Skip To Content

    The Enormous Top Hat Trend Of The '90s Was Incredibly Bad

    It's time to own up to the fact that we all wore Dr. Seuss hats at some point during the '90s.

    Here's a relic from a 1996 issue of Seventeen magazine, reporting that Cat in the Hat style hats were all the rage with teens. It was the unfortunate truth.

    The goofy hat trend began showing up in raver culture in the early '90s.

    And the striped Dr. Seuss look became a staple of the New York Club Kid scene. Even the New York Times picked up on the trend in 1992.

    In the following years, you began to see hats with Mad Hatter influence come into the mainstream thanks to TV characters like Blossom and Tia &Tamera.

    Sorry, ladies. I'm sure this is now highly embarrassing for you.

    But In 1995, Clueless really made the Dr. Seuss hat a pronounced phenomenon.

    They were a favorite of Dionne's.

    And remember the party scene? Amber's date is totally rocking a Cat in the Hat hat.

    Throughout the '90s, Mad Hatter/Seuss-esque headgear was also showing up in hip-hop culture. (The style was integral to this 1994 mockumentary.)

    TLC: Also into ginormous hats as seen in the "What About Your Friends" video.

    Busta Rhymes was another fan of whimsical hats. He wore a few in his music video for Woo Hah!! in 1996.

    1997: Jamiroquai also becomes known as a hat guy thanks to his preference for Seuss-like chapeaux.

    While reproductions of straightforward Cat in the Hat hats can be found in abundance through costume retailers, ancient relics of the '90s era are rare. However they can still occasionally be found on Etsy.