Beth Jones

Way back in May, The New York Times reported that the trucker hat had officially become uncool.

“When tourists from Virginia are buying them at flea markets on Broadway,” one hipster was quoted as saying, “it’s not really our thing anymore.”

There’s no need for snippiness, but it is true that parts of the commonwealth, including Roanoke, do tend to be a little behind on fashion trends.

Indeed, the noble trucker hat only recently arrived in the Star City, many months after being abandoned by the fashion elite up North.

Wear them while you can. As this article went to press, trucker hats were still considered cool in Roanoke, but our style experts predict that at any moment they may become totally uncool.

In the 1970s and early ’80s, the hats – wide-billed caps made of foam and plastic mesh (sometimes referred to as a screen door) – were favored by truckers, high school gym teachers and other folk.

It’s as ugly now as it was back then. But looks had nothing to do with the hat’s 21st century comeback, says Samantha Foster, senior strategist for Outlaw Consulting, a San Francisco firm that tracks what’s cool and what’s not.

Hipsters began wearing trucker hats, she explained, because they’re ironical. “Irony’s really in right now,” she said.

“You grab something that’s really opposite to what you are and make it your own,” explained Richard Laermer, author of the book “trendSpotting.” “When a hipster is wearing his John Deere cap, he’s trying to tell you that he’s so incredibly cool he can dress like a farmer. … Very ironic.”

Another benefit of the trucker hat is that it allows its wearers to stand apart from the crowd even at a party with 30 other guys wearing trucker caps.

“To the unhip eye, it appears everyone is wearing the same thing,” Foster wrote in a company report. “However, each hat has a logo, design, color or style that is an expression of its wearer’s individuality.”