Aaron Hats - Aaron’s Hat Blog

If you’re looking for books about hats, hat making and hat history you can find a great collection on our sister-site, The Hat Site. Some of the featured books include Hatless Jack, Classic Millinery Techniques and Stetson Hats & The John B Stetson Hat Company. You can find all these and many more on the Books On Hats page. After shopping there you can browse over to the Hats In Art page where you can find reproduction hat advertising posters and original prints featuring the most elegant, funky and classic hats of all time.

Your purchases on that site will help to support a web site dedicated to educating people about hats and keeping the headwear industry alive.

Aaron

In the June issue of Accessories Magazine there’s a great timeline of hat milestones through the last 200 years. I thought I’d share some of those with you today.

1797: The top hat makes its debut in London.
1900’s: Women wear some of the largest hats in history - a sign of wealth and status.
1920’s: “The decade of the hat.” Women’s styles go from large statement pieces to small cloches. To wear a cloche correctly, it must be pulled over the eyes, making the wearer lift up the head to see.
1930’s: The bowler becomes a symbol during the Industrial Revolution, representing the modern middle class.
1930’s to 1945: The key hat of this period is the fedora, which is frequently worn tipped down over one eye.
1950’s: Hats are a must-have for women who want to achieve a perfectly polished, ladylike look.
1960’s: First lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s pillbox hat becomes her personal trademark, and gains fame worldwide.
1970’s: Floppy hats stand out as a key style of the times.
1980’s: Diana, Princes of wales, uses hats to achieve a color-coordinated look with her apparel, and is beloved as a fashion icon.

Do your part for history and get a hat on.

Aaron

The new Aaron Hats commercial is finished and ready for your viewing. This is a 90 second spot that gives a highlight of our store. A lot of our customers who never make it to New Hampshire really enjoy this because it gives a little glimpse into our operation here. If you happen to be in our neck of the woods you can find this commercial on RSN TV 16. I hope you enjoy it.

Twice a year we shoot a new tv commercial that runs locally here in the Mt. Washington Valley of New Hampshire. We were able to shoot the new commercial this morning and hope to have it edited and loaded here by next Friday or shortly after. I like to show the commercial on the blog because it shows the store and many of our best selling hats to those of you who may never get to come visit us in person. This time around we dedicated a large block of the commercial to the Tilley hats but also highlighted Indiana Jones hats, Toby Keith and Kenny Chesney hats as well as Ivy and Newsboy caps, Stetson hats and our great collection of hats for women.

Stay tuned,

Aaron

It’s back! In the May 2007 edition of O Magazine one of Oprah’s favorite things was a rollable wide brimmed visor…the Ashley by Scala. Well, you guessed it. It’s back for 2008 and is already proving to be a best seller again. It’s available in seven different colors and we’re going to try our best to keep them all in stock. We’ve already had a few customers come in and buy one of each color. Besides the fact that Oprah had it as one of her favorite things a lot of women like it because it has a wide brim, is adjustable in sizing and can roll up making it easy to carry with you.

Get a visor on,

Aaron

While getting ready for work this morning I was watching The Today Show and couldn’t believe what I saw…or didn’t see. They were doing a “winter vacation” themed show today and were at the beach doing all the fun beach stuff we all do. During the show they had two segments about beach essentials. One piece was for adults and one for children. During the segment for adults they mention sunglasses, sunscreen, a water bottle and a couple other items. During the childrens segment they talked about sun protective shirts, sunscreen and water guns that double as flotation devices. Now all of these things sound like the perfect setup for a fun day in the sun but what did they forget? HATS! How can The Today Show, or any TV show, do a piece about “fun in the sun” without mentioning the importance of wearing a hat with proper UV protection. Over one million people in the USA are diagnosed with skin cancer every year so to ignore something as vital to skin cancer prevention as a hat does a dis-service to The Today Show viewers. Now you might say that I have a vested interest in getting hats on television because I sell hats you’d be right. But if you see what I see every summer you’d feel the same way. We have customers come in who have had pieces of their noses, ears, faces and scalps removed due to skin cancer. That should be enough to convince anybody to wear a sun hat and use sunscreen.

If you feel the same way I do about this be sure to let The Today Show know by emailing them at today@nbc.com.

Don’t take my word for it, take the time to learn more about skin cancer at these sites:

Skin Cancer Foundation
Mayo Clinic
American Cancer Society

Stepping off my soap box now.

Aaron

You can’t get much better than this when it comes to Indiana Jones and his famous fedora:

The movie comes out in three months and we’re already seeing a big jump in the demand for Indiana Jones hats.

What’s your next adventure?

Aaron

I recently picked up the January ‘08 issue of GQ Magazine and was pleasantly surprised to see a page dedicated to hats. In the magazine they talk about the different hat styles including fedoras, pork pies, panama hats, bowlers and more. So in the spirit of the magazine here’s some examples of the different hat and cap styles available for men at Aaron Hats.

The Fedora:

The Derby:

The Cowboy hat:

The Panama hat:

The Ivy cap:

The Newsboy cap:

Being in the fashion business I make sure we browse through several different fashion magazines so that we’re staying current with the trends. One of the best, if not the best, is InStyle Magazine. In the November issue there are so many hats I lost track. There are hats shown in fashion articles, hats used in advertisements and then there’s the cover story about Jessica Simpson where she’s shown wearing a Stetson Temple fedora. It’s hard to tell from the picture below that she’s wearing a Stetson Temple but she does wear it well.

Here are just a few of the many hats shown in the November issue of InStyle Magazine:

Jones New York ad - womens winter bucket hat
BCBG Maxazria - 1920’s style flapper hat
Payless - military style cap
Nikon - ivy cap
Bebe - wide brimmed women’s fedora

Join the crowd and get a hat on.

Aaron

Seldom is there a movie that has an effect on an industry that lasts for more than six months. That can not be said about the Indiana Jones movies. Just last month production was started for the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones movies starring Harrison Ford as Dr. Jones. For more than 25 years the first three Indiana Jones movies have kept hats, and more specifically the brown fedora, an ever popular selling item.

From a press release dated January 02, 2007:

“For more than 25 years, audiences have been enraptured by the exploits of Indian Jones. The film trilogy — Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — garnered 14 Academy Award nominations, won 7 Oscars, and grossed over $1,182,000,000 at the box office. The films are among the most popular films ever made and have become a legendary part of film history.”

Harrison Ford is also quoted as saying “These films are such great fun to make. I’m looking forward to reuniting with the team and starting this new journey.” And “I don’t know if the pants still fit but I know the hat will.”.

For official Indiana Jones hats be sure to visit Aaron Hats.

On to the next adventure,

Aaron