Ask Teri - Wearing a Fedora Hat

[Abyss]

...I like being a nobody.

Hey, Nobody is perfect.

Interesting read, except for the jab against Bogart. My favorite bit would be the very last line, where she tells the readers to take their hats off when inside. That's more hat etiquette than most people know.

 

[Fletch]

Whoever said it was the passage of time was right. Bogey is too far back to be seen as anything but a 2-dimensional caricature. Sinatra still feels real.

Of course, heaven forbid you get your style cues from real life slices of an earlier era instead of the movies.

 

[Woodfluter]

Hmmm...well, I think I'd rather channel Bogey than Sinatra, personally...no offense intended.

But what I find interesting is that everyone in print (and most folks I meet) seem to think this is just about style. Or image. Or something like that. If I wear a felt hat, a lot of folks think I'm making a statement. Or *any* kind of hat really. While my thinking is (1) should I wear something to keep off the rain or sun or keep my noggin cool or warm, and if so, (2) heck, why shouldn't it look good? Really good.

Actually, I think Depp has good style. I'm sure he wears hats for that reason, but it works for him IMO. Pretty good actor too.

- Bill

 

[HungaryTom]

The End justifies the Means

I agree. Given the moribund state of the hat industry and hat wearing, it's not a good idea to elite-ify it and turn our noses up at any hat-wearing public figures -- or movie characters -- nor is it a good idea to be snooty about cheaper or non-vintage headwear. United we stand.

Kabuto, I agree!

Any, I mean really ANY star is good to advertise hats - whether you like the characters played or the star as a real-life person or not. Either way they have a lot of followers, so if they pose in hats they make priceless publicity for ALL hatters raising the awareness for fedoras in general.

Hopefully they bring back the other aspect of hat wearing - the playful and bohéme side, breaking through the stupid prejudice hats equal conservative narrow -mindedness'

Tom

 

[DrQuest]

So why is looking like Sinatra okay, but looking like Bogart not?

This is mostly a rhetorical question. I'm glad she's recommending fedoras, but why does a distinction have to be drawn? At the base level, Sinatra and Bogart are both men wearing suits, ties, and hats. Is it because Sinatra and the 1960s are still recent memory for many people, but Bogart and the 1940s are so far removed that they seem like ancient history?

Brad

I agree. What's wrong with looking like Bogart?

And by the way, I like the avatar photo. That is one awesome lid you have there, and it looks like it was made for ya. That's how a fedora should look.

 

[ortega76]

With some qualifications, I believe that any new interest in fedoras is a good thing in the long run. Yes, it will inevetibaly attract people who search out new fads with no thought beyond the current obsession. Yes, it may mean a rise in overpriced, "designer" wool fedoras. It also means that there will be short-term difficulties purchasing on E-Bay and the like.

On the positive side, some of those fad-chasers may see the light and come over to our side permanently. When the fad is done, E-Bay will be back to normal (or perhaps have a few more hats for sale) when the fad passes. It's like that with my other passion, comic books. I have a friend who let auctions for X-Men stuff drive up his auctions to ridiculous levels. He then bough much of it back at a deep discount when the movie excitement passed. Still, the idea that more people may be exposed to the pleasure and style of fedoras seems to be a good thing.

 

[MAB1]

With some qualifications, I believe that any new interest in fedoras is a good thing in the long run. Yes, it will inevetibaly attract people who search out new fads with no thought beyond the current obsession.

I'm with ya. At least there's an interest again. Shorty brims may be more plentyfull in thrift shops these days.

I'm guessing but, I think most of us here are older and wider than we were at 20. I know I am. A shorty brim may have looked good on me 30 years ago. And I always thought that Gene Hackman looked like a clown in "The French Connection" w/ that porkpie.

 

[TheRealDrew]

I don't mind seeing Johnny Depp in a fedora. What annoys me, however, is all these pseudo-hip folk/pop singers (like Charlie Winston) and "ooh look at me I'm a rebellious rock star" Pete Doherty that wear what I qualify as a trilby....

 

[theinterchange]

Teri Agins is a fashion writer and the Rat Pack look is in fashion at the moment as just about every designer, from Prada to Polo, is currently paying homage. Hopefully Bogart's style will be resuscitated in the near future and she'll jump on the bandwagon.

I have always thought Bogart looked a bit dumpy. [huh] I dunno, I've never gotten into Bogart as an actor or icon... Difference in taste, I think Sinatra is much more a style icon than Bogart who just looked like every other mug in his time.

As far as Depp wearing fedoras, his taste can be hit an miss. As I said in another thread, I think Hugh Jackman pulls off hats in general with more consistency than Depp. But HEY, if Depp's choice in headgear gets more folks receptive to hats, I'm all for it.

Randy

 

[Bustercat]

Trilby's aren't bad either... It's all about the way the guy wears his hat, and what with. An extension of him and his mood, rather than a misplaced doohickey tacked on for childish dress-up, or worse, irony.

I think the Sinatra/Bogey thing is based on popular assumptions about their characters.
Sinatra is associated with palling around with a multihued bunch of lovable, rougish soused cads in whimsical technicolor, cavorting and conniving with model after model to a swinging tune.
Bogey is more connected to grim, hard-boiled black-and-white determination, or else a deathly dry sense of humor, a droopy mug and deep hidden pain.

Silly and awfully simplistic, maybe, but which vibe do you think fits in better with most of todays cheeky, skirt chasin' libertine youngins?
People are still coming off the concerned brooding and fashionable seriousness of the 90's. It'll turn around, and sparkle-eyed crooners will seem passe once again.

 

[Feraud]

As far as Depp wearing fedoras, his taste can be hit an miss. As I said in another thread, I think Hugh Jackman pulls off hats in general with more consistency than Depp. But HEY, if Depp's choice in headgear gets more folks receptive to hats, I'm all for it.

Randy

That's an interesting observation. I've never seen Hugh Jackman in a hat.
On the other hand, Johnny Depp seems like a lot of the guys here who wear hats in their daily lives.

 

[theinterchange]

That's an interesting observation. I've never seen Hugh Jackman in a hat. On the other hand, Johnny Depp seems like a lot of the guys here who wear hats in their daily lives.

There's another thread showing "celebrity" types wearing hats to varying degrees of success, and Jackman made an appearance. I'll find it and link back.

Yes, Depp does seem to wear hats daily, which is why I said if his wearing of hats brings more awareness, I'm all for it.

Randy

P.S After a bit of digging, I came across the thread I mentioned. http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=46066

 

[Edward]

You know, the one guy I'd love to see in hats regularly would be George Clooney. He is consistently the best-dressed Hollywood male when you see him out and about at events, reminds me of some of the old school folks who knew how to dress. So many of them nowadays don't, and that's not limited to the young cubs. Harrison Ford - the very man responsible probably moreso than any other for half of us on here getting into fedoras and vintage leather jackets, much else besides - is a notoriously awful dresser. (Not that, I hasten to add, it makes me think less of him as a person, but really he doesn't dress to best flatter himself. I like to think of myself as broad minded, but I'm afraid when I see him with an earring, I turn into my mother.... lol tony Head on the other hand pulls one off, I think...). Clooney I think could have a big impact on hat wearing. I certainly doubt that even on the mainstream of hetereosexual contemporary males it would not be lost if Clooney, with the power to make women swoon, was identified as a hat wearer....

I don't mind seeing Johnny Depp in a fedora. What annoys me, however, is all these pseudo-hip folk/pop singers (like Charlie Winston) and "ooh look at me I'm a rebellious rock star" Pete Doherty that wear what I qualify as a trilby....

Never did understand the appeal with Doherty. Used to see him out and about quite a bit (when he was in the Libertines, a genuinely good band IMHO, he lived locallly to me in London. Mostly I saw him yelling across the street to his friends about how he had no credit on his mobile phone.... lol ). Even the NME felt the need to wave the red flag when he was voted top of the 'cool list' by its largely teenage readership a few years ago. If you ask me, yon's a serious case of the Emperor's just purchased garments... Nevertheless, I see many more kids nowadays wearing hats as a direct result of him in particular. Hopefully better hats (and better heroes) will follow...

Well, women are the biggest slaves to fashion.

lol I missed this back when. I should like to hope, though, that when my number is up and I stand before St Peter at the Pearly Gates, it will be nothing other than in my favour that never did I refer to a woman as either a 'bird' or a 'chick'.

 

[theinterchange]

You know, the one guy I'd love to see in hats regularly would be George Clooney. He is consistently the best-dressed Hollywood male when you see him out and about at events, reminds me of some of the old school folks who knew how to dress.

Funny you say this. When I chanced to meet him, he was wearing a ratty tshirt, shorts, and sporting several days of stubble. EXTREMELY nice guy, by the way. He let me go ahead of him in line at Starbucks. We chatted a few minutes while waiting for our respective drinks and parted ways.

But yes, Clooney is a well dressed man [most of the time]. I really liked his look in Leatherheads.

Randy