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[Steve1857]

Hey y’all

Does anyone still use a wind trolley/cord?

I’m contemplating removing it from my Sand CD since I wouldn’t be wearing it with a suit where it could go on.

Has anyone removed theirs? Is there a specific way to do so?

thanks

I never use them, nor have had the need to. On the other hand, I would never remove one. It's a delightful embellishment, and a possible talking point should anyone ask about it. Not that anyone has

 

[Mighty44]

I agree—I love a wind trolley as a charming anachronistic detail but have never ever thought about actually using one.

I never use them, nor have had the need to. On the other hand, I would never remove one. It's a delightful embellishment, and a possible talking point should anyone ask about it. Not that anyone has

 

[Blare]

I never use them, nor have had the need to. On the other hand, I would never remove one. It's a delightful embellishment, and a possible talking point should anyone ask about it. Not that anyone has

Ha.. I’m with you on that… have yet to use one. (Have had a few hats fly off my head in winds… so I can’t say I haven’t had A use for one I suppose) Though I always find it a cool detail usually pointing to an upgraded model hat. As for anyone striking up a conversation about one… as much as I would entertain that…. I don’t think it has happened to me as yet. Not even on my beautifully Knox branded buttons. LOL

 

[Zombie_61]

Hey y’all

Does anyone still use a wind trolley/cord?

I’m contemplating removing it from my Sand CD since I wouldn’t be wearing it with a suit where it could go on.

Has anyone removed theirs? Is there a specific way to do so?

thanks

The first hat I owned with a wind trolley was my Silverbelly Akubra Campdraft. Not 100% confident that it would do what it was supposed to do, I tugged on the cord with my hand. Not violently, but strong enough to replicate what it might experience if I actually used it. Sure enough, the cord popped free of the hat and I was left standing with my hat in one hand and the cord in the other, freshly separated from each other. So, no, I've never used one and probably never will.

 

[Zombie_61]

I know it's hard to tell from this lousy photo, but it seems the reed on a used Stetson that I fished out of the 'Bay has either torn through the sweatband, or has managed to slide out of it a little. I probably won't receive the hat for another week or two, but am I correct in assuming my options are a) to see if it will slide back into the sweatband, and/or b) cut it off if it won't or if the sweatband is torn?

 

[Steve1857]

I know it's hard to tell from this lousy photo, but it seems the reed on a used Stetson that I fished out of the 'Bay has either torn through the sweatband, or has managed to slide out of it a little. I probably won't receive the hat for another week or two, but am I correct in assuming my options are a) to see if it will slide back into the sweatband, and/or b) cut it off if it won't or if the sweatband is torn?

The photo is so lousy that it's non existent

 

[Frunobulax]

I know it's hard to tell from this lousy photo, but it seems the reed on a used Stetson that I fished out of the 'Bay has either torn through the sweatband, or has managed to slide out of it a little. I probably won't receive the hat for another week or two, but am I correct in assuming my options are a) to see if it will slide back into the sweatband, and/or b) cut it off if it won't or if the sweatband is torn?

That's how I'd play it.

 

[Zombie_61]

The photo is so lousy that it's non existent

Yeah, I was on another thread when I realized I'd forgotten to post the photo. Fixed it though.

 

[Granville]

I found a vintage fur felt on etsy, looks in good condition, and I also posted in 'what hat are you waiting for', but here's the question: anyone know anything about Warwick? I'd appreciate any info, where were they, when were they active, any remarks about their reputation. The leather sweatband is stamped "genuine fur felt."

Thanks.

 

[belfastboy]

You've actually hit on one of my biggest fears, i.e. that once I learn a little more about the characteristics of "quality" hats, I'll no longer be able to enjoy hats that I'm currently pretty happy with. I've already gone through that with other obsessions, such as vintage brass instruments and gourmet sneakers, and the result is always the same: spending irresponsible amounts of dough. Fortunately I'm a pretty good at spotting a deal once I know what to look for. But I'm not nearly there yet with hats. On the other hand, if anybody wants to know if that minty $3,000 1949 Martin Committee trumpet is a good buy, I'm your guy.

I have a middling collection of hats (60-70) accumulated over many years. From lower end mass produced hats to high end customs and vintage in between. I still have some low end hats picked up early in my collecting and I still really like them. I liked them then and I still do.

A cheap Flechet (even when new) that I rescued from the dumpster is one of favourites. So as you move up the food chain you may discard some of the earlier ones but maybe not. If you feel good wearing them what else matters?

 

[LuzhinsDefence]

Doesn't anyone have any tips as to how to remove the gold logo from the bow on a Borsalino fedora without risking damaging the hat?

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Doesn't anyone have any tips as to how to remove the gold logo from the bow on a Borsalino fedora without risking damaging the hat?

I’ve done it a couple of times using a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. It came off and didn’t leave any indication that it had ever been there. I hate gaudy product branding. Good luck.

 

[Zombie_61]

...I hate gaudy product branding. Good luck.

Thank you! I like Borsalino's hats, but when I see their name "branded" onto the ribbon the hat suddenly takes on the persona of a cheap tourist gift shop item and I lose interest. I understand advertising is important, but...

 

[LuzhinsDefence]

I’ve done it a couple of times using a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol. It came off and didn’t leave any indication that it had ever been there. I hate gaudy product branding. Good luck.

Many thanks! I'll have a crack.

 

[KSCOM4]

Many thanks! I'll have a crack.

A little late in responding, but I agree with the Q-Tip and Alcohol solution. I’ve done it several times and it consistently works well.

 

[Edward]

I have two questions re: identifying a hat. First, vis-a-vis simple naming conventions, were the terms trilby and fedora interchangeable in Ireland/England during the early 1920's, with perhaps trilby being the more common name? I am obsessed with Irish history and the Irish war of independence in particular, and have found then fugitive Michael Collins described by the police as 'favoring a trilby' although no photograph of him in what we today would call a trilby seems to exist. Now it could be that once he learned of the police circular he ditched the trilby much as he similarly shaved off his mustache to avoid detection. And now part two: in these photographs of The Big Fellow, is he wearing a fedora with an upturned brim, or a homburg with side dents? I offer several photos for our experts to peruse:
View attachment 399706
Homburg or Fedora?
View attachment 399713
Here, Mick (with hands clasped) appears to be wearing a fedora with the brim snapped down. Same hat?
View attachment 399714
And here, again, same hat? Upturned Fedora or Homburg with side dents? By the way, that's Harry Boland in what to me looks like a homburg, and Eamon DeValera in an apparently dented derby.
Big thank you to anyone that can help.

In the last photo, is that not Mick in the middle? Love Dev's overcoat here.... clearly a shot taken in happier times, before the horrors of 1922/23...

I think @belfastboy nails the first one as a Lord's Hat - though that said, the line between the LH and a regular fedora is narrow indeed, give it's really only the brim...

This sort of hat, alongside Hombergs, was popular in Ireland as in Britain in the late teens/early twenties. Don't forget that at this point Ireland had been under Direct Rule from London, as were all countries then in the UK, since 1801, and there had long been an influence on clothing styles before that. There was in terms of clothing little difference between styles favoured in Dublin and in London (a significant reason why Padraig Pearse had previously suggested the cultural appropriation of the Scottish kilt as an Irish form of national dress, though while it had its supporters, the idea of the kilt as Irish is something which only really took off with the diaspora in North America later on).

The American style fedora would occasionally have been seen, but those didn't really begin to hit Britain or Ireland until into the 30s, by which time the hatless trend had begun to spread in the UK and Ireland among the young and fashionable, and the long, slow drop of the brimmed hat out of the mainstream begun.

As to the Trilby / Fedora nomenclature.... It rather seems to me that distinguishing between the two is chiefly something that we 'hat people' tend to do. The names both come from the use of a soft, brimmed hat by a specific character in a play. Fedora was first used in France, while the 'trilby' name was first applied to the hat after one was worn by a character of the same name in a London stage adaptation of a du Maurier novel called Trilby, the name of the key protagonist. I lean to the view that the fact we tend to use 'Trilby' nowadays to mean a soft crowned felt hat with a smaller brim and more upturned rear as opposed to a 'Fedora' with a wider, less extremely shaped brim, is more than anything simply reflective of the slightly different variations of basically the same hat that happened to be the more popular shape in the specific territories in which the names arose.... potato, potahto, pavement, sidewalk kind of thing.

Regarding the police reports on the Big Fella, I think it's as simple as not everybody kept up with the nomenclature for fashionable hats, different folks used different terms locally, and so on. The police were working off eye-witness accounts too. Don't forget that at the height of the Tan War, Dublin Castle had one, single photo of Collins in their intelligence, which only showed his back, and had no idea what he really looked like.

 

[Edward]

Daft question, but.... half an eye on brimmed Summer hats and some cotton ones with more of a traditional fedora shape have caught my eye. An idle search to see what's out there turned this up:

– Wested Leather Co

www.westedleather.com

Is cotton felt actually a thing, or has the webmaster here confused it with wool felt?

 

[Edward]

Ah! Further study of the Wested website reveals it's a copy-mistake: scanning the photos of said hat, they're a wool felt product, according to the label.

Does beg a follow-up question, though: when did cotton-bodied brimmed hats like this one first appear?

Jaxon & James Cotton Safari Fedora Hat - British Tan

This is a great safari hat from Jaxon & James Hats. This stylish beauty has a 7cm wide brim and a 11.5cm high crown. It is a 100% cotton body, satin lined with a cotton sweatband and water resistant. Perfect for exploring the great outdoors.

www.hatsandcaps.co.uk

Seem to have been around since at least the Sixties in the UK as best I can make out, but were they around earlier too?

 

[Granville]

In the last photo, is that not Mick in the middle? Love Dev's overcoat here....

Yes, that's the big fellah. Thanks for your reply/insight. I've also found (I think) that the "lord's hat" seems to be marketed in ads in the USA as "rolled brim" (a category also inhabited by derbys and homburgs). To your point, there seems to be a variety of regionality, vaguery, and specificity (the last being the particular model names) in the nomenclature.

 

[Edward]

Yes, that's the big fellah. Thanks for your reply/insight. I've also found (I think) that the "lord's hat" seems to be marketed in ads in the USA as "rolled brim" (a category also inhabited by derbys and homburgs). To your point, there is a variety of regionality, vaguery, and specificity (the last being the particular model names).

There's also something of a blurring I suspect in that a lot of folks wore, and still do wear, their Homburgs with a front pinch. It's a look I like on (some, not all) of my Homburgs. It would also be interesting to see a few examples of Lord's Hats alongside rolled-brim Westerns like the Akubra Sombrero. Some dressier such Westerns I suspect wouldn't be far different other than the width of the brim.