If you had lived about 100 years ago and walked down any street, just about everybody you saw would be wearing a hat.

If you went back another 100 years, 200 years, 500 years, the story would be pretty much the same.

Regardless of the age, regardless of the season or the social class of the people, very few of them would have been walking around bareheaded.

My grandparents were born at the end of the 19th century and as a child I remember that they rarely left the house without a hat on.

They were not rich people, they lived in a council house near Birmingham, but my grandmother especially would never have dreamt of leaving the house without a hat or at the very least a headscarf.

Naturally the summer headwear was lighter than the winter headwear, but she wore a hat nonetheless.

I seem to remember my grandfather always wore a flat cap all year round.

So my question is why is this not the case today?

Sure, both in hot climates and even more so in frigid climates there are people who wear hats, but not everyone.

I'm from a western country so I'm focusing on the transformation here, but by and large the situation seems to have been the same in most parts of the world.

I'm often amused when watching films set in historical periods and I see the main characters wandering around bareheaded.

It's obvious why they do this, they want to give the stars of the movie or the TV series maximum exposure, but what's the point of it making a historical film or a series without at least some historical accuracy?

I suppose I'm being naive.

The history of hats is rich and varied.

In ancient Egypt both men and women wore headdresses, the most famous is the Nims headcloth worn by the pharaohs such as Tutankhamen.

Originally Egyptians wore simple linen head wraps to protect themselves from the sun.

The Greeks wore wide brimmed pestasos hats, while the In the early medieval period hats really began to take off.

Men often wore hoods or coifs, close fitting caps, while the better off women wore veils and wimples.

In the late medieval period the chaperon, a hooded cloak with a long tail, became popular.

Women's headdresses grew more elaborate with hynnis, tall conical hats, becoming fashionable among the nobility.

Naturally the type of hat you wore was determined by the class you were from and in many European countries in medieval times there were laws called sumptuary laws which determined who could wear what.

Many of these laws were originally designed to restrict extravagant consumption but in the end they were used to restrict the poor from aping their betters.

In the 15th and 16th centuries hat fashion became more ornate.

Men wore flat caps and berries with feathers while many people wore the cavalier hat and later came the tricorn, called so because it had kind of three horns.

Then came the bicorn, two horns.

The 19th century saw the introduction of hats much more familiar to us today.

The top hat emerged in the late 18th century and it became a symbol of the urban sophistication in the 19th century.

Women's hats were often decorated with It was designed by British hat makers Thomas and William Bowler.

They had been commissioned to create a hat that would protect the heads of the gamekeepers in the estate of Thomas Coke, the first Earl of Leicester, because the top hats commonly worn by gamekeepers were often dislodged by low hanging branches as they rode on horseback.

The result was a more rounded design with a lower crown made of felt, stiff felt material.

It provided some protection.

It and similar hats became the headwear of choice for working men precisely because of the protection they provided in an area when hard hats did not exist.

The bowler hat spread all over the world.

It spread toward the America where it was known as the Derby.

In fact it was the most common headwear in the American West.

Not the Stetson as the filmmakers would have you believe.

I know, I can't help having a dig at filmmakers but they are such easy targets.

In the 20th century the bowler hat took over from the top hat as the headwear of choice for many urban businessmen and professionals.

This is the image that the bowler hats have today.

The English gentleman with the bowler hat and the rolled umbrella and probably a newspaper going to work in a This image was out of date even when I was young and that's going back a few years.

The 20th century saw the birth of the fedora which was originally a woman's hat.

The colche, sorry the cloche hat became popular in the 1920s.

I remember one of my grandmother's sisters wearing one of these still in the 1970s.

I haven't spoken about military headwear.

Suffice it to say that throughout history soldiers have been influenced by fashion just as much as their civilian counterparts.

So what happened in the 20th century?

Why did hats suddenly almost die out?

Not completely but to a large extent.

Let's first consider why people wore them in the first place.

The obvious answer was to protect themselves from the cold in the winter and the hot in the summer.

But this is not the fashion statement, an indicator of social status, a badge of your occupation or as a cultural identity.

Here are some of the reasons why the popularity of hats declined.

Throughout the 20th century particularly after World War II there was an important shift towards more casual and relaxed dress.

So hats as a symbol of class and status were less important.

This was especially true among the younger generation.

The rise of youth culture in the 1950s and 1960s emphasised rebellion against traditional norms including formal dress codes.

The change in our urban environment is something that many of us are not really aware of.

People spend far less time exposed to the elements.

As people increasingly moved to urban areas and started using cars the practicality of improvements in heating and air conditioning reduced the need for hats to provide warmth.

It is said that wearing a hat reduces body heat loss by 30 percent.

Heat rises after all.

The World Wars had a significant impact on fashion.

Military headgear influenced civilian styles.

The most popular military hats of the 20th century in all armies of the period were the side cap and the beret.

The reason was that they were easy to store when soldiers swapped them for helmets.

This might explain the continued survival of the ubiquitous baseball cap.

You can fold it and stick it in your pocket.

Try doing that with one of these.

As usual celebrities had an influence.

JF Kennedy famously went about bareheaded and this caused a few raised eyebrows.

In the 1960s going bareheaded became associated with modernity.

Women's hats had always been more complex and restrictive.

The women's liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s indirectly promoted practical and less restrictive clothing and hats became less of a daily requirement.

All this had an impact on high quality hats and the decline in demand led to many hat manufacturers to close down.

This reduced the availability further contributing to the decline in hat wearing.

It was a vicious circle.

Improvements in hair care products and services made people more interested in showing off their hairstyles.

Why spend a fortune at the hairdressers or the barbers just to cover the end result with a hat?

While hats have not completely gone out of fashion their role and significance have changed.

They are now more often worn for specific occasions and functional purposes like sun protection or sports.

They are also popular on special occasions.

If you go to a lot of British weddings or horse races there are hats everywhere.

Luckily hats can be hired these days.

While I understand why hat wearing has declined I do feel a little bit sorry.

It's as if we've lost something.

I'm not a great hat wearer myself to be honest but the main reason for that is that I'm very forgetful and if I wore hats I'd be leaving them all over the place just like I do with umbrellas.

Bye for now.