When did hats get so big?

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Viewing 44 posts - 1 through 44 (of 44 total)
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  • #619238
    huju
    Participant

    If you look at photos of yeshivish Jews from 30 or more years ago, you will notice that men’s hats were not always black and much smaller than the black hats that are worn currently. In particular, big black hats have gotten expensive. Modestly sized felt or wool fedoras are available at prices much lower than the Borsalino that seems to be de riguer today. When did frum hats get so big, and why? And, given the expense, why not downsize?

    #1216878
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    They started getting bigger about 30 years ago. They’re getting smaller now. You should have started this thread 30 years ago.

    #1216879
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Maybe because houses and shul got bigger.

    Closets too. More storage to fit those hats.

    Maybe also heads got bigger.

    With more access to food and such. Maybe hats are less heavy now that bones are stronger.

    Aren’t the children of immigrants often taller too?

    #1216880
    Joseph
    Participant

    huju, and when did Sephardic men stop wearing turbans? Shouldn’t they go back to turbans, being they’re cheaper than Borsalinos?

    #1216881
    Litvos
    Member

    It could be that some wear fedoras and some homburgs. Many fedoras are larger than the homburgs and thus you might have thought they have gotten bigger. I could be mistaken, but I think it is a valid point.

    #1216882
    golfer
    Participant

    This thread is all mixed up.

    It’s chassidish ladies who wear turbans.

    And black hats are shrinking these days, their brims compressing to precariously thin proportions, as prices rise in inverse increments.

    #1216883
    huju
    Participant

    Reply to Joseph: I’m Ashkenaz. I don’t know anything about Sefardim wearing turbans. Ask them.

    I don’t know whether the hats are getting bigger or smaller today, but why does the size change. Torah hasn’t changed. Talmud hasn’t changed.

    #1216884
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    What happened to that poster looking for a hat in Lakewood?

    Maybe he can clue us in, as he seemed to be investigating hats

    #1216885
    nishtdayngesheft
    Participant

    I thought any mention of a hat brought an automatic response from Charlie Hall about a fedora.

    #1216886
    yungermanS
    Participant

    brims on hats are getting SMALLER today with added designs like feathers or needle that used to only be on hats that werent fetedoras

    #1216887
    catch yourself
    Participant

    Apparently, the hat malach has been eating too much cholent.

    #1216888
    Geordie613
    Participant

    huju, It’s called fashion. If Joe Borsalino decides to make a wider brim, within about 3 years all bochurim will be wearing wider brims.

    #1216889
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    Maybe people’s heads have gotten bigger.

    #1216890
    yitzy99
    Member

    “If you look at photos of yeshivish Jews from 30 years ago.. “

    30 years ago they were called frum Jews.

    I don’t “yeshivish” was used then.

    #1216891
    Geordie613
    Participant

    yitzy99, of course ‘Yeshivish’ was used then.

    #1216892
    akuperma
    Participant

    The only change is that fedoras became more popular as a dress hat, which began when hats started to go out of style (attributed to President Kennedy losing his top hat for his post-swearing in walk down Pennsylvania Avenue). Since they were a “dress hat” (fedoras were traditionally an un-dress, weekday hat), they tended to get nice. Other hat styles seen in the community (Streimels, Homburgs) are unchanged. In the past, people wore caps more often, but they were never Shabbos-dik (and remember, the pictures you see in the past were of weekday hats only, for obvious reasons). Also most frum Jews tend to be more affluent, and dressing better is part of that (in the past they were dominated by diamond workers and sweatshop workers, now we have lots of lawyers and accountants)

    #1216893
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Because more people realized that they’re really dressing to stand before the King and decided to boost their kavod to a wider brim

    #1216894
    HaLeiVi
    Participant

    Because of the Eiruv. Is that not obvious?

    #1216895
    huju
    Participant

    I thought fashion was assur, but some posters openly embrace fashion, and others just seem to go along with whatever Mr. Borsalino wants to sell. My next fedora will be felt, might not be black, will be much smaller than the current Borsalinos.

    And speaking of black, why not light-colored hats for warm weather? Should one be schvitzing like a pro athlete while standing before a king?

    #1216896
    Geordie613
    Participant

    No, people don’t buy BECAUSE it’s fashionable. But you buy what’s available, which happens to be what’s in fashion.

    On the subject, is it true that bochurim in Chabad yeshivos davka wear hats with smaller brims?

    #1216897
    zusha
    Participant

    It’s simple, with smaller hats you become tanned & if you are tanned, people will think you haven’t been spending all day inside studying. Solution: bigger hats.

    #1216898
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    I think zusha wins an award. That was a pretty awesome answer!

    #1216899
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    Actually, I was a bit bothered by it. I am not sure if this is how he meant it, but it sounds like it could be implying that Yeshiva bochurim aren’t really learning. Maybe that wasn’t how it was meant, but it seems to me that it could be taken that way.

    #1216900
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    I didn’t read it that way.

    I read it that if a Yeshiva bochur (who obvious studies) walked around, esp in Israel, with a smaller brim, then he could tan easily and quickly (like just the walk to shul in the sun) and thus no one would believe that he spends all day studying.

    But now that I read it the way that you thought that it was, it’s like that picture with the Vase and the Two Faces.

    I only saw a Vase. But then someone points out the Two Faces. Life is never the same afterward.

    #1216901
    zusha
    Participant

    Don’t worry Lilmod Ulelamaid I didn’t mean it that way! I meant it in the lighthearted way that they do it so no one could get the wrong idea 🙂

    #1216902
    Lilmod Ulelamaid
    Participant

    k – sorry for misjudging you – I wasn’t sure how it was meant and realized it could be meant either way.

    #1301701
    huju
    Participant

    I think zusha is on to something.

    #1301736
    DovidBT
    Participant

    New product idea: A “reverse sunlamp” that makes you paler.

    #1301740
    yytz
    Participant

    I like bigger hats, since they protect against the sun better. Small hats with barely any brim don’t really serve much of a purpose.

    Perhaps bigger hats have also become more popular because they are a bigger statement against assimilation. A small hat suggests you’re trying to be lower profile. A big hat suggests you don’t care about sticking out with your huge headwear, since you’re proud to be a frum Jew and totally out of step with American popular culture. The more loud and distinctive to Jews the hat is, the better it is in terms of assimilation and group pride. (I guess we can’t take that principle too far — otherwise we’d be wearing gigantic top hats with huge neon yellow stars of David all over them.)

    Also, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s use of a big wide hat for decades may have influenced even non-chassidim to adopt similarly full-sized hats. Reportedly, asked by a chassid whether the chassid should wear a traditional chassidic-style hat according to his specific local minhagim, the Lubavitcher Rebbe replied that no one nowadays is going to be impressed with such a hat — just wear a Borsalino (a basic dressy hat that at the time (a few decades ago) was the mark of a respectable middle-class person in America).

    #1302105
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Bigger hats do offer more sun protection.

    Are bigger hats more likely to go airborne?

    Do any of these bigger hats come with those side straps that wrap under the chin, to prevent them from flying off?

    #1302633
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    If you look carefully at the photos of some Chassideshe courts from the Alte Heim, the Shtreimlach have actually been getting smaller over time from the much large ones worn by Polish nobility; most likely because the cost of fur has been rising as a result of the Endangered Species Act and a recognition that the smaller Shtreimlach provide a smaller profile target for some antisemitim throwing snowballs.

    #1304794
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Big or less big, maybe hats today have more safety features, like cars.

    #1304858
    akuperma
    Participant

    One should note that the “dress” fedora came into existence when Americans stopped wearing fedoras as part of regular male clothing. That would have been in the 1960s. Before that, fedoras were an un-dress hat, or as we call it a weekday hat. Americans are apparently starting to wear hats again, and one wonders if the growth of small non-fancy fedoras will impact on out choice of hats (perhaps shifting more to hamburg or even back to top hats???).

    A dress hat among Orthodox Jews would tend to “big” since we don’t use cars on Shabbos, and the argument against a big hat is its inconvenience in cars or other motorized transit.

    #1306073
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Big hats are also inconvenient in crowds

    #2018600
    Maivin
    Participant

    they getting smaller and smaller

    #2018686
    mesivta bachur
    Participant

    It seems to me streimlach are also getting bigger the old streimlach look like fur donuts, today they’re essentially small tires with elegantly up swept fur.

    #2018750
    philosopher
    Participant

    Gadolhadorah, when was the last time you’ve seen a shtreimel? Today they’re bigger, taller and higher than any noble has ever worn, guaranteed.

    #2018756
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    There is an old Texas expression, “all hat, no cattle” that was meant to disparage those faux cowboys who tried to use a wide-brimmed Stetson to establish their credentials. I don’t think that was ever an issue within the frum tzibur since the size of Borselinos or Shteimlach was never highly correlated with lamdus or gadlus.

    #2018938
    Redleg
    Participant

    Akuperma mentions that today’s streimlach are unchanged. Really? Today’s streimlach don’t look at all like those of 40-50 years ago. The older ones were much flatter, not trimmed or teased up, and the crown often protruded above the the fur brim. Modern (yes, modern) shreimlach look like a bad haircut.

    #2018966
    huju
    Participant

    I have seen some men wearing hats covered with plastic shopping bags when it is raining, presumably to protect the hat. Two problems:

    1. If the hat is felt, it does not need protection from rain. Felt is made to recover from being rained on.

    2. Putting a plastic shopping bag on a hat looks … well, … stupid, hardly the way one would stand before any king, especially the King of kings.

    Another thing: One of the posters referred to a certain hat as “hamburg”. I believe that hat is worn by the counter personnel at fast food restaurants.

    #2018971
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    they getting smaller and smaller

    I said that almost five years ago

    #2018973
    ☕ DaasYochid ☕
    Participant

    Huju:

    1. Kashya oif a maysa. They get ruined in the rain.

    2. They take them off when they daven. Also, now raincoats with built in hat sized hoods are ubiquitous, and plastic bags over hats are no longer common.

    #2019311
    huju
    Participant

    To DaasYoc: A friend of mine has a coat with a hood that covers a very big hat. But the coat utterly fails to keep out any rain. Have they fixed that coat? I have not seen it advertised in years.

    #2019393
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Why would it work for the beavers but not for the Litvish? Borselino by Attica (model no. 238) is a 100 percent beaver felt hat which should keep its shape even in the rain.

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