What’s with Beanies in the Middle of the Summer?

We human beings are among the strangest creatures in nature. Take our wardrobes, for example. No other animal on the planet purposely adds extra layers when temperatures are the hottest. We do. Need proof? Beanies being worn in the middle of summer should do it.

The Fashion Beans website published a post a while back discussing how to wear a beanie but not like an idiot doing so. The piece is both humorous and thought-provoking. At any rate, it is clear from the article that beanies are cold-weather gear. You wear one to keep your head warm when temperatures go down.

Even without the article, common sense dictates that beanies are not summer wear. They are thick, often made of wool or a poly-cotton blend. They are intended to fit somewhat loosely to accommodate an insulating pocket of air. They are also designed to be pulled down over the ears and forehead. All of the design features built into your typical beanie do not make for great summer comfort.

A Strange Fashion Statement

Those of us who would never don a beanie in the middle of summer are forced to believe that the trend is nothing more than a strange fashion statement. For some reason unbeknownst to anyone but the first person to wear a beanie in the summer, year-round beanie wearers think it’s cool.

Proponents of the year-round beanie must think it makes them look hip and progressive. Or maybe they think a beanie makes them look tough. Who knows? But in keeping with the Fashion Beans piece, the word ‘idiotic’ comes to mind. It just doesn’t make sense.

Then again, few fashion trends do. Let’s be real. What’s the point of wearing a pair of jeans with identical rips down the length of each leg? Why not just wear a pair of shorts? If 90% of your leg is showing through the rips, you are not really wearing a pair of pants. You’re wearing a pair of shorts with a bit of extra material hanging down and getting in the way.

From Shotguns to Balloons

We have seen all of this before. What we now call distressed jeans started out as a single denim retailer taking his products out to the desert and riddling them with shotgun blasts. Seriously. If you don’t believe what you’re reading, look it up.

If buckshot peppered jeans aren’t crazy enough for you, how about balloon pants? They were pretty big in the late 80s and 90s. To this day, no one knows why. And yet everyone from Arsenio Hall to MC Hammer thought they were the cat’s meow.

Beanies Are More Pervasive

Getting back to beanies, they may have an advantage in that they are a lot more pervasive. Distressed jeans were a fad that came, went, and came again. Balloon pants came, went, and never returned. The thing about beanies is that they have been around for generations. Even before they became a fashion trend for year-round wear, people trusted their beanies to keep their heads warm.

The fact that Umai sells beanies along with anime T-shirts, sweatshirts and other apparel doesn’t necessarily denote that beanies have to be worn year-round. Customers can buy a Umai beanie and wear it only in the winter. Why make this point? Because this post is not intended to completely invalidate beanies.

Shotgun riddled jeans? They are as useless as balloon pants. But beanies have a practical purpose that has kept them around for a long time. It just doesn’t make sense to wear them in the summer. That’s all this post is saying.