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| Bjorn and his vintage hat, now perfectly fitted. |
When did men stop wearing hats on a daily basis? Understanding the history of men’s hat styles is what local lid experts Kate and John McLaughlin, owners of the recently opened Brass Rooster in Bay View, encourage all you non-hat wearers to appreciate. I’m not talking about knit caps, baseball caps, or any other useful, pedestrian piece of clothing. I mean the hats that were once the definition of a man’s style, with cool names like fedoras, bowlers, buckets, poor boys, boaters, and porkpies.
For a long time the simple hat was an indicator of his station in life in addition to a clue to his personal taste. The McLaughlins say that when JFK took his oath of office as President of the United States sans chapeau, it signaled the demise of traditional hat wearing. I for one, and I’m sure I’m not alone, love the fact that hats are popping up again in shops and on the streets everywhere in Milwaukee. I’ve noted quite a few gals with sporty toppers to boot!
The male-friendly vintage storefront is decorated in the style of an old school haberdashery, and carries a discriminating selection of men’s accessories like cuff links, suspenders, ties and shaving supplies as well as an astounding selection of hats. The owner’s goal is to make customers feel at home asking questions, and trying out hat styles to find just the perfect one for them.
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| A lesson in blocking. |
No hat novice here, I brought in a vintage hat that needed to fit a little more comfortably and John authoritatively instructed me on the art of blocking a hat, as he eased the tight hatband using a hand made steamer, and wooden hat block. A little hot steam and pressure were applied while gently pushing it down onto the block and voila! The fit was perfect! Mr. McLaughlin let me know that I was a perfect 7 1/2.
During our time together at the store I learned a ton of tidbits about hats. Such as, the wearer’s head would determine which hat to pick. Sounds like any other fashion choice we make doesn’t it? Unless for some reason the hat fits him perfectly, McLaughlin always gives each hat a little steam to personalize it for the gentleman (or lady, as the case may be). He told me, “I have been a hat wearer since I was 10. I found one of my grandpa’s in the fifth grade and wore it until it disintegrated somewhere in the seventh grade. I was not the cool kid, I was the weird kid.”
Weird or not, John and his professional milliner wife, Kate share a lot of “hat history” with their customers. I learned that social anthropology dictated the wearing of hats. Everything that affects us economically and socially affects what we wear. Architecture definitely influenced the style of hats. During the industrial revolution the smokestacks of all the factories were literally where your different heights of top hats came from. They surrounded people, and everyone from the upper crust to your workingman and chimney sweeps wore the top hat. They also became social statements for different groups of laborers. It depended on what grade of material it was made from. On the top hat itself they could actually put postings about whatever cause they were fighting for during that time period.
This structural influence was global as it also goes back to the time of early Muslim beliefs as well. You have their amazing mosques with domes. The Arabian and Indian style of headdress, which is this beautiful onion shape, mimicked the shapes of the Mosques around them in the style of their turbans.
A heyday for hats was the ’20 and ’30s. At that point it was a social convention as well as daily fashion that men were raised with. It didn’t matter if you were a zoot suiter or a doctor you wore a hat. They cocked it a certain way to make it their own. Women started adopting men’s fashion when men went off to World War II. Rationing forced women to utilize what their men had left behind, and the economical necessity of remaking their suits became the norm. Depression era America introduced working class designs of all types of fedoras from straw to felt for protection from the elements of migrant and farm workers. It was not just fashion. Something else that we can go back to from a functional standpoint is the Derby. This was the first hardhat. Working men wore these in the coalmines. It was named after the seventh Earl of Darby, or Derby if you will, in England.
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| Bjorn’s new Brando-style hat. |
I left the store with a vintage looking motorcycle cap that is similar to one that Marlon Brando wore in “The Wild Ones”, as well as a fascinating wealth of knowledge and insight about men and hats! Today rock stars, as well as regular guys are getting back into the wearing of hats. It’s absolutely essential to any civilized society to recognize the power that style and fashion has, and these shop owners promote it well. I want to implore every Milwaukee man to ditch the dowdy baseball caps and trade up to something with more substance, like maybe a bowler or derby? Just set your fear aside, stop by the store, try some on and most of all have fun! Thanks to John, Kate, and the Brass Rooster for letting men know its okay to get their cool on again. After all, I don’t believe in bad hair days, but I do believe in good hats!
For store hours and any other information, go to the Brass Rooster’s website.
As a special treat, we’d like to share a gallery of photos by Thomas Nardini from the “Release the Beast” fashion show at the Moct Bar last Friday.
