#hat etiquette

[whaleiumsharkspeare]

Male characters taking off their hats while in the presence of a lady, my beloved

[professorpski]

The Hat is Removed wherever and whenever a man is greeted by  woman, even if she is his wife or daughter. He replaces it immediately unless he stops to talk, and then strict etiquette demands that he remain bare-headed until they part or decide to walk together. However, young people are gradually modifying this rule and do not consider it improper if a man replaces his hat after the greeting and remove it again briefly upon parting.

Oh, those crazy kids--replacing their hats after greetings! This is from Modern Manners for Men and Women from 1940 and if gives you some idea what people are doing in old movies, and why you will see scenes where one guy yells at another guy to take off his hat when he’s talking to a lady. Wearing hats in public was a part of normal dress, so much so that hatless men were considered a bit odd, and slightly suspicious. Had they lost their hats while trying to make a quick getaway from a crime scene?

There are many more men’s hats etiquette rules and I will blog some more of them, but  you get the idea of how certain gestures were linked to etiquette and dress. Also, why older people might tsk tsk while watching hipsters walking around all day with nary a lifting of their hats with weirdly tiny brims.

[lemaistrechat]

[missholson]

Rowland V. Lee: Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Baron Frankenstein throws darts (1)

[thealkalinecyclist]

Styles upon styles...

[professorpski]

The hat is always removed in the presence of ladies in any building which constitutes a dwelling place... and always when a man enters a house or church... in elevators at apartment houses, hotel and clubs, but not in office buildings, stores or public corridors. ... for the national flag, the national anthem, and while attending a funeral or waiting for a funeral procession to pass.

It was news to me that the etiquette of men’s hats varied by the location of the elevator. I am thinking that the dwelling rule covers apartment buildings, hotels, and clubs, since people did live in all those places. So they were considered private, while the other spaces were considered public as they were open to anyone.

On the one hand, my, what a lot to keep in mind. But I am also thinking that a fair amount of graceful gestures might be mastered and displayed as well. This is from a paperback I found called Modern Manners for Men and Women from 1940. Hats were considered essential clothing for most formal public appearances by men or women back then.

[professorpski]

The Mystery of Mrs. McCarthy’s Hats on Father Brown

A reader wrote me to ask, would Mrs. McCarthy wear her hats while working at work in the rectory kitchen?  So, here’s the rule and here is why Mrs. McCarthy is unusual even in the 1950s.

The general rule was women didn't wear a hat at home, but they did wear them in public. And there are three elements at play with Mrs. McCarthy.

One, she never wears what was called a casual felt, a practical hat used to keep wind and rain and sun off the face as it has a brim and only simple trimming, like a feather. Taking that off when one got to work would have been normal, as these are the equivalent of the hats men wore to keep the weather off too. Instead, she is always wearing a dressy hat with flowers, etc.. Women did keep dressy hats on when they worked in offices. I had older colleagues who remembered a professor who wore flowered hats every day to work. I’m sorry i missed her.

Two, Mrs. McCarthy works at a place which is a strange combination of public and private, and office and dirty work. The rectory is a place where a lot of people would come, so that makes it public, and she types etc., so that is office work. But then she cleans up in the kitchen, cooks, and makes tea, etc. Aprons and hats are an odd juxtaposition and hardly on task. Just as a woman would take off a jacket and roll up her sleeves to do dirty work, she would take off her hat to keep that clean too.  It would be very odd for a woman to pull an apron over her head while wearing a dressy hat, or wear such a dressy hat while doing dirty work indoors simply because she would not want to mess up the hat with food or steam or accidentally pushing her hair out of her eyes with hands covered in flour.

So I add a third element. As she is written, Mrs. McCarthy is a bit of a fuss budget,  and the keeping on of hats under ALL circumstances may signal that her desire to be "proper" has overwhelmed her practicality.

For more information on the series, go here. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03pmw4m

[gaykarstaagforever]

All of these Max Level Sigmas who were born 100 years too late and spend money they don't have on antiquated-style hats sure don't seem to know that until like...now, it was considered disrespectful to not immediately take your stupid hat off and hang it up when you went inside a building.

That might be part of the reason you traditionally tipped your hat at A Lady when you acknowledged her. Like the friendly thing to do is remove the rain-stained felt lump on your head, that smells like bad beef jerky.

Also stop putting pins on it. Those pierce holes in it and cancel out like half the reason you are supposed to be wearing a hat, which is to keep rain or snow off your head with a water-resistant thing.