If you, as a man were to be fashionably dressed in the early 1900s, it was absolutely necessary to get a straw hat with a flat brim, flat pull and decorative ribbon. In England, they called them ‘boater hats’. This was because they were popular to use by the coast during the summer months in England.
For a very long time, fashion in Europe had been something very class-divided. There were even laws in Norway-Denmark in both the 17 and 1800s that regulated what the different classes in society were allowed to wear. This had as much to do with the balance between imports and exports as it had to do with maintaining the class system.
Towards the end of the 1800s, these frameworks loosened somewhat. Fashion at the turn of the century became less strict and more informal. This was especially true for men.
Men’s headgear over the past century is often still today associated with a social stratum. The felt hat belonged to the working class, the top hat belonged to the upper class and the bowler hat belonged to the middle class.
The straw hat of the type in the picture here, on the other hand, gives associations to smiling men in light trousers out in the summer sun. All men could use this.
This particular straw hat belonged to one of the men in the Hals family in Stokmarknes, and is part of the collection of Melbo Manor