School Headwear: Hat Styles


Figure 1.-- Here we see Japanese primary children wearing rounded-crown hats, both boys and girls. Some of the hats seem to have streamers. The snapshot is undated, but was probably taken in thearly-1960s. The uniforms are also similar, except the boys wear short pants and the girls wear skirts.

Hats as school wear have varied over time. Today they are rarely seen except at schools with uniforms and primarily for girls. But they were once very common, including for boys. Here chronology has been a major factor in school hat wear, both prevalence and the style of hat. We do commonly see hats in the 19th century. The rounded-crown hat was especially cimmon. This changed in the 20th century. Caps were very common schoolwear in the 20th century, but this was not the case for hats, at least for boys. We see many gorls wearing hats to school even un the 20th century, but this was much less common for boys. This reflected the general pattern of hat wear. We see fewer boys weating hats, especially in the 20th century. There were other fators involved here than gender and fashion. age was alo a factor as was the type of school. And we also have to consider both uniform and non uniform schools. Most schools with uniforms selected caps for boys. We see some exceptions. In modern times we mostly see hats for boys school uniforms in Japan. This is mostly in Japan. Mostly commonly this wa for girls, but we see some boys weaing hats as part of theor school uniform. Girls are different. The unifoirms devised for girls very commonly included hats, at least when hats were in style. As for non-uniform schools, meaning most schools, hats were much less common. Boys usulychose caps. We do see, however some girls wearing hats unil the mid-20th century. This is today almost never seen at schools without uniforms.

Boaters

The boater is another school hat. It appeared in English schools in the 19th century, adapted from the Royal Navy. Boaters are still primarily associated with Eegland. It was a popular style at many English public schools. It was also worn at some grammar schools. Eventually girls began wearing it as well and today is more commonly worn by girls in England than boys. Schools in various English colonies (Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) also adopted the boater. The boater is still worn at some schools, but mostly for special occassions. Many girls schools have adopted the boater in England so today it is more widely worn by girls than boys. We note boys at American orivate schools wearing boaters at the turn of the 20th century. We also notice the boater at some Japanese schools.

Rounded Crown Hats

The rounded crown hat was commonly worn to school by American boys in the 19th century. It eems to have evolved from the 18th century tri-cornervhat. We see boys wearing them to school in the photographic record that becomes available by the 1860s. (Photography began in the 1840s, but twas not until the the 1860s and the CDV that we begin to see any number of school images.) This was not a unform garement, but simply the widely worn headwear of American boys for several decades. They wre as farcaswe can tell wiorn without streners. We see boys still wearing these hats into the 1890s, mostly in rural areas during the 1890s. By this time caps were becoming increasingly standard for boys affecting what they wore to school. Boys stopped wearing rounded crown hats after the turn of the 20th century. In fact we rarely see boys wearuing anybkind of hats to school in the 20th century, girls did continue wearing hats. We see some English schools adopting the rounded crown hat as [art of the girls' school uniforms. It was worn at quite a number of private schools and can still be seen at a few. We have also noted itvin Australia and other countries which have afopted English styles for their school uniforms. It was a girl's styl. We do not notice boys wearing them as part of their school uniforms. The sole exception we know is the Japanese. Several Japanese schools used it forvboth boys ahd girls. It was more popular for girls' unforms, but we also notice some boys wearing these hats. They are done in various color, including cream, grey, and navy blue.

Sailor Hats

Many boys in the late-19th and early20th century wore sailor suits to school Girls also wore sailor outfits and continued to so even after boys stopped wearing them. This varoed from cuntry to country. Sailor headwesr, especially sailor hats were less common. Again these were not commonly part of a school uniform. We note a few British schools with sailor uniforms. The major example are the sailor outfits that Japanese school girls wore. Many German boys wore sailor caps to school, but not part of uniforms. A factor here was age. Many sailor hats were mostly worn by younger boys, often pre-school boys. Some boys, mostly younger boys, wore sailor hats. There were also destinctive country trends.

Top Hats

The top har of course was not a school hat, but it as worn at some public (eliete private boarding) schools--Eton and Harrow.

Tri-corner Hats

We note boys commonly wearing the poopular tri-cirner caps to school in the 18th century. This was before the wude-spread adoption of public education, primarily in the 19th century. A problem for assessing tri-corner hats is that thy were worn before the invention of photogrphy. They were also rather expensive. And at the time, the bulk of the populsrion in Europe and America were either poor or of very limited means. Thus many families could not afford to buy these hats for their boys.

Wide-brimmed Hats

We notice younger boys in the late-19th and early 20th centuary wearing wide-brimmed hats to school. It was not a very practical syle. There is a degree of overlap here. It is often seen as a sailor style, but in fact was worn wih manuy other outfits besides sailor styles. They seem most common for younger boys, including pre school-boys. The expense, inpracticality, and age connventions meant tht we do not see ll that manyat school. We do not norice these hats after World War I in the 1920s. One exception is Japan. We notice some Japanese schools including a similasr style as part of the school uniform. But these were medium or narrow-brimmed hts which we hasve mostly clsified as rounded-crown hat.









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Created: 7:25 PM 8/5/2016
Last updated: 7:25 PM 8/5/2016