Take a look at at any early 20th century photograph and you'll see them: Hats! From Beavers and Bowlers to bonnets and baseball caps, for hundreds of years hats were the essential accessory for any fashionable and upstanding citizen.
We wore hats to work, to church, to the ball field and on the battlefield. And many of them were made right here in Connecticut. This hour we look back at the business and popularity of hats in American culture and ask what led to their decline.
GUESTS:
- Clair Hughes - Independent scholar and author of several fashion related book including Dressed In Fiction and her most recent, Hats
- Bridget Guertin - Danbury City Historian and Executive Director of the Danbury Museum & Historical Society
- Chris Booth - Poet and Danbury resident
- Jessica Smetana - Video producer and writer for SB Nation
- Ernest DelMonico - Owner of DelMonico Hatter in New Haven, CT
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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on Februrary 22, 2018.
