TheCreativeRoutine

The Summer Fedora

Fedoras have been around since the late 1800’s. They are believed to have been popularized by the Victorien Sardou play Fédora. French stage and early film actress Sarah Bernhardt, who played the title character Princess Fédora Romanoff in the 1882 production, wore a soft felt hat while on stage. Her hat of choice soon became the prevailing women’s fashion item, and the fedora was thus popularized.

I don’t know how surprised you are to read that, but I was awfully surprised to learn that the fedora started off as an item in womens’ wear. Almost all of the 20th century association with the fedora is in men’s fashion. As history shows, by the early 20th century, the fedora was worn predominantly by men. Prohibition-era figures like Al Capone, and actors like Gene Kelly and Humphrey Bogart helped spread the fedora’s popularity to the masses. Amazingly by the 1970’s, the fedora was dead. Michael Jackson, with his white and black fedoras, helped bring it back to life in the 1980’s. Now it’s been re-apportioned by today’s summer children and the hippest and liveliest kids on the street.

I’m always fascinated by the cyclical pattern fashion often has. If you really think about it, the fedora of yesteryear is close to gone for good. Almost all the fedoras you see today are made of straw, because almost all association with the hat today revolves around summer.

Although it is cool to see the hat morph from an exclusively female obsession, to a menswear staple, to a unisex item that is embraced by all. The fedora is a near-essential item that can be well utilized in anyone’s closet.

Although summer is winding down, depending on where you live, there is a good month to two of really warm weather ahead. At the very least you have a few weeks left to wear your hat while you embrace the new-found history you carry on your head.