Men’s Hats Trump Dying from Boredom

There’s a new study coming out in the International Journal of Epidemiology which confirms that boredom can actually kill you.

In the mid-1980’s, some 7,500 office workers (between the ages of 35 and 55), were surveyed as to their levels of boredom. In April 2009, researchers confirmed which of those of the participants had died since the survey.

Here’s the kicker: of those who were dead, 37 percent had reported a great deal of boredom.

What’s interesting is the theory that people who are bored or unhappy with their lives tend to turn to unhealthy habits which in turn reduce their life expectancy. In other words, as one scientist put it:

The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom.

Well, I guess you know my answer to this! Live a little bit outside your comfort zone to shake things up. If you’ve never worn a “real” hat, try one on today. And if you’re faithful to your gray fedoras, maybe it’s time to experiment with a bright shade or even a whole new silhouette like a pork pie hat.

Stay excited, people. It’s good for you!

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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Men’s Hats, Like Jackets, are Workhorse & Vanity Pieces

A NY Times review on last week’s men’s fashion show in Paris says that “the most useful garment in the show was the jacket . . . at once a workhorse and a piece of vanity.”

This view of how an article of clothing can serve multiple purposes is very much how I see men’s hats. The workhorse aspect comes into effect when you wear a warm winter hat to stave off windchill or when you don a leather bucket hat to keep your head dry in a downpour. The vanity characteristic is served nearly unconsciously — none of us would buy a piece of apparel that we didn’t believe looked good on us or enhanced the way we appear to others.

Much like men’s hats, jackets can dress an outfit up or down. This gives existing pieces in any wardrobe extra life by offering a variety of looks from which to draw. Try it yourself: your winter overcoat takes on a very different overall character when topped by a leather ivy cap instead of a Russian-style Ambassador.

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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Shopping for Hats – a Form of Exercise

Research shows that the average woman burns 48,000 calories a year by shopping, walking some 154 miles in search of a good deal (men cover about half that distance). Naturally, retailers want you to shop til you drop — as a form of exercise and healthy lifestyle.

However, at least one reader of the article in Britain’s Daily Mail Reporter dismisses the idea as being a far too pricey method of weight reduction. He suggests that if you are interested in burning calories, maybe walking or biking to the mall (instead of driving) will not only keep you from dropping excessive amounts of cash while you lose weight but is even a nod towards an environmentally-responsible lifestyle.

I’d go one better.

Sit in front of your computer and shop for your hats, apparel and accessories online. Skip the crowds, cashiers and line-ups altogether: it’s stress-free shopping that’s good for the earth and leaves you with more time to ride your bike (or not).

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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The Best Travel Hats for Business Travelers

Men and women who travel quite a bit on business need hats that travel well, meaning that they need hats that can be folded and packed, then taken out and worn, requiring no more than a quick shake to reestablish the hat shape.

With winter hats in wool and fur, that’s a fairly easy task to accomplish. The hat pictured here is a fur felt cloche, a women’s hat. This unisex style lends itself to being a good travel hat by virtue of its malleable shape. Although fur felt hats can be rigid (think cowboy hats or dress hats like bowlers), the material can also be finished so that it’s rollable.

Leather or tweed caps are another good travel-friendly headwear choice, their compactness being an added bonus — especially these days when we’re paying extra for checked baggage and trying to find ways to travel light. Although berets don’t have earflaps (as do many winter caps), the beret is probably the quintessential travel hat and can simply stay in your pocket when not on your head.

Bon voyage!
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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Shop at WalMart, Spend the Rest on Hats

I took 3 things away with me from an article called Guide to a Good Life: Always Wear a Hat When Going Out:

• the title;

• the plain truth that “rain is another enemy of [felt] hats”; and

• the last paragraph which read: “There is something not quite right about a world where people drop $200 for a pair of jeans, and yet show up with a bare head. I buy my jeans at Zellers, and spend the rest on hats.“

As for the title, I like the concept that the phrase “good life” brings to mind (money, nice restaurants, impeccable wardrobe, yachts and fine wine) and how wearing a hat is part and parcel with a lifestyle to which most of us aspire. Men who are living the good life wear hats, and those that don’t — should.

The point about wearing a wool felt hat or fur felt hat in a downpour is also right on, albeit a more practical one: if you do get caught, let the hat dry naturally once you’ve made it home, reshaping it gently throughout.

As for the last point (Zeller’s being the Canadian equivalent of a K-Mart or WalMart) — about how much people spend on what — it’s also quite true. Think of how much you fork out on shoes or boots: nothing too fancy, just a comfortable pair. And then there’s jeans, shirts and jackets and so on. A small fortune. So what’s with the naked head? Or (worse) the cheap ball cap? What is it about heads that make people either not decorate them at all or cover them with rags?

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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Shopping for Your Hat Online Good for Environment

A recent study shows that carbon emissions are 15 times higher when something is purchased in a store than when it is bought online.

The study adds to prior research which noted a 35 percent reduction in energy consumption and in carbon dioxide emissions when people shop online rather than going to a mall.

It’s the extra travel and packaging of the product that takes the biggest environmental toll when you shop at brick-and-mortar stores. In his article Create More Time & Help the Environment, Dr. Joseph Mercola says:

Typically retailers have products shipped from a distributor to a regional warehouse, and then distributed to individual stores. This requires not only extra energy but also extra packaging. Customers then drive to and from the store, and take their purchases home in another package, typically a plastic bag.

Hats off to all of you tree-huggers who buy your hats online!

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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If You Had a New Hat, What Kind Would It Be?

If you had several styles of hats lined up in front of you, which one do you think you’d chose as your new hat?

Look to your personality type to answer this question — if you’re a pretty conservative fellow who wears dress fedoras and homburgs without fail, then a casual baseball cap (or even a designer ball cap) may be too far outside your comfort field even to try.

The dedicated cap wearer on the other hand could easily make the transition within caps — going from a newsboy or longshoreman’s style ivy cap without qualm — but then will get stuck at wearing a trilby or walking hat (even if it’s in the same material or casual style as the cap).

Like any other change in style, you’ll be out of your comfort zone when trying on a hat style that you don’t usually wear. Remember your first suit and tie? But the effect can certainly pay off in terms of your appearance and the variety any new style adds to your wardrobe.

One reader told me that he tries out new hat styles whenever he travels, whether on business or vacation. This way he is in a new environment, around people who have no expectations or preconceived notions. For example, when he went skiing, he took along his new trooper hat, a style which he’d never worn before. After wearing it for a week and getting used to it (earflaps up and down) he felt comfortable enough to wear it to the office when he got back home.

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer, Mr. Variety
and CEO Hartford York

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Young Men in Suits and Hats

In a New York Times Fashion & Style article called Dressing for Success, Again, the chief analyst at NPD Group (a retail sales tracking company) says:

The older generation, say 45-plus, look upon success as being able to dress down. They think being able to wear jeans is the epitome of achievement. But the younger generation is looking at getting dressed up and making their mark. It’s a real generation gap here.

Today, a reversal in the expected norm of the well-dressed older gent is seen everywhere, with 25-year-olds in natty sport coats, skinny ties and dapper fedoras. In fact, young men are embracing the Mad Men elements of style.

Writer David Colman cites as evidence of this trend the “numerous men’s wear blogs. . . dedicated to . . . old-school minutiae of dressing well. Or take a look at the Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones, who favors double-breasted suits and bow ties and talks about ‘the resurgence of the gentleman.’”

Samuel Rascoff, an NYU professor of law theorizes about his well-dressed students and their peers, saying that

this return to style, or to a consciousness of how you look, is an attempt by young men to recover a set of values that were at one point very much present in American society and then lost. It strikes me as being of a piece with the way young people buy their coffee or their food: paying attention to authenticity or quality, and to whether something is organic or local. They stand for a rejection of the idea that all consumer goods are ephemeral and inevitably made in China and bought at Wal-Mart.

Let’s take the good professor’s lesson to heart, men: “You might be comfortable naked, but that don’t mean it looks good.”

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
Fully Dressed CEO Hartford York

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Today’s the Day for Free Shipping!

Quick reminder for all you shoppers. Today, December 17, 2009, is Free Shipping Day.

HartfordYork.com is taking part in the Second Annual Free Shipping Day, a one-day online event just in time for the Holidays!

For every order–on every item, no exceptions and no minimums–you’ll get free ground shipping in the U.S. If you wait til tomorrow, it’s no deal, so order today.

At check-out, use the coupon code [removed - no longer valid].

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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I Don’t Much Like Santa Hats

I may be bucking the trend here, but I can’t say that a Santa hat is my favorite form of headwear attire. Maybe it’s the static electricity or the cheap felt that so many of these hats seem to be burdened with or maybe it’s the lifeless pom pom that barely has enough weight to swing from side to side, I don’t know, but my admittedly glum opinion of Santa hats has remained pretty steadfast over the years.

Perhaps an unremembered early childhood encounter with one of those terrifying department store Santas created an unshakable antipathy to the hat form, or maybe it’s just been my own experience of dressing up in the big costume every year for charity to delight (or scare) future generations.

It’s funny, though. I don’t have an aversion to large, black boots, or big-bellied red suits trimmed with white fur — it’s just the Santa hat that gets me.

It’s possible that I’ve gotten spoiled over the years in the hat biz. I mean, really, how can you go from something like The Ambassador winter hat to a silly Santa’s hat without suffering some sort of breakdown?

Thanks for reading,
Steve Singer
CEO Hartford York

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