Every once in a while, I stumble across a fashion trend that feels like a quick fad—a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment if you will. And, in this case, it almost happened with the backwards hat trend. For years, I, like many of the Gen Zers on my TikTok For You Page, had shamelessly thought that caps were solely the reserve of hot men.
Think Justin Bieber strolling through LA, opened shirt with a Pizza box in hand, using his hat to keep honey-hued curls at bay. Or Tom Holland opening a car door for Zendaya, looking less like your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider Man and more like the internets ultimate gentleman. On men, the backwards cap radiates cooler-than-cool “sex” appeal (and, if the reams of edits to Usher’s Daddy’s Home are anything to go by), its a look that many women simply can’t get enough of.
But, this summer, after spotting many of my favourite celebrity It girls embracing the styling hack too, I knew it was only a matter of time before the backwards hat became a bona fide trend amongst men and women alike.
To understand the enduring allure of the backwards cap, you’ve got to go back to where it all began. Originally worn by American baseball catchers (think of them as crickets wicketkeepers), they’d flip their caps backwards as a practical solution to stop the brim from interfering with their protective masks. But it wasn’t until the ‘80s and ‘90s when the internet-boyfriends-of-the-time helped these hats transcend their strictly function status.
Brad Pitt and Tom Welling, Tupac Shakur and prime-time Becks; each one of these stars made the backwards cap their own, evolving its purpose from straight up athleticism to one etched in bad-boy charm (far more than simply wearing it forward). There’s nowhere to hide when you wear a cap backwards—your facecard has to do the talking.
Naturally, many of the most beautiful women of the period also embraced the backwards hat trend too. But I’d argue it was the cast of Friends that gave its cult-like fashion status. I mean, it’s impossible to think of American football without picturing Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Green rugby tackling Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani with two pigtails and a sleek black backwards cap.
Yet, this year, the trend has been given new legs after FX released the hit TV show Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette on Disney+, and a younger generation was not only given a snapshot into their (dramatised) love life, but their fashion sense too. Whilst we’ve covered the formidable force of fashion that was Carolyn Bessette at length, her other half (who lived in backwards Kangol flatcaps and baseball hats) deserves credit where credit is due.
With cosplaying as the couple (fashion-wise) at an all time high earlier this year, and fashion the least gender normative that it’s ever been, it makes sense that the girls are “borrowing from the boys” this summer, and make it cooler than ever.
Be it Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner or Iris Law, each one of these It-girls has embraced the backwards hat as a way to give even the simplest summer outfit an edgier, more fashion-forward finish. So whether pulling a Kendall and using yours to keep wet hair restrained post-swim or channelling Dua and styling it with denim cut-off shorts, a long-sleeved t-shirt and the iconic Chanel Maxi Flap bag, there’s no denying the backwards hat has officially earned its place in the wardrobes of the fashion set this summer. Scroll down to shop the best hats below.
Shop Caps You Can Wear Backwards and Forwards:
