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Though I'm brand new here at the lounge, I have been wearing hats, caps, and all kinds of headgear since I was a little kid. So, in my 49 years in combination with, God rest their souls, my dad and grandad's hat knowledge, I 've learned a good bit about the subject at hand. But I'm here as much to learn from you as I am to share what I already know.
So, for my first post, I thought I'd do a review of the Akubra Sydney. If you're looking for a moderately dressy fedora, I highly recommend it. I got one as my Christmas gift to myself and could not be more pleased.
Otherwise similar to the Akubra Imperial Quality (like the Snowy River, Bushman, Squatter, Angler, Coober Pedy), the felt is made from a special selection of finer fur unique to this fedora that makes for an especially soft, lighter weight hat and is extremely comfortable from the first time you put it on. It's fully lined, with a 1-inch grosgrain band, a reeded roan leather sweatband, and comes in charcoal (black) and regency fawn (close to brown).
A true fedora, the Sydney has a 5 1/2-inch open crown, and a 2 1/2-inch brim which snaps smartly down in front, curled up in back. Everyone has their own bash preference, but I put a basic center crease in the crown, only angled it slightly down towards the front, then made intermediate-size side dents below so that there's a relatively narrow but nothing close to a creased mast down the front middle.
It's always difficult to assess what a hat will look like on until you try it and bash according to your preferences and the possibilities inherent in the hat itself, but, for me, many fedoras--particularly the "Indiana Jones" type--have a crown that is much too high and voluminous, giving me, as Dad use to say, a "Heighty MacDeighty" appearance, awkwardy topheavy on my small (7 1/8) head atop a slender, 6'2" frame. Don't be misled by the 5 1/2-inch, when punched open, crown, for after bashed, it's relatively low.
The way I stabilize the bash/dents is to simply wear the hat in a light rain, reshape if needed, then hang it on a broad, blunt, angled-up wooden hangar in the bathroom--where it will dry slowly--careful to let nothing but the blunt end of the hanger touch only the back of the headband so that the hat dangles free and the brim does not touch the wall. The weather cooperated perfectly when I braved the crowds to venture out for exchanges the day after Christmas. Since there was no one else home to use the toilet, you could say the bathroom cooperated, too. Wet felt, you know, takes up surrounding odors, and that's a bunch of crap.
However, the felt in the Sydney is so soft that it does not hold the bash/dents like most other modern fedoras. That is just fine with me, for my dad's and grandad's traditional fedoras from the good ol' days are similarly very pliable. Like them, however, the brim of the Sydney remains quite rigid and snappy, even after I got caught in a driving rain storm on a long walk a couple days later.
It would be easy to chalk up my evaluation as being in that still-in-the-golly-gee-whizz-I-got-me-a-new-hat phase, but I can honestly say that, of all the many hats I have and have had, it is already one of my all-time favorites.
I am a very selective purchaser and closely looked for several months at fedoras in the same general price range as this Akubra--most Stetsons, Dobbs, the "Dressed-up Indy"--to name a few, and there is absolutley no comparison at this price point of $100 - $175 . Stepping up the price rung to the $175 - $250 step, I found a top-of-its-line Biltmore Rosellini Luauro and the Chrysty's Trilby to approach, but not equal, the quality of the Akubra Sydney.
Climbing into nosebleed prices, I even cross-shopped Milanos and Borsalinos, and found only their best, most expensive fedoras--$300 and up, way up--to be truly fine hats. Even then, after I closely inspected several of the same model, I would find an occasional small defect. Quality? Sure, if you get a good one, which is a crap shoot if you buy catalogue or online.
I've yet to find an Akubra with even the tiniest defect, and they fit my head true to size, though they run large on some people, so watch out for return policies and the cost of shipping it back. I got my Sydney from David Morgan for $116 plus $7.00 UPS ground shipping. No matter how much or little you buy in one shipment from them, it's always $7.00 S & H. I really like that because the "handling" portion for so many vendors is just another form of markup. Their customer service is outstanding, as well.
I got the gray, six pleet puggaree, just $5.00, shown on the Sydney on DM's website, but when I wrapped it around the ribbon for a trial look-see, it dressed the hat down a couple notches, so, so far, I have not affixed it, but I'd like to put it on to make it more versatile for the occasional casual look, yet still remove it for the dressier look with the black 1-inch grosgrain ribbon intact. Does anyone know how to put the puggaree hooks through the felt somehow underneath the ribbon so that it need not be punctured and the hook holes are hidden when the pug is removed?
I got a five-pack of feathers from DM, too, only $4.00. You don't have a choice of style or color, but there was one in the mix with a combination of cobalt blue, crimson, and jet black that is an ideal contrast against a charcoal Sydney.
Akubra has always been known as a rugged, outdoors kind of hat, with the Bushman and Squatter, maybe the Lightning Ridge and Banjo Patterson acceptable as town hats. But the Sydney is a true city fedora, with a style ranging from, on the dressy side, en route to a board meeting in your midnight blue suit with white point collar French cuff shirt, burgundy foulard tie, and captoe shoes, to, on the less dressy end, a classy pub, cigar in one hand, cognac in the other, wearing your Harris tweed jacket, black turtleneck sweater, gray flannel trousers, and cordovan loafers.
Don't forget to slip the Browning Hi-Power in the small of your back; you never know what a jealous fool might try when you walk out with the most beautiful gal in there.
Glad to take a seat in the Fedora Lounge. Think I'm going to like this place.
So, for my first post, I thought I'd do a review of the Akubra Sydney. If you're looking for a moderately dressy fedora, I highly recommend it. I got one as my Christmas gift to myself and could not be more pleased.
Otherwise similar to the Akubra Imperial Quality (like the Snowy River, Bushman, Squatter, Angler, Coober Pedy), the felt is made from a special selection of finer fur unique to this fedora that makes for an especially soft, lighter weight hat and is extremely comfortable from the first time you put it on. It's fully lined, with a 1-inch grosgrain band, a reeded roan leather sweatband, and comes in charcoal (black) and regency fawn (close to brown).
A true fedora, the Sydney has a 5 1/2-inch open crown, and a 2 1/2-inch brim which snaps smartly down in front, curled up in back. Everyone has their own bash preference, but I put a basic center crease in the crown, only angled it slightly down towards the front, then made intermediate-size side dents below so that there's a relatively narrow but nothing close to a creased mast down the front middle.
It's always difficult to assess what a hat will look like on until you try it and bash according to your preferences and the possibilities inherent in the hat itself, but, for me, many fedoras--particularly the "Indiana Jones" type--have a crown that is much too high and voluminous, giving me, as Dad use to say, a "Heighty MacDeighty" appearance, awkwardy topheavy on my small (7 1/8) head atop a slender, 6'2" frame. Don't be misled by the 5 1/2-inch, when punched open, crown, for after bashed, it's relatively low.
The way I stabilize the bash/dents is to simply wear the hat in a light rain, reshape if needed, then hang it on a broad, blunt, angled-up wooden hangar in the bathroom--where it will dry slowly--careful to let nothing but the blunt end of the hanger touch only the back of the headband so that the hat dangles free and the brim does not touch the wall. The weather cooperated perfectly when I braved the crowds to venture out for exchanges the day after Christmas. Since there was no one else home to use the toilet, you could say the bathroom cooperated, too. Wet felt, you know, takes up surrounding odors, and that's a bunch of crap.
However, the felt in the Sydney is so soft that it does not hold the bash/dents like most other modern fedoras. That is just fine with me, for my dad's and grandad's traditional fedoras from the good ol' days are similarly very pliable. Like them, however, the brim of the Sydney remains quite rigid and snappy, even after I got caught in a driving rain storm on a long walk a couple days later.
It would be easy to chalk up my evaluation as being in that still-in-the-golly-gee-whizz-I-got-me-a-new-hat phase, but I can honestly say that, of all the many hats I have and have had, it is already one of my all-time favorites.
I am a very selective purchaser and closely looked for several months at fedoras in the same general price range as this Akubra--most Stetsons, Dobbs, the "Dressed-up Indy"--to name a few, and there is absolutley no comparison at this price point of $100 - $175 . Stepping up the price rung to the $175 - $250 step, I found a top-of-its-line Biltmore Rosellini Luauro and the Chrysty's Trilby to approach, but not equal, the quality of the Akubra Sydney.
Climbing into nosebleed prices, I even cross-shopped Milanos and Borsalinos, and found only their best, most expensive fedoras--$300 and up, way up--to be truly fine hats. Even then, after I closely inspected several of the same model, I would find an occasional small defect. Quality? Sure, if you get a good one, which is a crap shoot if you buy catalogue or online.
I've yet to find an Akubra with even the tiniest defect, and they fit my head true to size, though they run large on some people, so watch out for return policies and the cost of shipping it back. I got my Sydney from David Morgan for $116 plus $7.00 UPS ground shipping. No matter how much or little you buy in one shipment from them, it's always $7.00 S & H. I really like that because the "handling" portion for so many vendors is just another form of markup. Their customer service is outstanding, as well.
I got the gray, six pleet puggaree, just $5.00, shown on the Sydney on DM's website, but when I wrapped it around the ribbon for a trial look-see, it dressed the hat down a couple notches, so, so far, I have not affixed it, but I'd like to put it on to make it more versatile for the occasional casual look, yet still remove it for the dressier look with the black 1-inch grosgrain ribbon intact. Does anyone know how to put the puggaree hooks through the felt somehow underneath the ribbon so that it need not be punctured and the hook holes are hidden when the pug is removed?
I got a five-pack of feathers from DM, too, only $4.00. You don't have a choice of style or color, but there was one in the mix with a combination of cobalt blue, crimson, and jet black that is an ideal contrast against a charcoal Sydney.
Akubra has always been known as a rugged, outdoors kind of hat, with the Bushman and Squatter, maybe the Lightning Ridge and Banjo Patterson acceptable as town hats. But the Sydney is a true city fedora, with a style ranging from, on the dressy side, en route to a board meeting in your midnight blue suit with white point collar French cuff shirt, burgundy foulard tie, and captoe shoes, to, on the less dressy end, a classy pub, cigar in one hand, cognac in the other, wearing your Harris tweed jacket, black turtleneck sweater, gray flannel trousers, and cordovan loafers.
Don't forget to slip the Browning Hi-Power in the small of your back; you never know what a jealous fool might try when you walk out with the most beautiful gal in there.
Glad to take a seat in the Fedora Lounge. Think I'm going to like this place.
