Is There Anywhere You Can’t Wear a Baseball Cap?

Why do grown men insist on wearing baseball caps everywhere? They wear them with suits and even to the theater. Does anyone else think this trend has gotten out of control? — Christine, New York

It is true, the baseball cap has become such a ubiquitous item of clothing that the British milliner Stephen Jones told me they were “the tiara of America.” But it was not always thus.

According to Major League Baseball, the concept of a hat worn during a baseball game (the better to see fly balls in the sun) was introduced by the New York Knickerbockers in 1849, but it was a natty straw number. The baseball cap as we know it — with its dome shape and duckbill brim — began to appear a few years later. The logo arrived in 1894, thanks to the Boston Baseball Club (now the Atlanta Braves), and the mascot in 1901, with the Detroit Tigers.

But it wasn’t until 1947 that New Era, a haberdashery company in New York, created the 59Fifty, or what is now the standard structured baseball cap. And it took more than 30 years for it to make the leap from sports to pop culture.

That happened in the 1980s: Think of Tom Selleck as Magnum in “Magnum P.I.” with his Hawaiian shirts and Tigers caps; the rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy with his Pirates cap; and Eazy-E of N.W.A., with his White Sox hat. From there, caps proliferated.

A baseball cap became a fashion hack for anyone who wanted to display a hint of individuality or community while simultaneously wearing whatever professional or social camouflage was required (Exhibit A being bankers in suits with baseball caps).

And it was a short leap from that to the Met Gala. See Chance the Rapper’s 2021 Ralph Lauren look, complete with a cap, and the musician Frank Ocean’s look the same year. (And it’s not just for men; Kylie Jenner wore an Off-White bridal baseball cap to the gala in 2022.)