A Salute to the Cadet Hat's Sublime Revival
Attention! Cadet hats are back and looking better than ever before.
The military-style hats have been worn by actual soldiers in training. It was also a hot-ticket item of the early 2000s, co-signed by Y2K icons like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Disney's own "Cadet Kelly" a.k.a. Hilary Duff.
And for people like Eminem, the cadet hat never went away after the aughts. It became apart of their signature look.
Today, we're seeing an increased interest in vintage army hats. But also, fashion labels are dropping their own top-tier interpretations of the piece. It's essentially the revived cadet cap at its finest hour.
A quick search on Instagram may bring you to secondhand Y-3 cadet hats as well as repurposed versions made from Japanese selvedge denim or even old army gear. Los Angeles-based vintage brand Two Fold has garnered significant attention on the fashion side of TikTok for its sun-faded cadet hats.
Designers are also creating their own, using the army-inspired silhouette as a canvas for their creative expression. Emerging brand RE9AL recently dropped its long-awaited cadet hats, and even claimed the season to be a "cadet cap summer."
Made in Jersey, the brand's caps arrive in slick leather and cotton options, each topped with the brand's logo in a different material for some pleasing textural contrast.
Stüssy fully leans into the worn-in army aesthetic. The streetwear brand's efforts featured desert camo designs and faded cotton materials for the Spring/Summer 2025 season.
And like any good Stüssy piece, the hats have since sold out.
Fashion has long looked to the armed forces for inspiration for designing functional yet wearable pieces. Camouflage prints are even having another moment in fashion again, although the pattern will never truly go out of style and will forever live on in both spaces.
The cadet hat comes back in perfect timing alongside the camo renaissance. It's a swaggy return that deserves several salutes.
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