The wearing of head coverings by women varies tremendously by culture, climate, age, marital status, social class, living environment. The same can be said for men over time. My Irish grandparents, for example, were first generation born in New York City, USA. Grandmother never went out in public without a nice dress or skirt, jacket, hair done up, makeup applied, stockings, dress shoes, a hat, matching purse, and gloves. Grandfather wore a suit and tie, and at least carried a jacket, socks, leather business shoes, and a fedora. My father never once as a child saw them in pajamas. They always wore a floor length robe and slippers. The only exceptions were grandpa when playing golf, wore knickers and grandmother a very modest tennis dress over which she wore a wrap around dress that came off inside the court and went back on the moment she stepped off the court.
My Polish grandma was also first generation from NYC. She dressed very formally until she moved to Eastern Long Island in 1932. Her usual outfit was a more casual dress, a corset-like undergarment, stockings, and “sensible” Oxford shoes with a babushka. For Mass and formal occasions, she had two outfits, one for winter and fall, another for spring and summer. She wore what we called an “old lady beach dress” under a long, looser “beach robe” should we go to the beach in summer. She had plain, white Keds style canvas sneakers which she kept on in the water, and a rubber swim cap with flowers on it. The babushka she wore outdoors but removed once inside.
I do not think you can blame V2 for the loss of hats, except among Catholic females for Mass. Hats continued to be fashion statements on the model runway and for style well into the 1970’s, then replaced by the “big hair” of the 1980’s! Women continue to wear hats to some degree today. Think of the First Lady, for example, and by Black ladies for church!
As a general custom, today’s men are less likely to wear hats than women. The use of hats as parts of uniforms has disappeared fairly recently. In the 1980’s for example, airplane personnel of both sexes wore hats as an essential item of the uniform. Hats have vanished in medical settings except as part of PPE. The last time I recall seeing nurses in caps was late 1980’s. Now, everyone from the Chief of Surgery to the custodian wears scrubs and a plastic coated ID that you can’t easily read. (Personally, I do not like it. How do I know that guy who just gave me a shot isn’t a janitor? Then again, during the c-sickness, a number of priests gained admission to locked down medical facilities by donning scrubs! Several of my relatives had Last Rites in that manner.)
Most of the headwear one sees today has to do with safety on the job or while playing sports. Some of it is weather related. I assisted my neighbor in bringing her Irish setter to the veterinary emergency room last Saturday around 12:40 AM. Her husband couldn’t help as his leg is in a full cast. We had about 8” snow on the ground the mercury hovered around -4° F with a brisk wind. I had on my Navy pea coat, 100% boiled wool, issued to my Dad in 1948! And a thick woolen matching beret I crocheted was on my head. My neighbor wore a beanie from Walmart, synthetic bubble jacket, thin gloves, jeans, and Adidas higntop sneakers. We managed to get the dog in the car and hold him beneath an old sleeping bag. At least he had built-in fur! I drove and my neighbor consoled Remmie.
It seems, though, in recent years, people don’t even wear hats for warmth. That’s crazy as 10-20% of your body heat can be lost through your head.
Topic: Women head covering in public (Read 180 times)