The World Series’ conclusion this week (congrats to the Milwaukee Brewers) is cause for reflection on the sport’s enduring fashion import, the ever-versatile baseball cap. Without exaggeration, no single other sports accessory has become such a permanent fixture of everyday style. Major League Baseball team caps themselves–for the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers, primarily–often signal affiliation with a particular metropolitan sensibility, rather than the team, and thus have broad application. You could say baseball caps are the epitome of normcore. But when paired with more elevated items–a slick office-ready look or otherwise un-sporty dress–they can become a different thing entirely. A baseball cap can suggest a laissez-faire attitude and unbothered approach to dressing.
So here’s my argument: the blazer-and-baseball-cap combo. When done well, which is to say, a little undone–it is the perfect high-low pairing. There are many such pop-cultural examples for the eternal mood board: the iconic images of Princess Diana taking her sons to school, clad in a baseball cap, blazer and cowboy boots, and Lauren Hutton sitting front row at an Armani show in a New York Yankees hat in the ’80s, stick out in particular.
Princess Diana at Wetherby in 1989.
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