Question: I know it is necessary to take off my hat when indoors (would that men who wear ball caps learn this lesson when seated in a restaurant). However, when I am shopping in a department store, it is difficult to handle both hat and merchandise. I've seen old movies in which men wear hats into stores and nobody looks aghast. So my question is: to doff or not to doff?
Answer: The modern world is full of spaces that exist in the overlap of the public and the private, and of the outdoors and the in. A massive sports arena, for example, feels like the outdoors, but is one outside when the retractable roof closes? A mall attempts to recreate the ambience of a public square, with its benches and fountains, but is closed and air-conditioned. These undefined spaces blur the rules of hat-wearing.
No one has come up with definitive etiquette for them - and to be honest, few people care, since hats are disappearing as elements of elegant fashion. People who wear ball caps tend to wear them as markers of tribal affiliation, as in sports, not as aesthetic accoutrement, and so are not likely to consider removing them ever.
My own rule is vague: It really depends on the size of the space. In a large department store - one of those public/private zones - one doesn't look out of place wearing a fedora or a panama while bending over light fixtures or carpet swatches. As soon as one enters a small boutique, however, one may begin to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps that is because one is more likely to enter into a conversation with an employee. My instinct is to remove my hat as soon as I am in a room any smaller than an Olympic-size swimming pool.
As you say, no hats are worn in restaurants, no matter the size of the room. And it is impolite to wear a wide-brimmed hat to a sporting event, as it may impede the view of those behind you.
Russell Smith is executive editor of web advisory service XYYZ. To read more Ask Mr. Smith, and to have a chance at winning a copy of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us, sign up at xyyz.ca this weekend.
