THE RULES OF FASHION IN BROOKLYN (1910)
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The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
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Although it may not be apparent today, Brooklyn was not always known for being on the edge of trends in fashion.
As a matter of fact, the town was a noted backwater 150 years ago when the only other more fashionable place than its exceedingly fashionable neighbor just across the East River was London and Paris.
But Brooklyn tried.
And part of that effort was its strict observance of the rules and rituals of the fashions of the changing seasons. One, for instance, did not wear white trousers at the wrong time of year. Nor were certain color jackets worn at the wrong time of the season.
Another men’s fashion rule that was strictly observed was the timing of the use of the men’s straw hat. This rule was so encased in society that if they were worn too early in the season, this act could invite derision – even from children.
In 1910, on the 15th of April, it was apparent that one gentleman was challenging that rule. He was seen “this afternoon, at 2:16 o’clock, in the Federal Building,” wearing the boater. It was on a “chunky man of 40 years, who stood in the registry line, fingering a roll of bills.”
“The straw created a mild sensation among the employes of the Post Office,” the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “and especially with the elevator man, who pointed it out.
“I was at the ball game yesterday,” he asserted, “and there wasn’t a straw hat – not one. That’s the first, to be sure.”
“And the harbinger of a new style of hat stood there wrapped in oblivion,” continued the paper, “the cynosure of all eyes.”
As the reporter was leaving the building, he noted that the man was “still fingering his bills and wishing the man behind the screen would hurry up.”
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