In case the sweltering, will-destroying swamp-heat hadn’t already tipped you off, it is now officially summer, and that means one thing: Dipshits worldwide have started wearing straw hats in an effort to recast their personality. This is basically the warm-weather version of the ill-fitting trench coat, and yet nevertheless tons of people somehow think it’s a classy and distinguished way to showcase their zaniness. Honestly, unless you are an elderly black or Italian man, wearing a straw hat makes you look like you’re in the horn section of a third-wave ska band at best, and at worst the parking lot of a Jimmy Buffet concert. Especially if you’re a girl.
Actually, this applies to all brimmed hats equally. Every one of them has got to go: Trilbies, fedoras, pork-pies, bowlers, billycocks, fishing hats–Jesus, even their names are completely affected and lame.
If you’ve already resigned yourself to carrying around a piece of personality equipment everywhere you go and finding somewhere to set it down any time you need to scratch your permanently itchy head, you might as well carry around pocketwatch and a racing schedule and some hybrid lapdog named Mr. Pleasetalktome. At least that would be honest, instead of sitting in the window of Café Read in a hat and fucking cargo shorts pretending it didn’t take you half an hour at the mirror to decide whether or not you could "pull it off."
The only person who can get away with a brimmed hat is our own Eddy Moretti, and he only gets grandfathered in because he’s been wearing his so long that it would be less unsettling to see him walking around with his balls hanging out through his zipper than with a bare head. Also, his hat doesn’t look like shit because it was bought at some fancy Italian hatter’s that caters to old Italians instead of from a stall on Ludlow Street.
So, sort of a mixed message on putting effort into your appearance I guess, but whatever: No hats unless you’re Eddy. Or a bull-rider.











Reader Comments
June 29th, 2007
2:27 am
Gee, thanks vice for once again letting me know whats okay to wear! I’ll file this entry right away into my “Vice Uniform” folder so I’ll always know how to dress for your approval. Or wait, here’s an idea: why dont you shut the fuck up. Next time you have a blog entry, heres what you ask yourself: Is it about a 3rd world country, an awesome party, or drugs? Or is it about me telling people how to behave, how to dress, or what to listen to? If it’s the former, post away! If it’s the latter, discard! Nobody gives a fuck about what a bunch of people in their 30’s desperately trying to hold on to their youths have to say about what we should do with ourselves.
June 29th, 2007
2:30 am
um, WOW. Burn to end all burns. That guy for president
June 29th, 2007
2:32 am
um, WOW. Burn to end all burns. That guy for president
June 29th, 2007
2:41 am
Wait so you are gonna dog on hats that keep the sun out of your eyes and off your scalp but nothing about trendy ass hoodies when it’s 100 degrees out or is that suffering for your art?
June 29th, 2007
2:53 am
uhhh Vice sucks, why is evryone so mad? were you ever really taking their advice seriously? THAT would be a don’t!
June 29th, 2007
3:18 am
WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE STILL READING THIS MAGAZINE IF YOU HATE IT SO DAMN MUCH. PLEASE BE SMUG/INDIGNANT ELSEWHERE.
June 29th, 2007
3:29 am
the vice guys are pretty old, hey? Who elected them our boss ? I can imagine this drug addicted assholes hanging out at some house party saying how they’re the pinnacle of modern youth culture, what are we gonna do when they turn 40 (any day now)??? Its time for something else. Vice is over.
June 29th, 2007
3:30 am
June 29th, 2007
3:31 am
LETS KILL VICE BEFORE IT BECOMES LOLLAPALOOZA
June 29th, 2007
3:31 am
KILL IT WHILE WE STILL CAN
June 29th, 2007
3:36 am
Yeah it really seems like Vice is doing poorly for themselves right now. Their finances are in tatters. Maybe it’s because they are so old and dumb!
June 29th, 2007
4:58 am
Hear hear. Fuck you vice. I’ll wear whatever kind of fucking hat I want, everything you guys are into gets played out 3 months later and you abandon it anyways. Quit trying so hard - why don’t you guys just settle down and pop out some babies and start blogging about parenthood. assholes.
June 29th, 2007
5:38 am
good. you morons keep wearing superfluous hats and we’ll keep laughing at your sad affectations. sorry but there is no excuse for a fedora EVER. vice is saying something that needs to be said.
June 29th, 2007
6:01 am
Of course this excludes new eras that are two sizes larger than your head and still have the foil sticker (bling!) affixed because you don’t want to risk breaking your coke nail peeling it off or whatever.
June 29th, 2007
6:24 am
Can I wear a sombrero if it is made of felt?
June 29th, 2007
8:17 am
the best part of all your hate messages are simply this- you dumb fucks still took the time to read the article, AND had to click on the title, what not to wear, to read the shit. if you think vice is so queer, shut the fuck up, stop reading it, and go jerk off to another sports illustrated.
June 29th, 2007
11:48 am
Uniform is a bad thing?
If people don’t dress their values, how will I know which ones to avoid? (oh and btw, kudos on the classic trick of posting a comment agreeing with your own, “impressionable youth”)
Without a social life to consider, I would switch my tight jeans, ridiculous shoes and expensive shirts for a a baggy shalvar kamiz, and comfy shoes, but I won’t.
The risk of being confused with one of you raggae scum is .
Inform us, Arbiter Elegantarium
June 29th, 2007
12:00 pm
Why is there a picture of a dude wearing a straw hat at the open of the Vice/Adidas exhibition in the photoblog then if its so wrong? Hes obviously one of you guys. See ya later, yeah?
June 29th, 2007
3:35 pm
Arbiter Elegatarium, what is life like in your country? Regale us with tales of your foreign land.
Hey, why don’t you go tell Little Louis Vega to ditch his fedora because Vice magazine says it’s not cool anymore?
June 29th, 2007
4:17 pm
Here’s the thing: Vice is still a great magazine for gonzo journalism. Stories on parties, drugs, and fucked up foreign countries, I enjoy. But all this too cool for school shit got played out five years ago, and since then Vice has desperately been trying to stay relevant since then, clinging on to anything at all in the scene if they think it will bring them youth credit. The cobrasnake? Really? 5-10 years he would have been mocked incessantly by vice. And the fashion advice, does anyone worthwhile take fashion that seriously?
June 29th, 2007
4:32 pm
Hi I’m Agnes and I don’t like hats or chinese people
June 29th, 2007
4:52 pm
Hypocrisy Highway, Here We Come!
Click the Link to see their very own Gavin McInnes breaking the beloved rule stated above…
June 29th, 2007
4:53 pm
Hypocrisy Highway Here We Come!
go to this web address:
http://thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/cardboardcatbox/IMG_3478.html
to see their very own boss (gavin mcinnes) breaking the beloved rule stated above!
June 29th, 2007
7:53 pm
And as for watches, man they are so tired!! i can’t believe people still wear them. idiots
June 29th, 2007
8:35 pm
gotcha, bitch! click below…
June 29th, 2007
11:12 pm
dear vice,
we fix your computers and show you how to work your cameras. do not fuck with us.
June 30th, 2007
2:08 am
hats suck you idiots.
June 30th, 2007
4:17 am
vice is soooo oold. being thirty is ollllld. /sarcasm
June 30th, 2007
4:18 pm
Say to my fucking face and I’ll knock your block off. My hat helps my ego as I am balding quicker than global warming is eating the planet. Plus when I sweat in it, the lining smells like Falafel. Mmm… Falafel.
Vincent
July 1st, 2007
7:19 am
Dear Vice,
I kinda have the same problem as the fella who commented above me; premature balding. I’m 28 and pretty much fully bald. Even though I’m a handsome gent, baldness is ugly and must be covered. I don’t even like the sight of other people’s naked scalp. I know the fedora is always a risk but honestly it looks better that pure bald. When dressing casual (i.e. t-shirt)I often wear the baseball cap with brim flipped up, a la Suicidal Tendencies. However this is truely tasteless when a collered shirt is in order. The fedora seems like the only classy headwear alternative for me. What am I to do?
Mo
July 1st, 2007
7:50 am
fuck you, jealous much? lookin good in the straw fedora and keeping it ethnic… you wish you were as authentic.
July 1st, 2007
4:32 pm
Doesn’t your buddy Johnny Knoxville rock the Summer Fedora all the time?
July 2nd, 2007
9:04 pm
hey dermody,
the sight of OTHER people’s bare scalps offends you because it reminds you of your own, which you apparently hate.
get over it. i’m 28 and bald and i don’t wear hats and i wear my hair kinda shaggy, i have a nice-shaped dome and enough self-confidence to pull it off.
larry david wrote this great article about baldness for the NYT Magazine like seven years ago - he called out hat wearers, beard growers, and head shavers all. it took me a while for his words to sink in but I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT.
but hey, people should wear fucking hats if they can pull it off; ska is due for a fourth wave anytime now. this comment has no point except I AM bALD AND i HATES HATS.
July 2nd, 2007
10:49 pm
Hats rule when its 104 outside. whatever.
July 2nd, 2007
11:15 pm
Wow, viseland, I’m convinced. You did such a GREAT job arguing against hat-wearing. *snort*
July 3rd, 2007
2:21 am
ima go buy one of those hats now thanks
July 5th, 2007
3:17 pm
You guys are still bitching bout hats when someone’s just posted a racist comment above? Quit this hat nonsense, who fucking cares? Wear whatever hat you want! It’s a damn accesory.
And Agnes, you truly are a asshole, go fuck with a pig or sheep and get with the idea that you should be shot
July 5th, 2007
6:24 pm
i love chuckling as i read people argue about hat wearing. i love vice.
July 5th, 2007
8:29 pm
Hey you fashion stars, come on down to the Stampede,…then say what you will about nimrods in straw hats. Totally agree will the editor,.. or whoever the hell wrote this shit that I just waisted my time reading,.right on!
July 5th, 2007
10:55 pm
Did the first poster actually write: “hey VICE shut the fuck up”? My responding that way you basically identified yourself as the target of what VICE was talking about. Way to take a general complaint and turn it into a personal affront, you dumb fucker.
July 5th, 2007
11:06 pm
Hats are cool. Vice wears hats. Yeahhh, cmonnn, gimme a fuckin break you don’t. You hoes wear MLB caps, all uncurved and shit, a la true hipster. We’re not stupid.
What Vice should ban are leggings. Yeah, I just fuckin said that.
Leggings make hipsters look more malnurished than American Apparel’s child labourers.
Yeah I just fuckin said that too.
What.
July 6th, 2007
12:33 am
but vice loves the 40’s/50’s and all men wore hats in the 50’s!!
July 6th, 2007
4:46 am
Hats were cool in the 20’s and they’re still cool now; if you have the fashion sense to carry them off, which many of the pathetically hip population do not!
Please……ban the leggings along with all of this 80’s revival fashion that is so horrendous.
I’m living in Tokyo and can’t wait for winter to bust out my old school Kangol that’s been with me for many years.
And anyway……..who really gives a shit what New Yorkers are doing…..so stale!
July 6th, 2007
7:16 am
forreal, i love vice but this was the dumbest shit i ever read
July 6th, 2007
8:04 am
Awesome topic…I think it’s pulitzer material. What a great way to make a difference in the world. I am about to google “internet puppy” so I can have him e-shit on this news.
Look…If Vice were dinner, this story would be the cabbage side salad that no one really expects you to eat.
July 6th, 2007
1:14 pm
Unless hats serve some kind of function, like keeping the sun out of your eyes while you’re riding a bull, or protecting your head while at a construction site, hats are for awkward high school kids and old guys trying to stay hip.
VICE is 100% right on this issue.
July 6th, 2007
10:31 pm
This was the most contrived thing I have ever read.
July 6th, 2007
10:32 pm
bears repeating:
Hypocrisy Highway Here We Come!
go to this web address:
http://thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/cardboardcatbox/IMG_3478.html
to see their very own boss (gavin mcinnes) breaking the beloved rule stated above!
July 6th, 2007
10:33 pm
bears repeating:
Hypocrisy Highway Here We Come!
go to this web address:
http://thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/cardboardcatbox/IMG_3478.html
to see their very own boss (gavin mcinnes) breaking the beloved rule stated above!
July 6th, 2007
10:35 pm
p.s. I think all that matters is how good it does or doesn’t look on you
July 7th, 2007
3:51 pm
my hat is a brown fedora, its well beast
July 7th, 2007
5:13 pm
it’s really unfortunate that Vice is so insecure they need to go around shitting on everything - and what hypocrites! - Gavin had a kid a year ago and they hate on having kids constantly. What a dismal display of what’s wrong with a generation.
July 7th, 2007
10:55 pm
eh its like 60f the warmest it gets here so what to the evs besides I aint mad straw hats look stupid on my 62cm dome.
July 8th, 2007
3:07 am
does this rule apply to gavin too?
he wears straw hats.
July 9th, 2007
4:38 am
haha, i love it when people go on a big rant about something someone said (in this case pointing out that white kids hats suck ass) and then they try and play it off like “I DONT CARE WHAT YOU THINK..”
well evidently mr ‘impressionable youth’ you DO care,
& u suck ass at the same time
hows that for a hat-trick?
this topic is awesome & so right-on
July 9th, 2007
1:44 pm
Jesus, any of you guys ever heard of sarcasm?
July 10th, 2007
2:11 am
I’d ad something here, but really couldn’t give two shits about anything written down by penis’ behind their dells.
July 10th, 2007
5:03 pm
You have no idea how bad it is over
here in Calgary, all these fucken’
fags wearing pink cowboy shirts and
cheap straw hats that don’t do dick
all to keep the sun out of your eyes.
If your going to wear a cowboy hat,
do it right or go home.
July 10th, 2007
5:04 pm
brilliant, an article that has created a big argument. job done!
cheers vice
July 10th, 2007
8:12 pm
brilliant? uh, I couldn’t even bother to finish it….zzzzzzzzz…but I did just buy a bitchin straw hat. Kind of a bigger porkpie…kicks Ass….and my cock is still pretty large
July 11th, 2007
5:29 am
did somebody mention calgary stampede: otherwise known as the universal hub of straw hats, or straw hats global convention. they even give free straw hats at local liquor store.
heaven and hell
July 11th, 2007
6:58 am
fedoras are a bit different than those billabong farmer hats that subrurban jackasses wear to the beach. fuck it all. if you can pull off the look without looking like one of those assholes then go for it i say.
July 12th, 2007
11:16 pm
The last time a fedora looked good on a man, it was twenty-four years ago, and Harrison Ford was wearing it.
Everyone with a fedora I’ve seen since then is an ugly, perpetually unlaid gamer.
July 12th, 2007
11:44 pm
I hate these things!! these straw hats are williamsburg today as the trucker hat was in the 90’s! L.A.M.E.
who thought it would be a good idea to dress up in 1880’s gear, what is next summer’s trend, maybe pilgrim hats? every dude wearing these hats should be sent back in time to when they were cool.
July 13th, 2007
4:31 pm
I don’t care what my hat looks like. I don’t want cancer. End of story. You think its worth it to look cool? Hats off to you and your untimely and expensive death.
July 13th, 2007
8:37 pm
gavin’s hat is different because it’s funny and silly and he complements it with argyle, thus completing the look. he’s not wearing an old hasidic guy’s hat with long greasy hair and an ironic metal tee. plus he’s old and old men can wear hats. this rule is for young people.
July 14th, 2007
7:30 am
Amen Vice. I live in Nashville, TN, and it’s funny to see the tourist arriving in those corny-ass hats thinking that that is what Nashvillians where. Farthest from the truth, looking like broke-ass country singers.
July 14th, 2007
8:39 am
Alright I’ll give you a point for fashion hats.
But I have to wear one for work and yes it’s a stray cowboy hat, but you need a hat walking 10 miles a day in the desert or a hard hat at construction sites.
I don’t wear it anywhere else though.
July 15th, 2007
10:08 am
Here’s how to dress:
If you’re above 27: Dress like old people in the old days in the most discrete way you can find.
If you’re under 27:
Dress in whatever way you want as long as you make an effort.
July 15th, 2007
10:08 am
Here’s how to dress:
If you’re above 27: Dress like old people in the old days in the most discrete way you can find.
If you’re under 27:
Dress in whatever way you want as long as you make an effort.
July 15th, 2007
10:08 am
Here’s how to dress:
If you’re above 27: Dress like old people in the old days in the most discrete way you can find.
If you’re under 27:
Dress in whatever way you want as long as you make an effort.
July 15th, 2007
10:08 am
Here’s how to dress:
If you’re above 27: Dress like old people in the old days in the most discrete way you can find.
If you’re under 27:
Dress in whatever way you want as long as you make an effort.
July 15th, 2007
10:08 am
Here’s how to dress:
If you’re above 27: Dress like old people in the old days in the most discrete way you can find.
If you’re under 27:
Dress in whatever way you want as long as you make an effort.
July 16th, 2007
2:17 am
I saw a guy wearing a straw fedora last night. I was about to make fun of him to my girlfriend by quoting this article, when I noticed he was alone with three hot chicks, who were hanging on his every word, rubbing up against him and grabbing his hat. So, fuck Vice.
July 16th, 2007
4:39 am
that burn is on tour
July 16th, 2007
10:41 am
im sure as hell that ive seen so many DO’s with people wearing brimmed hats. you need to make your fucking minds up!
July 19th, 2007
2:11 pm
UM SO YOU’RE TRYING TO TELL ME THAT SPENCER P JONES, HE OF THE WHITE COWBOY HAT, and BEASTS OF FUCKING BOURBON IS AN IDIOT? right. he puts all of you lame, soft, yuppie arses to shame.
September 27th, 2008
5:30 pm
am i the only person who whole heartedly agrees with this article? seriously… hats are ridiculous.