*** United States boys clothes: headwear hats broad-brimmed








United States Boys' Hat Styles: Broad-Brimmed Hats

boys wide-brimmed hats
Figure 1.--Here we see two brothers aged about 5-11 years of age. The boys are dressed identically in knee pants suits. The boys have Eton collars and floppy bows. Notice that the knee pants are well below the knees. Notice that only the younger boy has a broad-brimmed hat. Note the hat dies not hve streamers. The studio was Bundy & Filley in New Haven, Connecticut. The long knee pants suggest the 1880s to us. The dealer estimated 1887-89, but I do not see how such a precise determination could be made. A reader writes, "Notice both boys' clothes matched as did the flair in the right side of the hair. At first I thought the older boy's hair was messy and then realized that it was a stylistic expression of the mother for both children."

Some hats were done with broad/wide brims. As with some other styles, there were overlaps here. These were commonly done in sailor styles or at least styles inspired by sailior styling. Broad-brimmed are roughly synonmous with sailor hats. They are also called wide-brimmed hats. This is one of several hat styles that overlp with other trypes. There were other styles like cowboy (stetson) hats, but for the most part the ones worn by boys were a form of sailor hat. That is not to say they were always worn with sailor outfits. Many were which is why that became known as sailor hats, but they were also worn with a range of juveile outfits like Fauntleroy suits and blouses and kilt suits. Older boys wore them with regular suit, but the hats were more styled like boaters. There was no special caracteristic bout wide-brimmed hats that made them sailor hats. Of course if they had a naval hat band (tally) than that was obviously a sailor hat, but most did not. In fact, broad-brimmed hats would not have been worn by sailors. The wind would catch broad-beimmed hats and carry them overboard. They were popular for children's sailor hats, but not for actual sailors. They were worn by both boys and girls. The style was the same for boys and girls. They were commonly worn by younger boys, often pre-school boys. It was seen as a dressy style. Some older boys wore them, but they were more styled like boatrers. Another type of broad-brimmed hat was the cowboy hat or Stetson. These were not, however, commonly worn by boys. And we do not see girls wearing them. They were commonly worn only by boys. Traditional wide-brimmed hats were done in many styles. The principal variants included brim widths and crown styles. We see both flat and rounded crown hats. The rounding varied considerably. Had bands also varied. Some were done with streamers. We see these hats in the late-19th through the early-20th centuries. The boy here seems to be wearing one in the 1880s (figure 1). We note John Koch wearing one in the 1910s. Notice how the brim is turned, characteristic of the 1910s. Broad-brimmed hats were commonly worn by younger boys, often pre-school boys.The age at which boys wore these hats varied chrobologically and with the style of the hats. They were mostly done in straw, but there were also felt hats. We also see different colors.

Prevalence

Some hats for children including boys were done with broad-brims. We see quite a few in the photographic record. We see quite a few broad-brimmed hats, mostly in the late-19th century.

Gender

The hats for boys were usually plainer than the broad-brimmed hats worn for girls. The sailor hats were styled plainly, the same for both boys and girls. But girls might also wear broad-brimmed hats with decorations like flowers. They were worn not only by girl, but also teenagers and adults.

Overlaps

As with some other styles, there were overlaps here. Thus we see these hats under straw hats and sailor hats as well. The thing is that not all straw hats were broad-brimmed hars abd not all silor hats were broad-brimmed hats, although mant were. But as the terms re not synnommous, we we have to have the different entries. Broad-brimmed hats were commonly done in sailor styles or at least styles inspired by sailior styling. In fact, broad-brimmed hats would not have been worn by sailors. The wind would catch broad-beimmed hats and carry them overboard. We have listed broad-brimmed hats as sailor hats.

Conventions

The wide-brimmed sailot hat was seen as a dressy style. A factor here was it was a tottally impractical style. hus boys only worn them when being supervised such as toi church, prties, or special occassions. For play thy wore nore practical styles.

Related Styles

There were related sailor styles to the wide-brimmed sailor hat, The broad-brimmed sailor hat was just one style of sailor hat. There were two thers with neorrower brims. One was the boater which may have been influenced the wide-brimmed sailor hat. There were wide-brimmed hats worn earlier, but they were not sailor hats. The boater was a style actually worn by Royal Navy sailors--or at least a style that led to what evolved into the boater. The boater brim was a kind of medium brim. There was also a sailor hat woth a narrow brim. We see boys wearing this style, more in England than America, but it was not as common as the wide-brimmed sailor hat. We see a number f English boy wearing these narrowbrim hats, but not very many Amerivan biys. Another type of broad-brimmed hat was the cowboy hat or Stetson. which seems to have had entirely different origins, we think originating from Spanish styles developing in the Pampos and Llanos of South America. Unlike the wide-brimmed hat and boater, however, the cow boy stetson is a style we do not see see girls wearing. They were commonly worn only by men and occasionally boys.

Stylistic Variations

Traditional wide-brimmed hats were done in many styles. The principal variants included brim widths and crown styles. The width of the brims varied as well as the treatments of the brim edges. The other mjor feature was the crowns. We see both flat and rounded crown hats. We note rounded crown hats commonly wrn in the 19th century. It was a very common style. The degree of croiwn rounding varied quite a bit. The rounding varied considerably. Most were done with mderate width brims. We begin see much wider-brim hats (1880s). The rounded crowns seem most common in the late-19th century. Te boy here in the 1880s has a flat crown (figure 1). We begin to see more flat crowns in the 1890s. Hat bands also varied in both width and color. Some wide-brimmd hats had bows of vatious sizes done with the hat band. Other of these hats were done with streamers of various widths and legths. Then suddenly we see these hats with one side of the brimm turned up (1910s). This was something we never saw in the 19th century. We note brims that were flat, like the boy here is holding or ones that were slightly rolled up at the outer edges. But suddenly we see hats that were shrply turned down on one style in a kind of rogish twist. We think tis was mostly a boy's style. It is a style strongly associated with the 1910s, but it was the end of the wide-brimmed sailor hat as a popular style.

Chronology

We see these broad-brimmed hats in the late-19th through the early-20th centuries. We have just begun to work on the chronological trends. They seem to have appeared in the 1870s, but were not very common. We do not see the really wide-brimmed styles in the 70s. And this needs to be confirmed. We mostly see broad-brimmed hats in the 1880s and 90s. Catalogs are hrder o use fo hat, but the photographic record clearly hows these hats as being worn in the 1880s and 90s. The example here looks to be from the 1880s (figure 1). Broad-brimmed hats were worn of the most popular dressy styles for younger boys during these two decades. We continue to see them in the early-1900s, but to a lesser extent and fter 1910 with more narrow brims.

Age

We see both pre-school and primary age boys wearing broad-brimmed sailor hats. One of the most popular 19th century hat style were rounded crown hats, but thesehad fairly modest brims. After mid-century we begin to see boys wearing hats with increasingly wide brims. Broad-brimmed hats, especially the ones with extemly large brims, were commonly worn by younger boys. This would be mostly pre-school boys and the very youngesr primary-school boys. The age at which boys wore these hats varied chronologically and with the style of the hats. Curiously the younger boys seemed to have worn the hats with the widest brims. We see these hats worn by boys to about 6-7 years of age. And the peak time for these large brims were from the mid-1880s to the nid-1910s. After this we tend to see more modest width brims even for the younger boys. We see older boys wearing wide-brimmed sailor hats, but the the really wide brims the younger boys wore. These more modest brims were worn by boys up to about 10 years of age.

Material

Broad-brimmed hats were mostly done in straw. A very large percentage of the portraits we have archived show these broad-brimmed hats done in straw. There were also felt hats, but the staw hats were more common. Presumably cost was the principal factor here. We are not sure where these hats were acually made. Ecuador was famous for high-quality straw hats, often called Panama hats. We do not know if these hats were made in Ecuador or in the Unied States. We also see different colors. Most seen done with natural straw colors. Other hats had dark-colored straw. Notice how the straw hats here used light and dark strw intermixed (figure 1). This was done in a variety of ways. We see these hats wth patterns woven with the different-colored straw. We can only discern light and dark colors. We are not sure what actual color the dark straw was. We think somewere black, but looking at the portraits, some look like colors, perhaps blue or brown. Here we are just not sure.

Colors

Most wide-brimmed hats were were done in straw. More narrow brimmed hats might be done in felt, but the really large brims were almost always done in straw. As a result, the largest numbers were natural straw color. We see that in the photographic record. light colors meaning natural straw are the oveweaming number of hats we see. Some of the staw may have been bleached, but as the hats in the portraits see off white, we belikeve that that natural straw was the major color. Actual colors are difficult to assess, but light and dark shades show up quite easily. We are not entirely sure about the dark color, but it looks like black to us. Most of these hats appear to be single colors, but it is difficult to be sure because of the ways the hats are show in portraits. We see some hats woven with some dark straw elements. And we see some hats with dark tops. These could only be the flat top types.

Accompanying Clothing

We see boys wearing broad-brimmed hats with a range of outfits. The most obvious of course was the sailor suit as these hats were considered a type of sailor hat. Other garments worn with these hats include: dresses, kilt suits, Fauntlroy suits, tunic suits, and a range of other juvenile outfits. These broad-brimmed hats are probably most often associated with Fauntleroy suits. This associatiom is very strong and can be seen in drawings, both comtemprary and modern. And they were indeed worn with Fauntleroy suits. The photographic record clearly shows, however, that there was no strong convention bout what headwear should be worn with Fauntkeroy suits. We see a huge variety of cps and hats being worn with Fauntleroy suits. And the hats were worn with many otther outfits as well.

Usage

The broad-brimmed hat is perhaps the most umpractival headwear of any description ever made for boys. We supose it was fine a long as the boy was sitting still and indoors. But of course hats are made for outdoor wear. There is no way an active child could have worn these hats enjoyably. This was not as large of a priblems with girls who are more sedate, but it must hve beenmore of an issiue with boys. And of course any wisk of wind would hve blown them off, although many have chin straps. As a result we wonder how the hats were sactually wornm. Most 19th century images when these hats were actually wern studio portaits with the children dressed to the nines. The portrait of the two Connecticut brothers here is a good example (figure 1). Family amnateur snapshots were known in the 1890s, but were not common until the appearance of the Kodak Brownie (1900). This was the last decade in which these hats were very commonly worn. So we have a few images of children wearing these hats outdoors. We have not found a lot of examples, but we hasve found a few. Some sdhow the children gong to formal occassions, bit others sow the children playing with hese hats, often staged scenes.

Individual Examples

The boy here seems to be wearing one in the 1880s (figure 1). We note John Koch wearing one in the 1910s. Notice how the brim is turned, characteristic of the 1910s.







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Created: 8:19 AM 6/2/2013
Last updated: 7:35 AM 11/20/2022