A hat has some of the drawbacks of a purse.  Once you get somewhere you have to keep your eye on it or keep it with you, kind of a pain.

I have no objection to the way they look, but functionally they don't appeal to me, they mess up your hair and they're a global warming paradox, too hot, yet good shade.....

I don't even like to wear sunglasses unless it's really bright.

Quoted: Quoted: Fedoras have already been back with the emos. Get them to stop wearing them, first. It isn't as bad as the brokeback mountain crowd.  Making all cowboys look like faggots. A man with a Fedora in a nice suit will be differentiated from kiddie trash.

+1

I like them too. Not really sure I have anything I could wear with one though...

S.O.

this seemed appropriate

Don't have any fedora's but I do where a derby hat like this every now and then but my feathers are better looking than the one pictured.

Quoted: Quoted: As promised, my IJ lookalike hat.  Take an OK looking unused $10 wool hat, add a new ribbon, steam/shape for 30 minutes and you get a very convincing Indiana Jones lookalike and a classic looking hat.  Far from perfect but good enough to wear to Indiana Jone IV when it comes out next year. before: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1055.jpg after: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1087.jpg i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1090.jpg Sweet! I think I am going to order a new fedora today.

Nice, do you know what model/brand?

Quoted: Don't have any fedora's but I do where a derby hat like this every now and then but my feathers are better looking than the one pictured. www.millerhats.com/productimages/150.jpg

Ah, a derby!  It's rare to see people wear those now days.  You sir are a stud.

Quoted: Quoted: I wouldnt mind having a dark brown Indiana Jones style Fedora to wear with my A2 leather jacket and khaki trousers www.hats-plus.com/images/indianjones.jpg I have a couple hats including this Indy Style fedora that I am wearing in the pic. It is an Akubra Federation Deluxe. The standard Akubra Federation is also an Indy Style fedora, but the felt used in the Deluxe is a bit nicer. www.randysimon.com/WSOP.bmp An Indy fedora is a tough look to pull off (I don't think I do it very well). In general, a fedora with a shorter crown and narrower brim will look better on most guys.

What a mistake.. You could get photoshopped..

Quoted: Quoted: Don't have any fedora's but I do where a derby hat like this every now and then but my feathers are better looking than the one pictured. www.millerhats.com/productimages/150.jpg Ah, a derby!  It's rare to see people wear those now days.  You sir are a stud.

 I don't wear it all the time and wish I could find a pic of me wearing it.  Most of the time I wore it back in my band days when we would do shows and shit.  Wife beater w/ some black pants and some chuck taylor's

Quoted: As promised, my IJ lookalike hat.  Take an OK looking unused $10 wool hat, add a new ribbon, steam/shape for 30 minutes and you get a very convincing Indiana Jones lookalike and a classic looking hat.  Far from perfect but good enough to wear to Indiana Jone IV when it comes out next year. before: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1055.jpg after: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1087.jpg i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1090.jpg

Bad idea to post pics of yourself.. Another for Photoshop..

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: As promised, my IJ lookalike hat.  Take an OK looking unused $10 wool hat, add a new ribbon, steam/shape for 30 minutes and you get a very convincing Indiana Jones lookalike and a classic looking hat.  Far from perfect but good enough to wear to Indiana Jone IV when it comes out next year. before: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1055.jpg after: i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1087.jpg i23.photobucket.com/albums/b367/thunderw21/DSCF1090.jpg Sweet! I think I am going to order a new fedora today. Nice, do you know what model/brand?

I am thinking either this one:

Akubra Fedora


or this one:

Akubra Casual


If you have some ideas, please share them.

Quoted: Fedora?......pff the brims to small. backyardoutfitter.com/EliteInAction/EIA_galleryImages/EIA_gallery12-1.jpg

What knives do have there, both around your neck and on your belt?

I've thought about one, but then again I want to bring back the Tri Corner Hat.

for some real retro fun, try wearing a tricorn

one of the things i like about hats is that when you are wearing them, you don't see them,
when you are wearing a tricorn about, you get some strange looks


I have a really nice stetson fedora 3x
and a really cool 50's porkpie

When i was in Australia last summer, I bought a nice leather bush hat with the side snaps.
In a good stiff rain, the snaps do keep the hat from sailing off.

Quoted: If you have some ideas, please share them.

I don't know what style you like but it appears to be black/dark hats with medium to large brims.

How about an "Open Road" style hat with wide brim, tall crown and thin ribbon like below?  I don't know of any modern equivalents but I'm sure you could find some easy enough.



Or if you want a better more expensive hat you could try this fellow:
http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/
He's a master hatter and a friendly guy with a good selection.

Frank always looked good wearing one....

S.O.

I'd wear one if I didn't have a gigantic head...

I wore my dad's "out of style" ones all through college. My grandma saw a pic of me in the paper and swore it was a pic of my grandpa.

now theres a hat:

www.dadshats.com/badpasttefe.html

Quoted: now theres a hat: us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/dadshats_1957_13331541 www.dadshats.com/badpasttefe.html

Dang, I can't hear you over that hat!  
Not really my style be each to his own.  I'm sure that if it's being marketed in this capitalist economy of ours that means there's a demand for it, somewhere.

It would be really cool if fedoras made a comeback.  

Quoted: It would be really cool if fedoras made a comeback.

I am holding out hope that zoot suits will be back next year.  

Quoted: It would be really cool if fedoras made a comeback.

Y'all can help bring them back.  All you have to do is decide you want to at least try to a fedora.  Do some research, find a style you like and for your first hat find a cheap, generic fedora.  Try wearing it around, see how you like it and enjoy.

Every face can wear a fedora, it just depends upon what hat is worn and how.  Today "stingy" brimmed fedoras (hats with brims under 2") are the style for the younger generation and are the easiest for most men to wear.  However, some like myself actually like the wider brims (2-3" wide) because it is a more classic style and provides greater sun protection.

Whatever hat you may choose, be sure you do a lot of looking.  There are countless choices when buying a fedora.  And while fedoras look best with suits and dressy clothing they can pretty much be worn with anything (a photograph of my grandfather shortly after WW2 can attest to this point: he is seen wearing double-buckle boots, HBT fatigue pants, a work shirt and fedora while shooting a .22 rifle).  Don't be afraid to experiment with fedoras, I can say from experience that women love a man in a real hat.


Hat basics:
*Wool hats are usually of lesser quality and therefore less expensive than fur felt hats, making them perfect for beginners
*Know your hat size.  Here is a website explaining how to measure for hat size:
http://www.thehatsite.com/measuring.html
*There are different hats for different times/occasions.  Homburgs and derbys are rarely seen today and are more dressy than fedoras.  Also, some hats like straw panama hats are meant for summer while others like heavy wool and fur felt hats are usually worn in the winter.
*Cheap fedoras can often be found in men's clothing stores.  Go ahead and look around, try them on.  Antique shops are also good places to find hats, often old ones.  Stingy brimmed hats from the 1960s/1970s are everywhere in antique shops.


Here's a website explaining hat etiquette:
http://www.bcvc.net/hats/
Again, ladies love it when you tip your hat to them.  


The following are old superstitions meant to keep bad habits from beginning:
* A hat left on a bed is bad luck. You should expect a quarrel in the household before the day is over.
* Leaving a hat on a table is bad luck.
* Wearing a hat indoors will give you a headache.
* Putting a hat on backwards will bring bad luck, unless you go out right away and buy a new hat to reverse the luck.
* A bridegroom who forgets his hat for the wedding will turn into an unreliable husband.
* A lady putting on a gentleman's hat is waiting to be kissed.  (my personal favorite, works like a charm  )
* Women wearing hats in a church will be visited by ill-fortune.
* Wearing a hat that is too tight will cause hair loss.



Here are a few places to look for a first, inexpensive hat:
http://www.hats-plus.com/default.aspx
http://www.thefedorastore.com/
http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com/
http://www.getahaton.com/index.php

For more expensive custom-made hats try Art:
http://www.seltzerstudio.com/vs_site/index.htm

For help with fedoras try these two forums:
http://www.fedoralounge.com
http://www.indygear.com

http://www.hatsinthebelfry.com

Great name for a hat store. I have to check that one out just for the name.

I have 1 Tam that gets worn infrequently, use to wear it daily but it's wool and it's hot.
I have a newest hat my mom got me from Australia that is pretty cool, full brim, westernish.

The biggest thing I think that contributed to the decline of hats was the shift towards casual jeans and tshirts all the time.

I never wore a pair of slacks until I went to work at 19 vs every picture I see of my grandfather from the 30s, 40s, 50s and even 60s he is wearing slacks.

Never would wear a fedora, however I wear a Scally cap almost every day I'm not at work.

I loved this fedora I got to wear so long ago...



The producer got to keep it, i got the jacket and tie. I'd rather have the fedora!


efxguy

Four pages and I just noticed this one.  I'm going back to read from the beginning.

Thought: There was once a time when a man was not fully dressed for a public appearance until he put his hat on.

Quoted: Quoted: It would be really cool if fedoras made a comeback.   I am holding out hope that zoot suits will be back next year.   www.suavecito.com/customers/sal_lopez_zoot_suit.jpg

Only if I can get the shoes with the goldfish in them.

Quoted: I loved this fedora I got to wear so long ago... i28.photobucket.com/albums/c209/spclefx/Alphonse0002.jpg The producer got to keep it, i got the jacket and tie. I'd rather have the fedora! efxguy

I just picked up a hat similar to that one, pretty badly stained though.  



Well, to keep this thread going I'll post more helpful information, this time about bashes and creases.
Bashes and creases add shape to fedoras, otherwise they'd just be round (open) on top.


Photos courtesy fedoralounge.com.
Open crown:


Center crease:


Center crease with front pinch creases:


Center crease with side creases


Diamond crease (can't see it well, but it is in the shape of a kite):


Teardrop crease:


Porkpie:



I prefer the diamond and teardrop creases to the center crease because the center crease doesn't seem to hold well with my tall head unless the crown is rather tall (4" or taller).  Some hats can be quickly shaped with different bashes and creases, others will only hold a shape if they are steamed into shape (can easily be done with a teapot).  

Within the last two days I picked up two vintage hats, one for free.    I'll post pictures of them later.
Cheers

Quoted: There's many reasons that fedoras went out of style.  Some people blame President Kennedy for it since he rarely wore them, but hat sales were on the decrease since the 1920s.  Honestly, I can't give a definitive answer.

My reason has always been the same forces of cars, highways, and suburbs.  

A businessman who lives in the city, uses public or mass transit, and walks several blocks to and from bus or train stops needs a hat of some kind in the winter.

A businessman who runs out his door to his car, drives 5-100 miles to work and then runs inside the building doesn't.  Not to mention he doesn't wear a hat inside his house, his car, or his work.  

I really hope the skin-cancer scares finally convince more people to wear fullbrim hats.  I don't plan on seeing any coaches dressed like this though

matt drudge (the guy who does The Drudge Report site), always seems to wear one:

Quoted: matt drudge (the guy who does The Drudge Report site), always seems to wear one: www.939theeagle.com/assets/images-photoGallery/Matt_Drudge.jpg www.washblade.com/2003/7-25/news/national/Drudge-Matt.jpg blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/drudge_nr.jpg

I never knew that.  Nice.  



If only this were today:

Has anyone bought any 'new' fedoras?  Any guys get their first fedora yet?  I want to see them.

Here are a couple of new ones for me.

A peach-colored Portis:



A fedora I converted from a no longer used cowboy hat.  Dimensions are huge, 6 1/2" open crown (!) and 2 3/4" brim.  I cut the brim down from 4" and added the brown ribbon and bow.  Behold:



A not so common vintage wool hat that was favored by college students back in the day:

Also, for you guys who don't think you look good in a fedora, here is a website that tells you how to wear a hat so it does look good.

Anyone with a face can look good in a fedora.
www.millerhats.com/hatcare_index/hatfaces.html

I thought some of you might be interested in this.

I've started a new blog called "The Houndstooth Kid".  It will focus mainly on men's vintage style, everything from suits and hats to ties, shoes and beyond.  The first 'real' post barely touches upon the importance of the fedora in society past and present and shows off a few of my own fedoras.

http://mrlapel.blogspot.com/

Hope you find it interesting.
Billy

I've had a Dorfman wool crusher fedora from REI for a few years.  (Mine is brown, not the olive shown in the link.)  Seems to hold up OK to light rain and some snow, and looks snazzy.

I wear an Indiana Jones fedora in the winter all the time.  It has proven to be a sturdy and very functional hat.  Sort of the '40s PI look...topcoat and fedora.  



So as not to look like a total dork, I removed the small metal moniker on the side.

I do like that hat.

Quoted: Quoted: It would be really cool if fedoras made a comeback.   I am holding out hope that zoot suits will be back next year.

www.suavecito.com/customers/sal_lopez_zoot_suit.jpg


ESSSAY!  That is one reat pleat dude!

Quoted: I wear an Indiana Jones fedora in the winter all the time.  It has proven to be a sturdy and very functional hat.  Sort of the '40s PI look...topcoat and fedora.   img.photobucket.com/albums/v496/LWilde/indiana-jones-fur-felt-fedora-554.jpg So as not to look like a total dork, I removed the small metal moniker on the side. I do like that hat.

Enjoy the hat, it looks nice.  Yeah, I usually remove the pin if a hat comes with it, especially an IJ one.  

This is a bit off topic, not dealing with hats at all but rather suits.  I watched the Republican debate last night and was appalled to see many a candidate wearing ill-fitting suits.  Ron Paul and McCain (especially McCain) both stand out in my mind as poorly fitted with overly long sleeves, sleeves that are baggy, shoulders that are too wide, wrinkles in funny places and a generally baggy fit.  Romney wasn't bad but all of the others had the usual American 'bag' fit that just hangs off the body.  Their trousers bunched at the feet and drug on the floor.  They looked more like little kids in oversized suits than they did candidates.  It's probably not very important to a lot of people but it is to me.




 
If you want to be POTUS you have to dress like it!

Edit: more pics

Today the NYT had an article about hats in New York City .  Not a bad article.  It shows how hard it can be to get use to a full-brimmed hat as well as the looks and comments (good and bad) that you will get if you wear a fedora or the like.

--------------------------------

From Harlem to Midtown for That Item to Top Off a Look
By HARRY HURT III
Published: September 22, 2007


I TAXIED up to Harlem in executive pursuit of a stylish lid with my buddy Michael Holman. The morning was cool because a rain front had blown through the night before. Litter swirled around like fall leaves on the wide concrete sidewalks. Holman, balding and bareheaded, was styling Malcolm X glasses, a green leather jacket and a two-day growth of beard.

“It all starts at the top,” he said, staring out the window and grinning.

The cab dropped us off at 146th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, a k a Seventh Avenue, next to a narrow storefront called Harlem’s Heaven. Holman groaned. The wares in the window were ornate, what he called “Sunday-go-to-meeting hats for ladies.” I knocked anyway, and a saleswoman named Danielle, with dreadlocks and a flashing smile, let us in.

“We do have some men’s hats,” Danielle said. “They’re in the back.”

That seemingly innocent remark set the tone for the rest of our quest. Before World War II, hats were an essential part of a man’s wardrobe. Look at photographs of Wall Street crowds in the 1920s and 1930s and you’ll see virtually every male wearing some type of hat, even if he was about to lose his shirt. In recent decades, however, men’s hats, other than baseball caps, have been all but forgotten in fashion.

From August 2006 to July 2007, sales of men’s headwear in the United States were slightly over $1.1 billion, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. But more than 75 percent of those sales were caps as opposed to fedoras, homburgs and the like. By comparison, sales of women’s headwear, slightly over $1.2 billion, were split roughly 47 percent to 53 percent between caps and hats.

There are almost as many theories about the demise of men’s hats as there are full sizes and quarter sizes. Some hatters say that veterans of World War II and the Korean conflict were weary of military uniformity and shunned hats when they returned to civilian life. Some blame President John F. Kennedy, who wore a top hat to his inauguration but delivered his Inaugural Address bareheaded. Others cite automobiles, whose roofs made hats uncomfortable and unnecessary. My buddy Holman pinned it on the anti-establishment sentiment of the 1960s.

“Men’s hats symbolized the conformity of the 1950s, and the nonconformism of the 60s was a reaction against all that,” he observed as we browsed the back room at Harlem’s Heaven. “You also had men growing their hair long, and hats didn’t fit well with that. When you took off your hat, you got this rumpled ring around your head called ‘hat hair.’ ”

At 48, Holman exudes the kind of hipness I couldn’t affect in my wildest dreams. A filmmaker who teaches at Howard University in Washington, he is also a writer, a musician and a sartorial trendsetter. In 1979, he formed a rock band called Gray with the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat; later, he was a co-author of a screenplay about Basquiate, filmed by Miramax. When performing on stage, Holman and his bandmates wore gray sharkskin suits and porkpie hats.

Despite statistical evidence to the contrary, Holman insists that men’s hats are coming back in style. I trusted his cultural judgment on its own merits and because we share an ancestral connection to Texas. His great-great-great-grandfather, William Holman, fought in the Texas war for independence from Mexico in 1836. A street in Houston, my hometown, is named for William Holman. “You and I are brothers from another mother,” Michael Holman joked.

Not surprisingly, the selection of men’s hats at Harlem’s Heaven was pretty slim. I tried on a wide-brimmed black homburg called the Godfather after the hat Al Pacino wore in the movie. Danielle said it made my face look fat. Holman recommended a blue fedora with a narrower brim. I liked it, too, but it was a Habig, imported from Vienna, and it cost $199, which was quite a bit more than I had planned to spend.

Holman insisted that we check out a store called Porta Bella on 125th Street a few doors down from the Apollo Theater. Its walls were decked with yellow, red and powder-blue zoot suits priced as low as $119. The equally colorful if rather meager stock of men’s hats was stashed in plastic bags in the back of the store. At Holman’s urging, I tried on a $10 pink fedora.

“Oh, man, that’s dope!” he exclaimed.

“Is that good?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Holman replied. “You’ve got to have that hat.”

Immediately upon striding back out onto 125th Street, I began to have second thoughts about the pink homburg. A tall, muscular fellow with a New York Yankees cap looked back over his shoulder at me and shook his head and chortled like I was some kind of circus clown. A woman in ragged clothes begged me to give her a dollar.

“This hat may be dope, but I feel like one,” I told Holman as we hailed another cab.

We taxied down to Worth & Worth at 45 West 57th Street. The firm, established in 1922, has provided hats for clients like William S. Burroughs and David Bowie. We were greeted in the sixth-floor showroom by the resident designer Orlando Palacios, 43, who was wearing a sleeveless shirt and a Stetson festooned with a black stenciled badge that read “Sex Pistols.” Like Holman, Orlando said that men’s hats were making a comeback.

“People want to step away from that cookie-cutter image,” he said. “A hat will change your whole look. It says you’re daring. It pulls people in.”

In addition to Stetsons, Worth & Worth features classic fedoras and homburgs with names like Fellini and Venezia. Orlando also makes custom hats, starting at $450. Holman fancied a vintage-style Donegal tweed cap known as an Applejack or a newsboy, priced at $65. I bought it for him in thanks for his shopping assistance, complimenting him with one of the few hipster terms in my vocabulary.

“You look fly,” I said.

Orlando suggested that I try on a butterscotch Prima Vera fedora made of rabbit and beaver fur. I appreciated the quality of the hand stitching but balked at the $375 price. “That hat’s just got way too much drama,” Holman whispered when Orlando was out of earshot. “And the brim is too wide for your face.”

A few minutes later, Holman and I arrived at Arnold Hatters at 535 Eighth Avenue. The proprietor, Arnold Rubin, 72, welcomed me with a knowing wink. The last time I had visited his store, I was about to have surgery to correct a hammertoe. With Arnold’s guidance, I picked out a chestnut cane to use after the operation as I recovered. This time, I donned my new pink homburg just to see how he would react.

“Looks like you’re walking pretty good,” Arnold said. “We can do better hat-wise.”

Arnold Hatters boasts an inventory of over 160 styles, some of them in as many as 24 colors. Among its celebrity customers are the actor Jimmy Smits, the rapper Ice T and the singer Janet Jackson, who bought a hat the previous Saturday. Arnold fitted me with a $120 navy blue felt fedora with a relatively narrow 2-inch brim, by Bailey of Hollywood.

I reached into the pocket of my blazer and pulled out a 3 1/2-inch steel pin tipped with a pearly white bulb. Arnold helped me stick it into the grosgrain band of the fedora. He asked where on earth I had found such an elegant hatpin. I told him the surgeon had inserted it into my foot to repair the hammertoe. Holman whistled softly.

“Now that is really dope,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/business/22pursuits.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I still wear Straw Fedoras with a nice Havana shirt

Quoted: I still wear Straw Fedoras with a nice Havana shirt

Ah, the good ol' Panama/straw hat.  I love wearing mine on a hot summer day.  It's about time to put away the panama and bust out the felt hats, the cooler weather creeping up on us.

One issue I have about the article I posted and fashion in general.  The prices are outrageous.  $65 for a 'brand name' "newsboy" cap?  I find perfectly good newsboy caps at thrift shops for $5.  $300+ for new fedoras that are of poor quality compared to vintage hats you can get for $20?  No thanks.  I can find perfectly good quality fedoras for under $200.  Akubra sells excellent new but classic hats, including an Indiana Jones replica, out of beaver felt.  No cheap wool felt there.

Edit: a pink homburg?    Ouch.  Someone got screwed out of $10.  

Quoted: Check out the Indy Jones forums.  Those guys are the ARFCOM of Fedoras... www.indygear.com/cow

I went to college with an archeology student that wore leather jackets, a fedora and INSISTED upon being called Indy.

Quoted: Quoted: I still wear Straw Fedoras with a nice Havana shirt Ah, the good ol' Panama/straw hat.  I love wearing mine on a hot summer day.  It's about time to put away the panama and bust out the felt hats, the cooler weather creeping up on us. One issue I have about the article I posted and fashion in general.  The prices are outrageous.  $65 for a 'brand name' "newsboy" cap?  I find perfectly good newsboy caps at thrift shops for $5.  $300+ for new fedoras that are of poor quality compared to vintage hats you can get for $20?  No thanks.  I can find perfectly good quality fedoras for under $200.  Akubra sells excellent new but classic hats, including an Indiana Jones replica, out of beaver felt.  No cheap wool felt there. Edit: a pink homburg?    Ouch.  Someone got screwed out of $10.

Yeah, I only use straw fedoras, pretty much hot all the time, its got the casual look.