Today in History—September 13: The Start of the Straw Hat Riots

“The average man’s devotion to his HAT is one of life’s greatest mysteries.”

That’s a line from a September 5, 1922, newspaper column called “Meditations of a Married Woman” (all caps “HAT” included). This claim may not hold up in the 21st century—but its author, Helen Rowland, couldn’t know just how prescient her words would prove to be.

Not even two weeks after her hat diatribe, boys and men across New York City “indulged in a straw hat smashing orgy,” the likes of which the world had never seen.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

In other words: On September 13, 1922, the Straw Hat Riots began.

To understand how we got here, we have to appreciate just how large straw hats loomed in men’s fashion. Casual straw boater hats were only appropriate during summer months—specifically from May 15 (Straw Hat Day) to September 15 (Felt Hat Day).

Every year on Felt Hat Day, 20th-century finance bros made a show of smashing each other’s straw hats on the stock market floor; elsewhere in the city, men who dared to don a straw hat after the season’s end ran the risk of having it snatched off their heads by more fashion-forward passersby.

A few days before the official end of 1922’s straw hat season, “gangs of young hoodlums” (The New York Times’ description, not ours) got a head start on the tradition: They set off across Manhattan, stealing and smashing straw hats wherever they went—but some hat-wearers, presumably emboldened by the fact that straw hats were technically still in season, fought back.

The resulting brawl seemingly touched every man who might possibly wear a hat, from stockbrokers to dockworkers to police officers. Boys trolled the streets bearing sticks, sometimes embedded with nails, both to lift hats from an unsuspecting wearer’s head and to physically intimidate those who resisted.

The Straw Hat Riots lasted eight days and resulted in arrests, injuries, hospitalizations, and the demise of many, many hats. And after all of that trouble, straw boater hats went out of fashion for men in the 1930s. By the ’50s, the accessory that launched a riot was virtually extinct.

Famous Birthdays

1885: Alain Locke—American educator, writer, and philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance

1928: Robert Indiana—American Pop artist

1971: Stella McCartney—British fashion designer

1977: Fiona Apple—American singer-songwriter