The Straw Hat Riots of 1922
The thing I love about revivals is that once you have one, it’s always just a continual version of the revival
Fashion is a complex multi-layered means of aesthetic expression but it’s also a means of social identification. If you think the fashion rules about when to wear white shoes and such are strange and complicated, this story will knock your hats off.
Fashion trends get revivals every now and then. It can be considered a fad for a minute but then if it really takes off, it becomes a full-blown revival and that’s kind of what we see with the straw hat riots of 1922.
So, hats used to be a way bigger deal than they are now. And here’s an excerpt from a New York Times article;
‘Gangs of young hoodlums ran riot in various parts of the city last night, smashing unseasonable straw hats, and trampling them in the street. In some case, mobs of hundreds of boys and young men terrorized whole blocks.’
These are some pedantic young hooligans. You can tell right from the onset that this was an issue of them being appalled in some way by someone wearing the hat out of season by just a…
