an examination of the modern hat.

         Up until the late 1990's, the "ball cap" was the preferred style of hat among american youth. The first thing that was done to a new hat was to bend the brim inward like baseball players do. It was also considered fashionable for one's hat to look worn or frayed; I can recall friends in grade school who used to rub the brims of their hats against the curb to hasten this process. In the early 2000's however, there emerged a new style of hat with the onslaught of hip-hop into popular culture. Unlike the previous style, the kind of hat one might see in a rap video looks pristine, has a flat brim, and usually still has the shiny sticker still attached, and this has since become the dominant style of hat among America's youth.
        Unlike the faux-rustic style of the "ball cap", these new hats glorify the notion of being brand new. The brims are kept flat because that is the way hats are displayed in the store, and the sticker is kept to emphasize the novelty. This is reflective of modern popular culture's obsession with extravagance, and the importance of the act of purchasing. This is why for a long time all white sneakers were fashionable; if they didn't look brand new and absolutely untarnished then they were unstylish. Many of this decade's hit music videos and lyrics feature an abundance of paper cash, as well as new clothes, cars, and the rest. In this culture, it is crucial to appear as if these extravagancies are a part of every day life, which is a way of "deny[ing] wearing a uniform".  The fantasy lifestyle is always portrayed as being regular, and not an exception from the norm.
       Fashion that is based upon novelty and the act of purchasing harkens to some underlying fundamentals of capitalism; consumers must always be buying new things. Durability and function are, in many circles, secondary to novelty and how recently the product was made. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley predicted that this trend would lead to the manufacture of clothing designed to rapidly fall into disrepair, thus necessitating the purchase of new clothes. Many would argue that this business model has already begun among certain companies. The continual (and unnecessary) purchase of the newest thing is the engine that drives capitalism, and flat brimmed hats with stickers are the epitome of wearing something "new".

To further my point, here is a link to an informative and hilarious clip from Key and Peele: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ZM0-f5_CU