National Felt Hat Day
September 15
About National Felt Hat Day
National Felt Hat Day falls on 15 September each year and marks the traditional moment when stylish dressers once packed away their lightweight summer straw hats and brought out their warmer felt ones. The observance celebrates a curious slice of American fashion history, when the calendar dictated what you could and could not wear on your head. Today it is a light-hearted excuse to dust off a fedora, trilby or wide-brimmed felt hat and tip it to a forgotten custom.
How to Celebrate National Felt Hat Day
This is a day made for getting dressed up, so the best way to mark it is to actually wear a felt hat. Here are plenty of ways to join in:
- Wear your best felt hat – Whether it is a fedora, trilby, homburg or a wide-brimmed style, today is the day to put it on with confidence. If you have been waiting for an occasion, this is it.
- Pack away the straw – Honour the original tradition by retiring your summer boater or panama for the season. There is something satisfying about marking the shift from late summer into autumn with a wardrobe change.
- Visit a hat shop or milliner – Independent hatters are increasingly rare, so use the day as a reason to support one. Trying on hats in person is the only reliable way to find a brim and crown that genuinely suit your face.
- Learn how felt is made – Felting is one of the oldest textile techniques in the world. Watching a short video on how wool or fur fibres are matted, blocked and shaped into a hat gives you a fresh appreciation for the craft.
- Read about the Straw Hat Riots – The day has a genuinely wild backstory. Spend ten minutes reading about the 1922 New York riots and you will never look at a hat the same way again.
- Host a hat-themed gathering – Invite friends round and ask everyone to arrive in their finest headwear. Award a small prize for the most dapper, the most dramatic and the most unexpected hat of the night.
- Share a vintage-style photo – Channel a 1920s or 1940s look, take a portrait in your felt hat, and post it online. Old film noir and classic Hollywood stills make great inspiration.
- Give a hat a second life – If you have an old felt hat gathering dust, brush it down, steam out the dents and re-shape it. A neglected hat can often be revived in minutes.
What is National Felt Hat Day?
National Felt Hat Day is an informal observance held in the United States on 15 September that recalls a once strict rule of men’s fashion. In the early twentieth century, the social calendar treated 15 September as the firm cut-off for wearing straw hats. From that date onwards, a respectable gentleman was expected to switch to felt. The day is not run by any single organisation; instead it survives as a piece of cultural folklore kept alive by hat enthusiasts, milliners and fans of vintage style. It pairs neatly with the broader autumn celebration of headwear, and if you enjoy this sort of thing you might also like Fall Hat Month, which runs throughout September.
When is National Felt Hat Day?
National Felt Hat Day is observed every year on 15 September. In 2026 it falls on a Tuesday. The date is fixed and never moves, mirroring the historical rule that 15 September was the last acceptable day to wear a straw hat before switching to felt for the cooler months. Its springtime counterpart, Straw Hat Day, was traditionally marked on 15 May, opening the summer straw season.
The History of National Felt Hat Day
For most of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, hats were not optional. A man stepping outdoors without one was considered improperly dressed, and the type of hat he wore was governed by the season. Straw hats, light and cool, were strictly summer wear. They appeared in the warmer months, often linked to boating and outdoor sport, which is where the term “boater” comes from. Felt hats, made from matted wool or fur and far warmer, belonged to autumn and winter.
The convention settled on two key dates. Straw hat season customarily began on 15 May, sometimes called Straw Hat Day, and ended on 15 September, which became known as Felt Hat Day. Wearing the wrong hat outside these windows was viewed as a genuine breach of etiquette. Newspapers ran reminders as the deadline approached, and the change was treated almost like a public ritual. On Wall Street, traders were known to playfully knock the straw hats off one another on 15 September, partly in jest and partly to enforce the unwritten code.
That enforcement occasionally turned ugly. The most notorious example was the Straw Hat Riot of 1922 in New York City. It began on 13 September, two days before the official switch, when a group of youths in the Mulberry Bend area of Manhattan started snatching and stomping the straw hats of factory workers. The disorder spread across the city and continued for around eight days. Gangs of teenagers roamed with sticks, some fitted with nails to hook hats off heads, and several men were hospitalised after resisting. Numerous arrests were made. The riots were an extreme outburst of a custom that, in milder forms, was widely accepted at the time. As hats gradually fell out of everyday fashion in the mid-twentieth century, the seasonal switch and the tradition behind it faded too, leaving National Felt Hat Day as its quirky memorial.
Fun Facts About National Felt Hat Day
- The matching observance, Straw Hat Day, was traditionally held on 15 May, opening the summer straw-hat season that Felt Hat Day closed.
- The Straw Hat Riot of 1922 lasted roughly eight days and led to numerous arrests and several injuries in New York City.
- The 1922 unrest actually started on 13 September, jumping the gun on the official 15 September deadline by two days.
- Felt has been used for hats since at least the fifteenth century, making it one of the oldest hat-making materials still in use.
- Felt is most commonly made from wool, but finer hats often use fur felt from rabbit or beaver, prized for its smooth finish and durability.
- Stockbrokers were known to smash each other’s straw hats on the trading floor on 15 September as a jokey way of enforcing the seasonal rule.
Why National Felt Hat Day Matters
While it is mostly a bit of fun, National Felt Hat Day is a reminder of how much everyday culture and social rules can change in a century. A custom once enforced with riots has dissolved into harmless nostalgia. The day also offers a small but real boost to traditional milliners and independent hatters, crafts that have become scarce, and it encourages people to take a little more pleasure in how they dress as the seasons turn.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is National Felt Hat Day?
National Felt Hat Day is an informal American observance on 15 September that commemorates the old tradition of switching from summer straw hats to warmer felt hats. It is celebrated by hat lovers and vintage style fans rather than any official body.
When is National Felt Hat Day in 2026?
National Felt Hat Day is on Tuesday, 15 September 2026. The date is fixed and falls on 15 September every year.
Why was 15 September chosen for Felt Hat Day?
In the early twentieth century, 15 September was the customary last day to wear a straw hat. From that date, etiquette demanded a switch to felt for the cooler autumn and winter months, so the day became known as Felt Hat Day.
Spread the Word
Join the celebration and share your sharpest felt-hat photos on social media with #FeltHatDay and #FeltHatDay2026. Tag your friends and challenge them to dig out a fedora and take part!
Related Awareness Days
- Fall Hat Month – A month-long September celebration of headwear that pairs perfectly with Felt Hat Day.
- National Coloring Book Day – Another light-hearted, creativity-focused day for fans of quirky observances.
- National Day of the Gong – A wonderfully offbeat day in the same spirit of celebrating the unusual.
Links
- Read more about National Felt Hat Day at National Day Calendar
- Explore more awareness days at AwarenessDays.com
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