For style and sun-safety reasons, there’s no doubt hat culture is making a comeback after a steep decline that began in the 1960s.
You might say Elvis changed everything. Before Elvis Presley, hat culture thrived.
For 3,000 years hats spoke a language understood by all as a marker of status, aspiration and origin. Different styles of headwear marked kings, queens, nobility and the ranking of chiefs and priests.
"Today kings, priests and the pope still wear hats on ceremonial occasions, but in the past all people used to do that," said Oska Truffaux, owner of the Waikiki hat shop Truffaux, which specializes in Panama hats. "The wearing of hats was a very complex language, so if you walked down the street, you knew what everyone did and where they were from."
In old England, according to Truffaux, hat heights were restricted by class.
"If you dared wear a hat above your ranking, they’d throw you in jail. It would have been the equivalent to putting on a policeman’s uniform today if you’re not a policeman," he said.
The wearing of hats was a social more for more than one reason.
"You have to remember, before people had access to indoor plumbing they didn’t wash their hair every day. Before the 1950s, they may have washed their hair only once a month. They wore a hat to cover their hair."
Access to plumbing and television, where people were able to watch celebrities like Presley and his upswept pompadour, changed notions about hair and cleanliness, so that the language of hats was usurped by the language of hairstyles, Truffaux said.
"So if you saw someone walking down the street today with a blond mullet, that would mean something to you."
Truffaux has been interested in the power of hats since running a music club in Melbourne, Australia. "All the musicians wore hats. There were days they were hung over and everyone wanted to take photos. Celebrities love anonymity, and sunglasses and hats not only provide a cover, they always look really good together. Nothing looks better."
He said his head is bigger than most, so he was never able to get a perfect fit until he traveled to Ecuador. There, he was able to pick up custom-made Panama hats, named because pioneers heading to California’s Gold Rush in the mid-1800s made port in Panama, where they found the Ecuadoran-made hats for sale.
He brought enough back to Australia to set up a seasonal pop-up shop that proved popular in a country gone mad for hats for health reasons. Due in part to a growing hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, about 1,200 Australians die from skin cancer every year. In response, a national SunSmart program in the 1980s made it mandatory for children to wear hats on school playgrounds. Similar initiatives were started in workplaces and sporting clubs.
According to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, an estimated 10 percent reduction in the ozone layer will result in a 25 percent increase in nonmelanoma skin cancer rates in temperate regions by the year 2050. Skin cancer levels in South America and the American Southwest are expected to match Australia’s by 2060.
With a growing interest in hats in sunny spots, Truffaux opened a second pop-up shop in Saint-Tropez in the south of France. The Waikiki salon — where individuals can be fitted and measured for a Panama hat made by artisans in Cuenca, Ecuador, or have them reshaped and shaved of fine fibers — is his first year-round shop. He counts locals, visitors and celebrities such as Bette Midler and "Long Island Medium" Jessica Camp as his clients.
Although Truffaux is considering adding felt hats to his repertoire in other parts of the world, he considers the Panama to be perfect for Hawaii. Made from toquilla straw, they absorb moisture, which helps keep heads cooler when it’s hot outside. The moisture is good for the hats, preventing the straw from drying out. They should not be kept in direct sunlight.
Both Truffaux and store manager Ray Sanchez say Hawaii leads the nation in hat wearers. Although — when eyeing celebrity culture — it looks like Los Angeles is ground zero for hat-wearing, Sanchez, who sold hats in L.A. before moving to Hawaii, said: "Among celebrities, yes; the general population, no."
Truffaux, originally a psychologist, said, "It’s good that we’re free of the class system associated with hats," but it just means people find other markers of kinship as they make their way through the world.
"Today, no one really knows how to wear a hat or the etiquette of hats, so anything goes. But it might have a Nike label or a Ralph Lauren label. We rely on someone else’s idea or brand to speak for us."
TIPS OF THE HAT
In times past, formality was associated with wearing hats, with rules for when they could be worn and when they must be removed.
In the 19th century through the early 20th century, hats were tipped or doffed, slightly lifted off the forehead, to greet a woman or as an expression of thanks, hello or goodbye. The custom grew out of the medieval practice of knights raising their face visors as a gesture of friendship and removing one’s hat in the presence of those of higher status.
Hats were removed when indoors, except in places considered public, such as lobbies and business elevators. In these places, they were removed only in the presence of women.
There were few rules for women because hats were integrated with their coiffures, and to remove the hat meant undoing their hard work.
Today, hats are treated as an extension of personal style, completing an outfit, and to remove them means ruining "the look."
New times call for new rules, and we need only to look to the etiquette bible, EmilyPost.com, for the update:
MEN
Hats on
>> Outdoors
>> At athletic events (indoors or out)
>> On public transportation
>> In public buildings such as post offices, airports, hotel or office lobbies
Hats (including baseball caps) off
>> In elevators
>> In someone’s home
>> At the table at mealtime
>> While being introduced
>> In a house of worship, unless a hat or head covering is required
>> Indoors at work, especially in an office (unless required for the job)
>> In public buildings such as a school, library, courthouse or town hall
>> In restaurants and coffee shops
>> At a movie or any indoor performance
>> When the national anthem is played
>> When the U.S. flag passes by, as in a parade
WOMEN
>> Fashion hats can be left on in most circumstances except indoors at work or when blocking someone’s view, such as at a wedding or in a theater.
>> When wearing unisex baseball-style caps, follow men’s rules
Truffaux is at Waikiki Beach Walk, 227 Lewers St. Call 921-8040.
