishness. It's just so smart and clean.

Most hats are so fussy and associated with old fat men in suits and cigars, or ironic hipsters. The boater is free from this baggage and just puts a smile on all faces. It is so cool.


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## Trad-ish (Feb 19, 2011)

Tempest said:


> IMHO the straw boater just oozes youthful privilege, intrepidness, jauntiness, rakishness. It's just so smart and clean.
> 
> Most hats are so fussy and associated with old fat men in suits and cigars, or ironic hipsters. The boater is free from this baggage and just puts a smile on all faces. It is so cool.


 You go first.


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

straw sandals said:


> I have one, but it takes guts to wear it in New York.


Just in New York?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

Tempest said:


> IMHO the straw boater just oozes youthful privilege, intrepidness, jauntiness, rakishness. It's just so smart and clean.
> 
> Most hats are so fussy and associated with old fat men in suits and cigars, or ironic hipsters. The boater is free from this baggage and just puts a smile on all faces. It is so cool.





Trad-ish said:


> You go first.


Picture this; Belgian loafers on my feet and a Straw Boater on my head, with nothing but seersucker (the trousers sporting embroidered Black Labs all over them) in between, as I pilot my John Deere through the freshly tilled field behind the house. I'm becoming increasingly convinced the influence of the posters herein is going to get me killed...out here in Hoosierville! Paraphrasing Kenny Chesney, thank gawd my long suffering and ever patient wife "still thinks my tractor's sexy!"  Fashion is passing and style is enduring, but both are of necessity...situational. Loosing sight of that reality can be painful.


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## adoucett (Nov 16, 2012)

If you are headed to the Henley in GB, they are quite the traditional hat and adorned by the more fashionable (or traditional rather) attendees. Any rowing event in the United States however, and you would seem out of place.


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## conductor (Mar 1, 2010)

I love the boater hat. I no longer own one, but when I did it did not get worn. I doubt they'll ever come back in style, but if they did I'd be on the bandwagon. I do not have the guts to start that revival, however. 

In the spirit of full disclosure to Oldsarge, :biggrin: I have sung in several barbershop quarters. However, I've never worn one in those circumstances.


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## efdll (Sep 11, 2008)

Alas, the boater. Kidnapped by political conventions and any male manifestation of something old-timey and stupidly quaint. I can't wait for gangsta rappers to start wearing them. Or just plain gangsters, the more evil the better. It will take covering the heads of those whom one mocks at the risk of one's life for them to make a comeback. Then, mild-mannered reporters for the Daily Planet, like myself, could follow their scary-ass lead.


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## Hobson (Mar 13, 2007)

According to my grandmother, my grandfather would put his fist through the top of his boater at the end of each Summer, make a replacement necessary. Hence, they were apparently called "annuals".


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## Orgetorix (May 20, 2005)

I've seen one man look good in a boater. He was 80. If you aren't 80, skip it. It'll look pretentious.


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## CharlesFerdinand (Jun 18, 2010)

I've got one, but I only wear it as fancy dress. It is the kind of thing that makes passers-by take out their phones to take a picture of you.


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## Uncle Bill (May 4, 2010)

efdll said:


> Alas, the boater. Kidnapped by political conventions and any male manifestation of something old-timey and stupidly quaint. I can't wait for gangsta rappers to start wearing them. Or just plain gangsters, the more evil the better. It will take covering the heads of those whom one mocks at the risk of one's life for them to make a comeback. Then, mild-mannered reporters for the Daily Planet, like myself, could follow their scary-ass lead.


 LOL.


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## 32rollandrock (May 1, 2008)

I think they're cool, but have yet to acquire one that fits--the last one that came via the mail was a smidge large and so was given up. The key is to get something without the red-and-blue band that makes it look like a caricature. A solid color is, I think, best.


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

32rollandrock said:


> I think they're cool, but have yet to acquire one that fits--the last one that came via the mail was a smidge large and so was given up. The key is to get something without the red-and-blue band that makes it look like a caricature. A solid color is, I think, best.


That's why I liked the black band on my colleague's hat. It helped underscore the fact that this guy wore the hat because it's part of his normal wardrobe rather than something for a particular occasion.

He's 80, by the way. Fantastic guy.


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

I think they look best when worn with blazers and white flannels, myself, though any sportswear would look fine. I once got chewed to hell on a certain other forum for the mere suggestion that another fellow young guy shouldn't have worn it with black tie. A homburg would have looked more appropriate. To me, the striped bands are reminiscent of striped watchbands and repp ties, both of which wouldn't be appropriate for black tie either. To say nothing of the tan straw, of course.

Personally, they aren't for me. I'd sooner choose a fedora or trilby style in straw.



Orgetorix said:


> I've seen one man look good in a boater. He was 80. If you aren't 80, skip it. It'll look pretentious.


I find this assertion troubling coming from a man who has worn excellent-looking morning and evening full dress, making it look unpretentious and natural (with a top hat no less).


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## Snow Hill Pond (Aug 10, 2011)

adoucett said:


> If you are headed to the Henley in GB, they are quite the traditional hat and adorned by the more fashionable (or traditional rather) attendees. Any rowing event in the United States however, and you would seem out of place.


Any points gained by the boater were lost with the backpack and/or the poorly hemmed trousers.


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## Orgetorix (May 20, 2005)

Jovan said:


> I find this assertion troubling coming from a man who has worn excellent-looking morning and evening full dress, making it look unpretentious and natural (with a top hat no less).


It's all about context. I've worn morning dress and white tie three times total in my life; two were weddings and one was a costume party. Even then, I mostly carried the top hat and just put it on for some pictures.

But, except for costume parties or the boating regattas already mentioned, there is no context today where a boater would be appropriate. I don't wear morning dress to work, and I don't wear white tie to dinner parties with friends. There's a fellow over at TOF who occasionally posts WAYW pictures of himself wearing full morning dress in San Diego for no apparent reason. I guess you could give him props for fearlessness, but "unpretentious and natural" he ain't. Nor would I be, if I wore it like he does.


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## jbarwick (Nov 17, 2012)

I have never seen one of these hats on someone not in costume. If you can pull it off though, bravo!


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## tocqueville (Nov 15, 2009)

I just passed my colleague as he was on his way out of the office, hat in place. It really is standard warm weather office kit for him. He's tall, old, and generally distinguished looking. Perhaps that really is what it takes...


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## Tempest (Aug 16, 2012)

Orgetorix said:


> But, except for costume parties or the boating regattas already mentioned, there is no context today where a boater would be appropriate.


How about any time or place where seersucker or spectator shoes work? A picnic, church, a rowboat, a lawn party, horse races, riding a bicycle, all kinds of stuff.

I do thing that I love the boater because it is devoid of gangster or blue-collar associations. I would be terrified that someone would mistake a $160 hat for a cheesy costume prop and mistreat it though.


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## Oldsarge (Feb 20, 2011)

While I can certainly find a place in my wardrobe for spectator shoes, especially after Memorial Day, seersucker out this far west is a rarity. Possibly that's why I have such a hard time taking the boater seriously. Possibly if I lived in the Old South I would feel differently but going anywhere in SoCal in a boater will get you stared at, and not in a good way.


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## 12345Michael54321 (Mar 6, 2008)

tocqueville said:


> Anyway, today he came to the office with a straw boater hat.


A good day for it. I was in Baltimore yesterday. It was sunny and the mercury hit 96 degrees (official NOAA temp. at the Inner Harbor).



> Any of you wear boaters?


I don't, but I do have a Cuenca hat, which has got to be closer to a straw boater than it is to a one-size-fits-all baseball cap, with the plastic adjustment tab, and worn backwards. That being the most popular form of men's "hat," at this point in our society's sartorial decline.

BTW, while I was in Baltimore yesterday, I had some time to kill, so I went and took pictures of the cherry blossoms by the Washington Monument. The blossoms and Washington Monument in Baltimore, not the ones in DC. (Baltimore's Washington Monument pre-dates the one in DC, and was even mentioned in chapter XXXV of "Moby Dick.") It appears, below.

See, Baltimore's cherry blossoms and Washington Monument are actually "more trad," than are DC's. What? You didn't know that? Well, it's true. No, really, it is. In fact, visiting Baltimore's Mount Vernon neighborhood, to see the cherry blossoms and the Washington Monument, then to visit the Walters Art Museum, and finally to catch a concert at Peabody, is by actual measure nearly 22% more tradful than is visiting Washington, DC, during cherry blossom time. And although I forget where I put the report, I'm pretty sure I read that post-concert dining in Baltimore was nearly 17% more tradish than was dining in Washington, DC. And don't get me started on how Camden Yards is considerably more replete with tradosity than is... whatever ballpark it is where the Nationals play.

It's just like the bumper stickers say, "Baltimore: We Got a Buttload of Trad Here, Hon."








-- 
Michael


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## 32rollandrock (May 1, 2008)

Orgetorix said:


> It's all about context. I've worn morning dress and white tie three times total in my life; two were weddings and one was a costume party. Even then, I mostly carried the top hat and just put it on for some pictures.
> 
> But, except for costume parties or the boating regattas already mentioned, there is no context today where a boater would be appropriate. I don't wear morning dress to work, and I don't wear white tie to dinner parties with friends. There's a fellow over at TOF who occasionally posts WAYW pictures of himself wearing full morning dress in San Diego for no apparent reason. I guess you could give him props for fearlessness, but "unpretentious and natural" he ain't. Nor would I be, if I wore it like he does.


Good points, but still. There are events, albeit rare, where the context is, at least potentially, right. I'm thinking summertime outdoor cocktail parties or receptions--garden parties, if you will. Needs to be festive but gentile, and those sorts of events aren't common. You also have to be a sartorial master, I think. My didn't-fit boater went to Eazy on TOF, whom I think some here might be familiar with. He has a talent for putting together stuff that absolutely shouldn't go together but making it work. If anyone can make the boater float, it's someone like him.

As for the offered pictures of the grinning look-at-me-I'm-wearing-a-boater guys, it doesn't work because, as someone else said, the backpack and ill-hemmed pants ruin everything. But beyond that, it doesn't work for the same reason it wouldn't work if they were all wearing seersucker. Or blue blazers with gray trousers. Or any other matching get-ups. If there were just one of them who pulled it off well, it might well fly. But a difficult job becomes more difficult, I think, when you have stripes on both the jacket and the hat, and it might be tougher still with navy as opposed to a more summery color.


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## Tilton (Nov 27, 2011)

If I could fit a really obnoxious boater hat into the mix, I would. At this time, though, it doesn't work for me.


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## Jersey Boy (May 25, 2013)

I've got a boater. When I was leaving for college in 1988, my father made sure I had a straw boater and a tuxedo. It made little sense to me at the time, but I found places to wear both. My sister's college graduation was the first time I remember wearing the hat. I had on a blue blazer and white shorts with white bucks. I was still drunk from the night before when I got dressed and looked like a British School Boy mixed with Angus from AC/DC and smelled more like the latter. My dad was also wearing his that day.
I wore it to a Preakness Race in Baltimore with a tan seersucker jacket with tan linen pants and bow tie and fit right in with the other dandies. Now, I wear it every Forth of July (it has the blue and red band) and it's a bit costumey, but I get a lot of compliments. My dad still has his, and when we go to outdoor weddings in the Summer, we'll both wear them and it's kind of a family affectation, so it gets a pass.

Plus, I always wear a bow tie, so folks kind of expect a more anachronistic/trad look from me. I usually get a bit of an eye roll, with the obligatory, "only you can pull off a hat like that."

I think they're going to be making a comeback due to the new "Great Gatsby" movie.

It's a great Summer outdoor semi-formal party hat: fun, dressy and keeps the pate from getting burned. If there's a chance someone at an event is going to be wearing embroidered pants, I'm not going to hesitate to wear my skimmer.

Would I wear it to work? No.


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## Blessings (Nov 6, 2011)

tocqueville said:


> I work with an older gentleman, a European-born former US diplomat who always turns up impeccably dressed in pure trad. A Yalie, for course, from back in the day.
> 
> Anyway, today he came to the office with a straw boater hat. Wheat colored straw and a black ribbon band. Looked fantastic.
> 
> Any of you wear boaters? Can we stage a revival?


I've seen some on K st before - which I assume is where you've seen your example as well. I think they fit in well in DC.


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## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

I was this weekend at the World Old Ragtime Piano competition in Peoria and straw boaters fit in there well.

I think the material's easy to bang up and I don't like the flat geometry.

It also has the unpleasant 1920s associations. It just doesn't seem as practical.


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## ichiran (May 24, 2013)




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## filfoster (Aug 23, 2011)

Here in the US midwest, the boater has gone the way of the derby and the Passenger Pigeon. It ain't coming back.


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## wacolo (Jul 21, 2006)

There is local retired judge who can be seen around town wearing one on occasion. I actually have one from the 50's that I thrifted, but have never bothered to even try to pull it off.


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## benjclark (Mar 14, 2012)

ichiran said:


>


Nice!

If you can do it, good. If you have to ask: No. Unless your name happens to be Jay Gatsby -- no.


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## ichiran (May 24, 2013)




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## Dieu et les Dames (Jul 18, 2012)

Polo did it for the olympics..


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## filfoster (Aug 23, 2011)

Well, I am settled. The next time I pose for Monet or Manet, I'm grabbing the boater. I'll reserve the topper for Vicomte Lautrec.


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## Captain America (Aug 28, 2012)

filfoster said:


> Here in the US midwest, the boater has gone the way of the derby and the Passenger Pigeon. It ain't coming back.


Notta lotta regattas in the cornfields, that's for sure.


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## Odradek (Sep 1, 2011)

adoucett said:


> If you are headed to the Henley in GB, they are quite the traditional hat and adorned by the more fashionable (or traditional rather) attendees. Any rowing event in the United States however, and you would seem out of place.


I live in Henley.
You might see a few boaters, but not many, during regatta week. One week of the year. People wear all sorts of crazy outfits to the regatta. 
Otherwise, it's never seen in these parts.


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## Pale_Male (May 20, 2013)

Bought one at BB way back when. Wore it to a few garden parties and a Hotchkiss graduation with blue linen jacket and striped tennis flannels. 

Don't like the stiffness of the traditional version. I'd buy a softer variant and likely in the darker tan with black ribbon.


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## Odradek (Sep 1, 2011)

Actually spotted a few boater hats today, here in Henley, though there were boats involved.
A parade of vintage wooden boats down the river to mark 60 years since the Queen's Coronation. 
Several people dressd in appropriate style, though some were sadly off the mark.


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## Pale_Male (May 20, 2013)

tocqueville said:


> I work with an older gentleman, a European-born former US diplomat who always turns up impeccably dressed in pure trad. A Yalie, for course, from back in the day.
> 
> Anyway, today he came to the office with a straw boater hat. Wheat colored straw and a black ribbon band. Looked fantastic.
> 
> Any of you wear boaters? Can we stage a revival?


I was in New Haven on Friday and saw far too many octogenarians dressed as children. Indeed it was hot, but I managed to survive in Madras jacket, oxford cloth trousers, and collarless shirt... panama on my noggin.


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## Pale_Male (May 20, 2013)

Anybody here buy that old J. Press boater that sold on ebay yesterday?


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## midnight2six (May 28, 2013)

I love boaters and if I had one would want to wear it all summer. However I doubt I'd be wearing it for long around where I live. Some oik would have it away and put his foot through it in a nanosecond. Leaving one with two options, both unpleasant and best avoided.


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