Whether it's on a fashion runway, Hollywood cinema or just walking around in public, the iconic fedora-style hat continues to turn heads wherever spotted.
The fedora, characterized by a pinched front and a wide, pliable brim, has evolved over the years to include various lengths and materials.
Fedora shopper Matt Worthington, 24, said he admires the hat for both its style and the tradition it represents, especially when it comes to his family.
“My brother and I come from a Latino family and I think there's a lot of pride in dressing a certain way,” Worthington said.
“You go to a family reunion and you see many elders in our family who dress like this.”
While it is widely considered a fashion staple among both males and females, men are responsible for starting the storied trend.
The fedora stepped into the forefront of male fashion in the 1890s, heralded for its stylishness, and its ability to protect the wearer's head from wind or harsher weather. In the 1930s and 1940s, wearing a hat was common, with gangsters, bankers, and business men wearing fedoras.
“If you lived back then you wore a hat regardless,” said Joe Vidal, a sales representative at Penner's Men's Store, which sells a wide variety of hats. “That was the style.”
While President John F. Kennedy is sometimes blamed for killing the hat business in the 1960s for not wearing a hat, a major upswing has taken place in the last 30-years.
Hollywood's role in keeping fedoras in-style include actors Gene Kelly in “Singing in the Rain,” Humphry Bogart in “Casablanca,” and John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in “The Blues Brothers.”
