Borsalino hat mystery, or, Does Borsalino Do Rayon?

[AlanC]

Arriving in the mail today were two modern Borsalinos I bought for good price. One of them has me greatly puzzled. It's a floppy Alessandria with (what seems to me) the correct markings.

This sticker--the same style is on the other Borsalino I received--is stuck to the hat body beneath the sweat, Punti size 6 1/2 (which is correct):

But then this is stuck to the sweat. The WPL is for George Bollman, which makes wool hats. The 6 1/2 matches the Punti size on the Borsalino sticker, but the "52" obviously corresponds to a US 6 1/2. I don't believe that this sticker genuinely goes with the hat, but I'm puzzled (and slightly disturbed) as to why it's there. [huh]

 

[mayserwegener]

I know Bollman made Borsalinos but this a strange one with the conflicting "Made In" tags. Also the white paper label doesn't look like a modern Borsalino one (when they started to include the production year). Besdor (Steven) might have some input.

 

[danofarlington]

Arriving in the mail today were two modern Borsalinos I bought for good price. One of them has me greatly puzzled. It's a floppy Alessandria with (what seems to me) the correct markings.

[]

I have a Borsalino Alessandria that looks a lot like that if not identical. Some say it's Borsalino's copy of the Open road. It is floppy. But there's not a stitch of rayon in it as far as I know. It's pure fur felt.

 

[kaosharper1]

Looks like an unreeded sweat too.

 

[mayserwegener]

Here is a link with the some Borsalino - Bollman info from Besdor (Steven). The "Made in Italy" stamped on your sweatband doesn't match though.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=36748

 

[AlanC]

^Thanks for the link.

For reference, the relevant post by Besdor is below. He describes the USA made Borsalinos as "stiffer", which is certainly not the case with this one. The felt is super soft/floppy. And as noted, this has "Made in Italy" on both sweatband and liner.

The easiest way to tell the difference between the USA and Italian hats are that the American ones did not say made in Italy on the leather band. It was left out. Also the "feel" of the hat was different. The USA ones were much stiffer than the Italian ones. I still have a few left in stock. Why we ever bought them is a mystery to me.

Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[RBH]

That one looks nice Alan, if you would have had it a month back I think you could have 'rolled' it and traveled with it.

 

[besdor]

The Borsalino hat is an Italian made one. The other sticker has nothing to do with the hat. The hat was made around 1990 corresponding to the 321... number. Someone probably just stuck that other size tag in the hat.
Bollman did distribute Borsalino hats around that time in the USA as well.


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[AlanC]

^Thanks much for the information, Steven. That's just what I wanted to hear!

 

[mayserwegener]

The hat was made around 1990 corresponding to the 321... number.

Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

Side note: Do you know why they didn't put the production year?

 

[besdor]

Production years were not added to the hats until 1994. They were discoutinued when Borsalino moved their factory to their present location in 1986.
Today you can tell the date of manufacture by the 2 digit code that is at the beginnig of the production code . 2010 would be 10.


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[mayserwegener]

Thanks!

 

[Chamuco]

Hello,

I want to buy a Borsalino Alessandria, anyone knows if this are only made of Fur Felt or any of those were made of wool?

Any advice will be appreciated !!

Thanks in advance for your help !!

 

[besdor]

Borsalino has never made this style in wool. They barely do any wool hats at all.

 

[Chamuco]

Thanks a lot !!