So I reached out to my family for their opinions on my hat, and the following is what ensued: “Hey what do you think of my hat?”
“Get out of my room! Fedoras are a girl’s hat.” Actually my sister might not be that far from the truth. The word fedora was coined by dramatist and playwright Victorien Sardou in his 1882 play “Fedora” which featured a female lead named, you guessed it, Fedora. She was featured in the play wearing a hat fashioned to look like today’s fedora, and, coincidentally, after the played gained popularity the fedora became a staple for women’s fashion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but I am a man I needed to get to the bottom of how the fedora became a men’s fashion statement.
So I asked my mother: “What do you think of my hat?”
“It reminds me of the hat my grandpa used to wear.” She might be on to something. The fedora quickly became popular for men as well, and in the early twenties it achieved mainstream notoriety for its gangster connotations. In fact, Al Capone was known to wear a fedora, and the film industry adopted this fashion for the archetypal gangster mystique in the fifties, but, gangsters aside, even orthodox Jews were and are known to wear black fedoras. So, fedoras have a rich history indeed. For more information about the fedora check out the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora
http://www.ehow.com/about_5041049_history-fedora-hats.html
Cool blog Brandon. I don't wear too many hats but my dad does and he has a lot of them, including a couple fedoras. Pretty interesting to learn a brief history of the style and I enjoyed the comical way you wrote the blog. Good call - especially in this case - to include a picture. I think lifestyle blogs should probably include pictures so I will do that too. Yes I enjoyed your blog and look forward to reading about (and seeing) the other hats you will cover.
ReplyDeleteI love this! I like how you talked about the history of the fedora and weren't afraid to make jokes about how it started out as a girls hat. I agree though that anyone can wear a fedora. I too am a lover of hats so this intrigued me!
ReplyDeleteOh Gunderson, you are too clever for your own good! It's a silly and wonderful idea and I find the comedic voice on point. Maybe you can give this old bitty some hat advice? Or perhaps I can crochet you a nice beanie? Oh the possibilities. I look forward to reading your clever witticisms.
ReplyDeleteI love that you decided to focus on hats in your blog. What a unique topic! In this entry, you mixed interviews with facts about the fedora—nice job weaving them together. Your writing has a nice conversational feel while still being informative. I think your site has the potential to get hits from people outside class. I hope that happens!
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