Thursday, August 11, 2022

"The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 was a riot that occurred...in New York City, at the end of the summer as a result of unwritten rules in men's fashions at the time"

A tweet I thought might have been a joke:

Wikipedia:

By the early 20th century, straw boaters were considered acceptable day attire in North American cities at the height of summer even for businessmen, but there was an unwritten rule that one was not supposed to wear a straw hat past September 15

...

It was socially acceptable for stockbrokers to destroy each other's hats, due to the fact that they were “companions”, but it was not acceptable for total strangers. If any man was seen wearing a straw hat, he was, at minimum, subjecting himself to ridicule, and it was a tradition for youths to knock straw hats off wearers' heads and stomp on them. This tradition became well established, and newspapers of the day would often warn people of the impending approach of the fifteenth, when men would have to switch to felt or silk hats. Hat bashing was only socially acceptable after September 15

...

Although the initial brawl was broken up by police, the fights continued to escalate the next evening. Gangs of teenagers prowled the streets wielding large sticks, sometimes with a nail driven through the top for hooking hats, looking for pedestrians wearing straw hats and beating those who resisted.