BTS Inspired Me to Buy a Bucket Hat

Like dreams and lime after tequila, fashion trends are meant to be chased. I’m a huge trend chaser and have been especially enamored with the nostalgia-soaked, Y2K flashbacks that have been exploding on the sartorial landscape. But bucket hats . . . I was skeptical. They were a 2000s flashback trend I wasn’t looking forward to doing again. I’m ready for inflatable furniture, mesh shirts in trippy rave patterns, nylon micro-shoulder bags, and colorful oval sunglasses, but something about bucket hats just wasn’t clicking for me.

Maybe because I remember bucket hats as being pointedly not sexy. In my recent memory, they were just for floppy things dads wear fishing and babies wear to keep the sun at bay.

And then, like most other things in my life, I was influenced by k-pop.

I started noticing how often BTS wears bucket hats. And how cute they looked wearing them.

Namjoon wearing a bucket hat while practicing ‘Mic Drop’ choreo was insta-crush material. j-hope’s habit of wearing ultra-bright bucket hats conjured up images of cool ’80s Kangol icons like LL Cool J and Run-DMC. The level of swag that SUGA had when he wore his favorite black canvas version was a sweet, stylish reminder that bucket hats aren’t the floppy and sexless things I remembered them to be.

I was also reminded how versatile they were. I spotted Bangtan wearing casual cotton bucket hats, designer-monogram-laden ultra-luxe bucket hats, bright and textured statement pieces. For an esoteric accessory, bucket hats come in a rainbow of styles.

I’ve swung so far in the other direction now that I realize it’s sort of a tragedy we all collectively stopped wearing bucket hats in the first place. Bucket hats are a fashion hack — a stealthily practical accessory masquerading as a trendy fashion move. Not only do they keep wind and rain at bay, they’re a far more packable option for beach vacations than giant straw hats.

Also, bucket hats are the super duper easy way to make every outfit instantly better (while simultaneously hiding bad hair days). The jumpsuit I was sick of wearing was instantly interesting again when topped with a bucket hat. The slip dress that felt too sexy for daytime was transformed into a cute streetwear fit with a bucket hat and Air Force 1s. The boring t-shirt-and-jeans standard was suddenly cool with the addition of a bucket hat.

Have I convinced you yet? If you’re still skeptical about adding a bucket hat to your closet, allow BTS to persuade you like they persuaded me. Read on for some of my favorite BTS bucket hat moments, member by member, and shop their *chef’s kiss* looks.