Quote Originally Posted by Jock Scot View Post
Ted,you have set me thinking about flat tweed caps. I would not consider wearing a flat cap with the kilt and I don't remember seeing anyone in Scotland wearing one with the kilt either,not even visitors.Now, I hasten to add that this is not a criticism,just an observation.What I was wondering is this,in the late 1800's and early 1900's there are many photographs of people wearing flat tweed caps with the kilt.

It seems that around the First World War flat caps went out of fashion,when worn with the kilt and certainly by the 1940's it was a definite "no no" to wear a flat cap with the kilt.As far as I am aware it still is, here. Does anyone know the reasons for this, or, is this just a fashion thing that has moved on?
Jock, I would venture to suggest that the reason was quite simply that hat-wearing by British males in general took a serious dive after WWII. Pre-war, until the late 1930s, men's hats were seen everywhere: Bowlers in the City, Homburgs on businessmen, and flat caps in the country and on the heads of practically every 'working' man. After the war, maybe as a result of clothes-rationing (which I remember well), men's hats had all but disappeared here in the UK, and we still really are a nation of non-hat wearers.

An exception might be the (fashion) trend among teenage males who sport those shapeless, woolly 'tea-cosy' Beenie hats which, to my eye, would look fine on the ski slopes, but which look ridiculous on the streets of our towns and cities - just an opinion!

Take care,
Ham.