Moms always say not to go out into the cold without your hat on, but that’s not what’s keeping Classic Hats for Men in business.

Jon White and his wife, Judy McClure, have operated the hat store out of the front parlor of their restored Sherman Hill home for about 11 years. The couple thought it would be a fun business to go into, and one they could operate just one day a week on Saturdays, when they’re not tied up with their weekday jobs.

“I’ve always had a fondness for hats,” White said. “I just found out at an early age that I was more comfortable wearing a hat than not, and now I feel like I’m not fully dressed unless I have a hat on.”

White, a home inspector, said a wide range of people visit his store to look through its inventory of nearly 500 hats. Some recognize the practical aspects of wearing a hat to provide protection from the elements, but a larger group of his customers fall into another category.

“There’s a certain percentage of fellas, and I probably fall into that group, who want to say a little bit more about themselves,” White said. “A hat expresses a little bit more about how you feel about yourself.”

Ed Barnes, the executive director of the Willkie House, a Des Moines community center, is a long-time Classic Hats for Men customer, and he agrees that hats say a lot about the people who wear them.

“The well-dressed man, the one who’s particular about how he looks, will wear a hat,” Barnes said. “And there’s a degree of confidence that comes with it.”

Barnes, who grew up on the East Coast, said his grandfather told him something about hats early on that still holds true, whether it’s a fedora, a derby, a straw hat or another style.

“My grandfather said that you have to wear the hat; the hat can’t wear you,” Barnes said. “You can have a very expensive hat made of the finest materials, but unless you have the personality and the attitude to go with it, it won’t do anything for you.”

Like Barnes, Chaunci Hall, a vice president of personal banking for Bankers Trust Co., also agrees that hats provide a finishing touch to one’s attire and add “a touch of class” to one’s appearance.

“I like to separate myself from the crowd, and one easy way to do that is with a nice hat,” Hall said. “A navy blue pinstripe with a tie is one thing, but if you throw on a gray hat with a feather, then you’re major league.”

During the workweek, Hall usually wears a black felt cap to work, but he has a couple of other ones that he wears for nice occasions. His “James Cagney” hat might be worn to a special event at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, and his gray feathered one, similar to one his grandfather used to wear, is reserved for Sundays.

Instead of emulating the styles worn by movie stars during Hollywood’s golden age, Nick Van Patten, a wholesaler of building materials, is known for his “Aussie-style hat,” similar to what Harrison Ford wore in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

“Everybody kind of knows me by my hat,” Van Patten said. “People will say they don’t recognize me if I’m not wearing my hat.”

Van Patten said the popularity of “Raiders,” paired with the fact that his hairline was inching back, first prompted him to try on hats. People told him that he looked nice wearing them, and he hasn’t stopped since.

“Hats always finish off a look that you have, and it doesn’t matter if you’re in dress casual or very formal attire,” Van Patten said. “A distinct hat is the first thing people see when they look at you.”

Each of these men said he gets a lot of comments about his hats, probably because people in Greater Des Moines are not accustomed to seeing many people wear them.

“In some ways, it’s a lost art,” Barnes said. “For some people, the tradition of wearing hats ended when President Kennedy stopped wearing them. But for me, it helps keep me in touch with my past and the men in my family who paved the way for me. I think it’s really cool when older people at my church stop me and say, ‘It’s so nice to see a man wearing a hat again.’”