monbla256
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I apologise in advance for the terrible quality... using the phone for the pics just to give y'all a basic idea of the hat in question. Darn battery is dead in my real camera. Here's a couple of pics of my inherited gunmetal coloured Churchill (7 3/8, thank god.. a very comfortable fit even though I have a quite oval head)
So, just a basic idea of the hat in question is included below. Anyone able to tell anything from the pics or should I re-post when clarity is better? I'm mainly interested in the age, quality and type (of materiel- fur??). [huh]
Here's a post on a Churchill from a year ago:
12-20-2009 12:43 AM #35 AlterEgo
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Join Date Dec 2009
Location Southern USA
Posts 316 Well, well, well, the things you learn by sharing info here.
The hat that I called my favorite for a decade and wore all through college and most of my twenties was a Churchill from Neiman Marcus and marked as such.
I bought it at its store in Atlanta in October of 1977, the first time I'd ever been to a NM store. I remember the date well, because my dear grandmother was sick and couldn't get out to buy me a birthday present, so she sent money to me in college instead with a note to buy something really nice and show it to her when I was home for Thanksgiving.
Needless Markup is spot on--that rust-colored suede stingy brim trilby with an Austrian alpine profile was a heart-stopping $55.00, and that was over thirty years ago! Still have the hat, though the moths snacked on the crown a few years ago, so I don't wear it anymore, but the things I did in that hat are too precious to ever let it go. Man, does that hat have some stories to tell!
It appears that upscale retailer Neiman Marcus had a lengthy and ongoing relationship with Churchill for special hats. Makes sense, as the HATCO factory is in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, where NM's headquarters are.
You say HATCO owns the name Churchill, yet I have not seen a hat sold under that name in many, many years. It was a prestige brand, and I wonder if HATCO is saving it for an upper tier of qualty hats some day. Not likely, but one can hope.
I wish the pics showed what a lovely, everyday hat this is. Nothing flash, just the fedora of a man who wore them from the 30s til last month.
fftopic:I had some success removing dust with a clean makeup brush! The hat already looks better, and I didn't have to buy anything. I used a kabuki powder brush and it's a happier hat.
I remember seeing them at the downtown Dallas Nieman's back in the late '60s and early '70s. They weren't cheap hats being sold at Neiman's for sure