The Curve Makes You Cool

Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. What can I say? A lot of nonsense has been going down. There have been some interesting developments in my life and in the world at large... but that's not really the kind of thing we talk about here at Party Villa.

I was racking my brains for the most idiotic, pointless, and trivial topic to bring up next, when an old Chinese man on the train came to my rescue.

I have discussed 90's fashion faux pas on here before, but I have to admit there is one that totally slipped my mind for many, many years. I'm talking about the curved baseball cap brim. Of course most baseball caps' brims are slightly curved, but some of you may remember in the 90's that young bros wore them with a more extreme curve - it looked like there was a tube coming out of the center of their foreheads. I remember seeing boys constantly taking off their hats and pressing the brim into a tighter curve (probably thinking, 'just a little more and then I'll be cool!') That's where the old Chinese man comes in. I saw him across the aisle, wearing a totally old-geezer outfit, right down to his canvas baseball cap that said "South Florida" or something. Suddenly, he takes off the hat and begins pressing on the brim! At first, having not witnessed this action in several years, I had no idea what he was doing. When it finally dawned on me, I was struck with the desire to run over to him and tell him: 'No, don't do that! Its not cool anymore!"

Its just fascinating how something as simple as a baseball cap can change so much in the waves of trendiness. In the 90's it was those canvas caps from Abercrombie or your favorite Skateboard company, and of course, the extreme curved brim. Now no insecure young man would be caught in anything but an officially licensed MLB fitted cap with, apparently, a perfectly flat brim.

I checked out the website for Lids (the store that sells nothing but caps where many a young man has spent his whole allowance) and all of their official fitted caps come with a perfectly flat brim, so I guess they leave it up to the buyer to curve as they see fit. I even found, in the "Hat Science" (seriously) section of their FAQs, a primer, if you will, on how to achieve the perfect curve. And I quote:

# Can the bill curve to fit my style?

Yes, it's an ancient Lids and Hat World secret, the perfect curve. For starters, not everyone is qualified to pull off the perfect curve; it takes a bit of practice. Secondly, if you shop this Web site or pop into any Lids or Hat World store, you can actually pick up The Perfect Curve a device which allows you to adjust the curve of your hat - and store and wash your hat while keeping that curve.

But for now, a lesson. Because that's what Hat Science is all about.

* Hold your hat upside-down, brim facing you.
* Using both hands, curl each end of the brim upward until the ends meet.
* Turn the hat over and roll the cylindrical brim back and forth until you have the perfect curve.
* Practice, practice, practice!

Well thats it for now. If anyone has any pictures of the evolution of hat styles, I would love to see them, especially extreme curved brim.

Btw, if any of you are not watching So You Think you can Dance - you should be. They are really fantastic dancers and the show is actually really enjoyable. Furthermore, I have developed my first girl-crush of the summer on Kherington Payne.