Ask a question, get an answer

[John Galt]

I tried a search, but I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, so...

I have a black nutria felt homburg that used to have a nice dip in the front brim. It has let go as the hat broke in, and I was hoping to get it back with some spray hat stiffener. I have never used any stiffeners before. Could I get some recommendations for sprays that would be safe for black nutria? I don't want helmet hard, just enough to give it some hold.

Don't do it! If you do use stiffener, use it sparingly, from the inside, and in multiple applications to ensure you haven't overdone it. Better yet, PM me & sell it ;-)


"Faint hat never won fair lady."

 

[mayserwegener]

You have put an address (URL) to a webpage into an IMG-tag. That won't work. The address must be the address of an image


The black hat in question is a fedora - not a homburg. I think that the original definition of a fedora is something like: "A fairly wide brimmed felt hat with some kind of a crease in the top of the crown - and some kind of a pinch on each side". How "fundamentalistic" you wan't to be is up to you. To me it's a fedora

Personally I wouldn't call Major Moore's hat a homburg either. Indeed a beautiful fedora - but not a homburg in (my understanding of) "the classic sense"

Side Note: The early (late 1800s to 1930s) Fedora (used in America only) hats would be considered Homburg like hats.

 

[argyle]

Hi. I have a quick question to ask regarding the size of a Stetson I have a chance of buying.

It is a Stetson Sky Rider, made in Australia under liscence. Around the 60's - 70's I'm guessing.

It is marked 7/8. I've asked the seller for an inside measurement but that can take days sometimes.

Anyone know if it is 6 and 7/8 or 7 and 7/8?

Thank you ......


image hosting sites

 

[gtdean48]

...
It is marked 7/8. I've asked the seller for an inside measurement but that can take days sometimes.

Anyone know if it is 6 and 7/8 or 7 and 7/8?

Thank you ......


image hosting sites

Not without measurements, there is no way to tell from the tag. Odds are it is a 6 7/8.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

Better yet, PM me & sell it ;-)

Guaranteed to solve any problem, right?

I will tread (and apply) very lightly. It has taken me over a year to get to the point of breaking down and doing this at all. But I need a nice dip in front to make a homburg work, and this one has the virtues of being beautiful AND the last lid I got from Oscar at South Street Hats in Philly. I would have it reflanged before giving up on it.

 

[alanfgag]

Not without measurements, there is no way to tell from the tag. Odds are it is a 6 7/8.

20 to 1.

 

[hatsRme]

Higher!

 

[argyle]

Thankyou Dean, Alan.

I was afraid of that. My future collection of vintage wearable fedora's is looking slimmer all the time due to small size proliferation of tiny hats. I still do not understand the reasoning of men's hats being made in small sizes. Who but a child wears a 56?

 

[jlee562]

I wear 56....

People are physically larger nowadays.

 

[dh66]

Tons of people 50 or more years ago. People today, especially in developed countries, are bigger than they were a few generation back.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[gtdean48]

Thankyou Dean, Alan.

I was afraid of that. My future collection of vintage wearable fedora's is looking slimmer all the time due to small size proliferation of tiny hats. I still do not understand the reasoning of men's hats being made in small sizes. Who but a child wears a 56?

I'm a 7 5/8 LO, 61, 24"
I have a very nice collection of vintage lids, all thin & mid-ribbons & have passed on some nice WAR's to fellow loungers of this noggin size.
They are more rare & bring a high asking price it seems but they are out there.
BTW my father was a 7 1/2 & 5'11". My older brother is a 7 3/8 LO at 6'2".

 

[great white]

Thankyou Dean, Alan.

I was afraid of that. My future collection of vintage wearable fedora's is looking slimmer all the time due to small size proliferation of tiny hats. I still do not understand the reasoning of men's hats being made in small sizes. Who but a child wears a 56?

Yup, as a population, we've been getting bigger. Has to do with genetics, preferences and lifestyle.

And I don't just mean "fatter", we're physically getting larger.

6' 1" used to be a very tall man at one point, now it's nearly common place.

Makes my 5' 10" (7 5/8) feel kinda short most days.....but I'm stocky. "Nordic build" would be the description.

 

[Lotsahats]

I wear 56....

People are physically larger nowadays.

The board has been torn asunder by this comment before.

A

 

[TheDane]

Who but a child wears a 56?

Well, quite a few loungers, if I'm not totally wrong - just like hats 7 1/2 and up are not made solely for elephants and hippopotamuses

Though homo sapiens in average has grown quite a bit since the mid-1800s, there are still a lot of smaller heads among us - just like there were big heads back in the early 1900s. Also it seems like there are nearly as many long ovals as there are regular ovals. Very often our perception of what is "normal" and "regular" is nothing but a mirage, based on what we see in a mirror

 

[jlee562]

The board has been torn asunder by this comment before.

A

While there are always exceptions to the rule, the general consensus is that contemporary humans are, on average, larger.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-are-we-getting-taller

Anyone who has ever visited a home built around the time of the Revolutionary War along the back alleys of Philadelphia or Boston has been struck, metaphorically if not literally, by the characteristically low ceilings and small door frames. Even houses built in the early 1800s can make a person of average height by today's standards wonder how the orignal occupants managed to stay conscious long enough to participate in an industrial revolution and a civil war.

For most people, contemporary buildings do not prompt similar claustrophobic concerns. The reason for this difference, as many people have correctly guessed, is that modern humans are taller than those from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In fact, over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations has increased approximately 10 centimeters (about four inches).

 

[EliasRDA]

Umm, the houses built in the 1800's & early 1900's have low deilings for a reason. In the days of wood heated houses or coal, early days of oil, it cost a lot f money to heat ones homes. High ceilings mean space that gets heated & wasted. I grew up in a house built in the 1850's, very low ceilings at about 6 1/2 ft, very rough on my brother at 6'3', my dad at 6'1" & myself at 6'-6'1". When I go back I have to still duck the doorways & no hats can really be worn in the house, caps maybe but not hats. The house originally didnt have central heat, & when it was converted it had oil heat until 2010 or so when we had the oil heater torn out & replaced with gas.

The house I live in currently was build in 1984, custom built so we have a cathedral ceiling dining room & my bedroom is the loft off it, I get all the heat from the woodstove whereas the other rooms like the 1st floor bedroom gets cold.

So yes, in a way we are taller now then we were back then, look at records about Lincoln for example.. a tower of a man among his peers.. but its not always true about why houses had low ceilings. At least in the northern areas of the USA as thats what I can reference.

 

[GD12]

Questions like this probably get asked a lot, but would you call this a Fedora or a Trilby? Just wanted to be certain.

 

[ManofKent]

GD12 - there's no clear division as to when a trilby becomes a fedora, but typically trilbies are short-brimmed with a very distinctive upsweep to the rear of the brim and and a downsweep to the front. On that basis I'd call it a trilby.

 

[Phteven]

GD12 - there's no clear division as to when a trilby becomes a fedora, but typically trilbies are short-brimmed with a very distinctive upsweep to the rear of the brim and and a downsweep to the front. On that basis I'd call it a trilby.

So, then a stingy brim fedora worn with the front down and the back up would correctly be referred to as a trilby?

 

[ManofKent]

So, then a stingy brim fedora worn with the front down and the back up would correctly be referred to as a trilby?

What constitutes a trilby and what constitutes a stingy fedora isn't defined in any rule book - it's really more a case of what a hat maker/seller/owner calls it but generally the classic trilby would be flanged with a very pronounced back sweep, curving to the sides which is more distinctive than simply snapping the back up on a flat brimmed stingy.