Old-time Phoenix, when men wore hats, and why they don't anymore


In my lifetime, the only men who have worn hats are men who worked outdoors, and of course kids. I came of age when men who wore shirts and ties didn't wear hats, they drove cars, and that's the reason why you don't see men's hats anymore.

As a fashion statement, of course, some men wear hats nowadays, but it's mostly functional. For what it's worth, the hood of a sweatshirt serves a similar function, it covers your head, which is nice on a cold desert morning!

Men, like my father who began his career in the 1950s, who wore a shirt-and-tie to work, didn't ever wear a hat. Growing up in Minneapolis I can't even picture him ever wearing a hat, although he might have. The etiquette for gentlemen is to always take off your hat when you entered a building, and since men like my dad drove cars to work, where a hat wasn't needed, it certainly wasn't needed at work.

Of course you see men in old movies wearing hats. I can't imagine anyone wearing a top hat in Phoenix, but I suppose it happened, when attending the opera (yes, Phoenix had operas going back to the 1890s). The opera houses would have a place where a gentleman would check in his hat, and pick it up on the way out, giving a tip to the hat-check person.

If a man went into a restaurant, he was expected to hang his hat up on the coat rack, not sit there at the table wearing it. Of course men did, but it was seen as boorish behavior, and some men still see it the same way, when they see a grown man wearing his baseball cap while eating inside of a McDonalds. Not taking off your hat is simply seen as disrespectful to other men, just like not taking off your sunglasses when talking to another man. Of course men would always take off their hat for a lady, and if they were outside, they would simply touch the brim, and tip it.

Speaking for myself, in the past two years living without a car I've started to understand the value of hats. It's usually hot and sunny in Phoenix, and having a brim shade your eyes is wonderful. I'm writing this during some cold weather in February, and having something covering your head on chilly mornings is nice, too. I've also begun to understand why sweatshirts have hoods, they not only keep your head warm, but your ears, too. Of course you wouldn't need any of this in a car!

As cars became more and more commonplace, especially with hard tops, hats went away.

Image at the top of this post: In front of Green the Hatter in the 1890s, in the Fleming Building, northwest corner of 1st Avenue and Washington.
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