Fedora

The fedora is popular because of its stylishness, and because its durable construction and large brim makes for good protection in both high sun and inclement weather.

The word fedora comes from the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, Fédora, which was written for Sarah Bernhardt, who played Princess Fédora Romazoff, the heroine. During the play, Bernhardt—a noted cross-dresser—wore a center-creased, soft brimmed hat. The women's rights movement subsequently adopted it as a symbol. When Edward, then Prince of Wales started to wear them in 1924, it became popular among men. Many Haredi and other Orthodox Jews have adopted black fedoras as daily wear since the beginning of the 20th century.   During the early twentieth century, a hat was a staple of men's fashion and would be worn in almost all public places. The fedora soon became the most popular hat between the 1920s and the early 1950s. In popular culture, it became strongly associated with film noir, worn by good guys and bad guys alike. It was also much associated with gangsters during Prohibition era in the United States, a connection coinciding with the height of the hat's popularity. Fedoras were worn by Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946). Well-known gangsters such as Al Capone, Charles Luciano, and Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel wore fedoras, lending to the association. A fedora was also an important part of the "zoot suit."   It is likely because of these common associations that the Self Care Mafia chose to adopt the fedora as a symbol. Perhaps as a pastiche on their "reformed gangster" status, perhaps because they wanted to portray a "tough guy" image that implied they would accept no nonsense among Literomancers in neglecting the needs of their bodies and minds, fedoras soon became a staple part of their "uniform." The shadows generated by the large, but not cumbersome, hat brim, likely also played a role in this choice, since it made it easier for the mafiosos to obscure their identities.   In the modern era, chosing to wear a fedora in any colour but brown (associated with cowboys or adventurers) is likely to lead people to assume the wearer is a member of the Self Care Mafia. This remains true even if, or perhaps in part, because, the Mafia has also begun to award fedoras to Tome Knights who complete their "Tiny Tasks" challenges during a Tourney or a War.   It should be noted that Queen Sable Aradia occasionally opts to wear a grey felt trilby. Some believe this might be an intentional tongue-in-cheek raspberry to the Self Care Mafia, but others believe it is simply because she prefers the smaller brim against her slight frame. She is also known to wear a pink straw porkpie hat while gardening.