It may have practical benefits, but a personality hat is mostly for the vibes
There was a time when it was shocking to venture into public bareheaded. You or I would no more have done our weekly shop without a hat than we would have done it barefoot. Now the opposite is true. Hats, which used to be a badge of duty and propriety, have become the opposite – a bold sartorial choice that marks you out as a flamboyant dresser.
There are exceptions. Some hats are so normalised we barely register them. A beanie on a wintry walk, a baseball cap on a sunny beach. And there are still occasions – weddings, Ascot – where hats are part of the ritual. But beyond these narrow guardrails, hats have become an eccentricity.
