According to The Bolton News, flat cap sales are booming in southern England. I cannot help but notice that this trend has curiously coincided with the recent arrival of a certain flat-cap-wearing American on these shores…
Here I can be seen setting my fashion focus on the Vatican. The Pope needs to move past the beanie and get down with the flatness:
In learning of this trend, I finally figured out of all the fuss being made over my cap. Many people I know in London seem to comment about my cap, whereas back in the States it always seemed rather unremarkable. Wikipedia shed some light on the matter for me: “In British popular culture, the flat cap is associated with working class men in northern England.”
Ah, so that’s it. I’m a middle class foreigner in the south. I seem to have crossed a class line. It was bound to happen, eh?
A chain-reaction of class-conscious questions ensued. Am I even middle class? Isn’t that the great myth, that all Americans are middle class? Maybe I’m upper-lower-middle or lower-upper-lower? What other behaviour gets casually and silently scrutinised on a daily basis?
If I go to a an old formica-countered cafe in Soho and call it a “caff” instead of a “cafe”, given that I’m university-educated, what does that communicate? Personally, I just like bacon, I don’t care what you call the place that makes it. If I shop at Somerfield, will that be seen as ironically “slumming it”. Hm, no, actually that would just be a bad idea. Somerfield is shit.
This photo here was taken from my former life as a half northern working class man, half chav:
UPDATE: I just returned from a holiday in the town of Glastonbury. Although in the southern county of Somerset, I saw many old men wearing flat caps on the way. I then remembered that I first wore a flat cap as a young boy. It was given to me by my uncle. He wore flat caps all the time. Granted, he was in his sixties, but this never struck me as a reason not to adopt his keen fashion sense.
I don’t think my present readoption of the flat cap has anything to do with class politics, rather, I think I’m just an old man trapped in a 30-something’s body, much like I used to be a geriatric junior high schooler. And I guess I don’t even really believe that my current donning of the flat cap has anything to do with age. I may be 32-going-on-78, but I’m often simultaneously 57-going-on-12 and 25-approaching-7.
Caught in the age flux, I kinda like it here.
Loving the Tron suit as always! Didn’t take me long to get used to the flat cap, it seemed to fit your personality once I got to know you.
Leave it to Dave to cause political uproars because of his clothing choices. Nice one!
Hello Dave
I own 85 flatcaps pal, come from Australia and have proudly wore them for 13 years. Im 35 years old and I dont see them as an “old-mans cap only” as it is a timeless style.
Be proud of who you are mate, you look awesome in a flatcap and if the style makes you happy as it does myself then nobody in todays socity should dictate what you should wear or who you should be.
God bless you
A fellow flatcapman
being a fellow yank, but still living stateside, i hadn’t much exposure to flat caps beyond the geriatric stylings of south florida, where i was raised. not until i hit my mid-30’s and started the typical roots-searching thing did i stumble across how great they are.
i get compliments now, almost every time i go out in one. in the US midwest, where i currently live, baseball caps are the norm. flat caps are very seldom seen, but i’m doing my part to bring em back.
trev
Hello Dave
I have seen more and more proof that flatcaps are coming back. There are still people hostile to the style but there is one chap on You Tube from Kentucky of whom is 16 years old and he wears them forwards too. Backwards wearing is slowly fading away and younger people are considering fowards wearing which is what I wanted all along as its the correct way to wear one. It makes me cringe seeing one backwards as for me its a sign of disrespect.
Even one scene of flatcap hate towards an elderly man in The Forigner can’t stop the style from coming back. They failed with a childish attempt to terrise as it made me determined to put the film makers in their place.
Hopefully it will catch on and flatcaps will be back again. I proudly wear one every day every time I leave the house.
Best regards Sir
Lloyd
Thats an awesome Kangol you have their Sir. I own a few of my own including a few white ones that are tricky to keep clean where Im from. I own a green turnio and quite often go out on the town in my 3 piece suit.
You would think the next thing I would get myself would be a sports car esp. a porsche but cars have never interested me in the slightest they are just transport from A to B for me.
Best regards Sir and God bless you
Lloyd
The cap suits you sir! Where can I buy such a cap in cream?
The best place is to shop around on the net but Kangol and failsworth do make cream coloured flatcaps in winter and summer styles. I own 3 white ones that are the most close to cream and they make a few different style within that color as well. One has the holes in a circle patten
Many thanks for that. I was deeply touched reading that. Flatcaps have stood the test of time since bowed hats are fading away very quickly which is sad. I often see a flatcap as a traditional fashion but can be interchangeable with any style making them flexable with any wardrove. Plus unlike a baseballcap they fold over for easy storage in a coat pocket or suitcase except the turnio which is set in a mold.
Well ive had my first day as a flat cap wearar. I just said sod it, so i got one off my local market. A little mid gray tweed number.my girlfriend loves it, i tell you it totally refreshes my look. Plus its a practical garment unlike a lot of hats they can go in your pocket. But mines staying on my head ,i love it.
I dont blame you Jim. I got my 1st flatcap when the fedoras I was wearing became a chore to clean so I trialed one for a day to see if it was “me” and all it took was a bus ride back to notice I loved the way it made me look and how it felt thou I copped a lot of stares and verbal abuse, I ignored that shite and have proudly worn them for 15 years. The Ascot one I got from a priest in Preston and that was such a thrill putting it on my hands were shaking with excitement.
My 1st flatcap was a dark yellowish tweed mixture. It shrunk living in Darwin with the humid weather. 1 month after wearing a cap I got my 1st pipe and had also smoked a pipe for 15 years as well as it goes with the flatcap image
I too like wearing a traditional tweed flatcap. Used to have one as a kid, but during my late teens and twenties I favoured the more traditional baseball cap. Now at the age of 33, I’ve gone back to wearing a flatcap.
That awesome to hear Matt. Welcome aboard dude.