The black fedora is a relatively recent style — probably a century old. It was common in non-Jewish society for a generation or two but is now indeed a symbol of Jewish community for some. Every rabbi I’ve met who wears a black hat tells me that it is the insides not the outsides that matters. My own rav is cleanshaven, and wears a black hat over his kippa sruga. I never shave, ever, wear a black velvet kippah (I’m not sure I’ve ever worn a kippa sruga), and don’t even own a black hat. I wore a black hat once, at my wedding at the seudah, when my wife’s (Lakewood-trained) rav lent me his for about ten minutes. He then repossessed it with the comment, “It doesn’t fit.”
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