Travelling with hats in a hat-less world

homburg-fedora

Wearing a dress hat in an age when most men don’t means receiving the occasional compliment as well as a fair share of smirks and jeers. But the difficult part of wearing a hat today is what to do with it when it’s not on your head. Because dress hats are not common and also because many people are not used to treating clothes with care, you might be taking a risk to wear a fine hat when going to a restaurant or travelling by plane. I have been travelling while hatted for a number of years and have come up with some strategies which while not perfect, have seen me through so far.

But before I get to that, a quick note on wearing hats indoors, be it in a restaurant, at a movie and so on. Don’t. Unless you’re in a transitional space (like a foyer or train station), take your hat off. Its primary function is to protect you from the elements. Once you are out of the elements, it becomes purely a fashion statement. And you should be making your statements, not your clothes. There is one exception, however: when dining out of doors it is acceptable to keep your hat on because it serves as the roof over your head.

Also, I should say something about caring for your hats. As I stated in my article about wearing and caring for my accessories, I try not to be too precious with my hats. A bit of banging around and manhandling gives your hats personality. That is not the same, however, as having your hats stepped and spilled on or crushed in the overhead luggage compartment.

Restaurants

There has never been, as far as I can tell, a simple and universal solution to the problem of what to do with your hat when you sit down in a restaurant. If you are fortunate there will be a clothing rack or hooks nearby or the restaurant will have a coat check (long ago, some even had hat checks but those days are long gone). Putting your hat in your lap is inadvisable because that is where food spills tend to happen. Never put the hat on the table because the inside of your hat is not unlike the inside of your shoe. I usually opt for an empty chair or chair back.

Local hat maker and good friend Stephen Temkin of Leon Drexler has a warning, however, when using coat checks:

Beware, the youngsters don’t always know how to handle a hat. Someone I know once checked his fine fedora and coat at a good restaurant, but when he later went to retrieve them, the hat was missing. Only when he put his coat on did he realise that the coat-check person had shoved the hat into the sleeve of his coat. As he put it, “I nearly clocked them.”

I also have my own story of coat check horror. I recently went out for dinner with my wife at a restaurant that also served as a live music venue. We left our coats at the coat check and I asked if I could leave my hat as well. When I handed it over, the attendant tried, repeatedly, to forcibly stab the coat check ticket into the hat ribbon (which was, of course, carefully tacked in place by hand). I quickly intervened and beseeched her to stop. I suggested she instead just rest the ticket on the crown of the hat. She did not apologise and instead roughly tossed my hat onto a small shelf. Sadly, since most people do not care one squat about the welfare of their wardrobes, her behaviour was not surprising. I will say, however, that she was a rarity: in most places that have a coat check, the attendants are careful and respectful. That said, there is never a dedicated spot for hats and I often worry, as I walk away with the little numbered ticket in my hand, about what dusty, dirty nook they’ve shoved my hat into.

Airplanes

As plane travel becomes less expensive it also becomes less enjoyable. Intrusive security checks, cramped spaces and little to no patience means your belongings are in peril most of the time. That said, and as far as I know, airplanes never had special compartments to hold hats. However, since most men wore them they knew how to treat them. Today your hat is mostly likely to be treated by others like some old hoodie and crushed flat as they shove their over-sized carry-on into the overhead compartment. I always travel with at least one hat so I have tried a variety of solutions to insure their safety. The best, by far, is to bring along a hat box. They are unusual and charming enough that most of the time no objections are made for the extra carry-on. They slip easily under the seat in front of you and pretty much insure safe travels for your felt or straw companion. If you are properly caring for your hat you should own at least one hat box already but if you don’t they are an excellent investment – especially because your hat should be an excellent investment in and of itself. Always look for a hat box with an indented hole inside for the crown of your hat, so that it sits in the box upside down. That way, it is well supported and should hold its shape.

If I travel without a box, though, this is what I do: I keep the hat on my lap until all the passengers have boarded and the overhead compartments are closed. I then search around for a space in the compartments just big enough for my hat to sit – where it hopefully won’t get crushed while in transit. This is not fatal, however, for a fine felt hat which should be able to pop back into shape. A panama, on the other hand, might suffer permanent damage. Stephen agrees:

Given the circumstances of travel in today’s world, it is advisable to travel with a felt hat that can handle a certain amount of rough treatment. A soft felt fedora or trilby with a modest brim probably works best. At least if it does take a serious beating, and if it is a good, properly made hat, it can usually be freshened up and restored to its pre-journey condition, or close to it, upon your return. In business class, they can usually find a way to accommodate your hat if required. In first class, they’ll re-block it and replace the sweatband during the flight…well, at least I think they should.

If you travel with hats, please comment below with your tips for keeping them safe.