Whatever happened to hats?

M0nica

But most of these 'trad wives' have side hustles telling the world how trad they are and raking in $$$$$

I see a lot of them on Reddit, all parroting the same messages, almost the same words; almost like they are paid propagandists.

Be Christian
Marry young
Submit to your husband
Have lots of children
Dress modestly
Don't work outside the house

They post posed pictures of them and their children if they have them, posing in white dresses and barefooted with various farm-animals.

But yeah, it's mainly click or rage bait nontent.

I have the skin of a red head so wear wide brimmed hats to protect my face from the sun. Of my 2 favorites, one, a green linen one had a quilted brim and a man once crossed the road to compliment me! The other hat we made of paper!!. I still have that one but the brim developed a water stain after water got on it somehow so I will have to drape an old scarf round it.... In winter, living in the North Isles, I choose from a variety of knitted, felted and velvet hats and sometimes wear 2 at a time!! I have turned into my grandma.... We thought she may have worn a hat in bed as well as for every outing...

But most of these 'trad wives' have side hustles telling the world how trad they are and raking in $$$$$

Witzend

I remember an elderly great-aunt (died in the 60s) who’d absolutely never go out without a hat. And in novels set in the 40s/50s I’ve read of an old lady who wore a hat for a tea party (she belonged to a generation that still thought it correct) and someone’s cook who wore hers indoors all the time, inc. while making pastry!

A snippet I love from a Trollope novel (Victorian) has a character telling the lady he is taking out for dinner, ‘A lot of ladies dine there. You can dine in your bonnet.’ 😂

One of the many many things I hate about the so-called "Trad Wives" influencers is that they cook/bake/preserve food with their long hair loose round their faces.

I worked briefly in a store cafe and had to wear a hairnet even though I was just dish-washing.

yogitree

London Fashion Week recently showcased various headwear, whimsical hats etc.

coveteur.com/london-fashion-week-fall-winter-2026-trends#:~:text=It%27s%20been%20a%20big%20week,collaboration%20portion%20of%20the%20collection.

(Not hats) but how amazing those Emilia Wickstead garments are!
I haven't looked at the LFW collections yet.

I wear hats. In the sunlight I have to to protect my face and neck due to skin cancer. I wear a hat when it is cold to keep myself warm.
I have been looking for a nice summer and a nice winter hat for several years now. Men's hats come in various sizes. I used to be able to buy nice hats as they always had different sizes. Now, generally, it's one size fits all. I do not have a football head. If I wanted to wear a bucket I would choose one of the selection I have at home.

My mum and gran suffered with thin hair. They loved hats because they could go out with confidence. I also have thin hair but hats are out of date so I don't have that choice.

I love a hat & wear a fedora - black or navy depending on coat I'm wearing - & a panama in the summer. I've got loads of wedding hats I'm boxes, I can't bear to throw them out. I get them out & try them on occasionally & DDSs used to love dressing up with them when they were small. I had a massive one for DDs first wedding but was told a fascinator was all that was required second time around! Most disappointing!

😁
Perhaps I should do that and cause a stir!

Allira

What to do with old but lovely mother of the bride or groom hats?

I kept my mother-of-the-bride hat just in case I ever got invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Alas, no invitation has ever been forthcoming. I haven't been to Cheltenham or Ascot either.

Yes, I often wear a sun hat in summer.

I have worn my M-o-B hat at our local River Festival, Bank Holiday Weekend and Carnival, adds a little glam to the Tombola & Ferret Racing

Calendargirl

It’s a good job both Camilla and Catherine look great in a hat.

I’m not keen on Camilla’s choice of hats personally.

My grandmother was a hatmaker and had a shop in Mary Street, Dublin. I remember her coming upstairs in our house, trailing felt, ribbons and bits of veil. Just that one memory from the 1950s.

You ask what happened to hats?

I was a little girl in the 1950s when a lot of the women who had spent part of the war in the services had, on being demobbed, been so sick of having to wear a hat that they certainly were not going to do so in private life.

Vatican 2 made it possible for Catholic women and girls to go to church without a hat on their heads, and my generation of school-girls were plagued with absolutely hideous hats - round felt or panama hats with a narrow brim. They had to be worn with our uniform, so once we left school, guess what? No-one was going to make us wear hats.

Come the 1970s and most of us who were young and fashion-concious did wear large floppy felt hats for a while, but they had a tendency to blow off our heads, so they went out of fashion fairly quickly. Some of us wore caps of the kind worn by Victorian or late Regency school-boys. These too were a fashion gimick that did not last long.

This is what happened to hats in my lifetime.

I love how hats look on me but hate that they are so uncomfortable. That's why I don't wear them any more.

I love hats, all sorts. For casual wear, I like a baker boy style (useful when my hair is a mess) I have a big head😁and sometimes it’s hard to get the right size. One size is often the wrong size.

Formal, casual, I like them all, except maybe the woollen style with a pom pom on the top.

My flying daughter no longer wears a hat since her uniform was updated and I think it’s a pity. She looked so smart with the hat.

On the other hand, my sister hates hats and says they just do not suit her.
Maybe it has something to do with the shape of our faces?🤔

It takes a particular head and face to suit hats, my mother was stunning and could wear anything on her head, I took after my dad’s side where the women all had rather masculine faces, no beards or moustaches but you get my drift, so if I wear a fancy hat I look like a man in drag, in my woolly hat I still look strange but don’t care because I want to keep warm.

When horse riding I obviously wear a proper hat and occasionally a beanie type when walking the dog. Can't believe how stupid a so called 'pop star' looked when photographed wearing his hat, lying in a hospital bed!!!

When I got married in the 60s, I told my mum and my future mother-in-law (separately) not to wear a hat because the other wouldn't - knowing they both hated them...

Me. I like hats, but my latest trilby-type doesn't fit any more because I had my hair cur too short!
Warm beanie with a bobble for winter... but I seem to have lost my favourite felt hat.

I wear sun hats all summer and to avoid dazzling sunshine in my eyes. No longer consider one for 'occasions' what's the point? Practical items of clothing only these days 😉

Women wore hats or headscarves all the time (outside the home) until the 70s because doing their hair was much more difficult then than it is now...think of the prickly rollers and the the hooded hair dryers. Putting a hat on is an "instant" do and women did not take their hats off even inside so it didn't matter if their hair wasn't perfect underneath, nobody would see it. We are much luckier now: so many hair appliances and products to poof up our hair that hats aren't needed unless for protection.

London Fashion Week recently showcased various headwear, whimsical hats etc.

coveteur.com/london-fashion-week-fall-winter-2026-trends#:~:text=It%27s%20been%20a%20big%20week,collaboration%20portion%20of%20the%20collection.

I remember an elderly great-aunt (died in the 60s) who’d absolutely never go out without a hat. And in novels set in the 40s/50s I’ve read of an old lady who wore a hat for a tea party (she belonged to a generation that still thought it correct) and someone’s cook who wore hers indoors all the time, inc. while making pastry!

A snippet I love from a Trollope novel (Victorian) has a character telling the lady he is taking out for dinner, ‘A lot of ladies dine there. You can dine in your bonnet.’ 😂

Redhead56
My dad trained as a milliner.
I still have an emerald green velvet hat he made for my mother - and the matching emerald green velvet coat my mother made to go to a wedding in.
She was a tailor.

I love hats, they do suit me but I rarely wear them.

I love them all - from the huge and wafty to the little pill box style (especially with a short veil)!

I have several hats if all descriptions and purposes. I even have them as decorative objects like people have pictures, hanging on the wall to be viewed with pleasure. They are works of art.

Along with the decorative handbags and gorgeous shoes, someone is going to have a field day when I go. I’d quite like them to go to the local nursery for the dressing up box. Mar ch better than Disney costumes🙁

Perhaps I’d better write that down……..

Calendar girl - yes that really bugs me when they don't take off their baseball caps.
When I was still working I remember a young lad getting bawled at for not taking off his cap inside the work building. That was a good number of years back. it may be different now,
My Dad used to wear a cap for work and a trilby for best.
My mum wore hats all the time, some very dressy. She had boxes full.
I have never posessed anything beyond a Fascinator which was for weddings, just don't feel good in a hat.