Brim Treatment

[Brad Bowers]

Do you prefer your bound brims narrow or wide. Do you like the ribbon to match the felt or have a contrast color?

In answer to one of your earlier questions, I prefer narrow ribbons, unless it's a homburg or bowler, where wider ribbons are acceptable. As for color, I guess I like it to match the hat ribbon. The hats I've seen where the edge ribbon complements or contrasts the main ribbon but doesn't match it don't do anything for me. I suspect I'm in the minority here, though.

Brad

 

[Matt Deckard]

 

[dopey]

Matt: Can you tell us a bit about this one? Is the contrast really as sharp as in the photo (looks on my screen to be orange or pumpkin trim on a dark brown hat)? Is this new or vintage, and if vintage, are they the original colors. I like it. It is quite sharp looking. I could see wearing it for day-time parties or festive occasions, but it seems a little to snappy for business. I tend not to wear much brown for evening occasions when I can plan for them, but the same idea in a blue or gray would be great for fancy evening clothes.

 

[Matt Deckard]

Vintage from the 40's. It's Roots hat and the colors are correct. Burnt orange and dark brown.

 

[Biltmore Bob]

The first hat Matt....

That is one hell of a bound edge!

 

[dopey]

Vintage from the 40's. It's Roots hat and the colors are correct. Burnt orange and dark brown.

Very nice, Root. I overstuffed myself on e-bay vintage hats, so I am only contemplating one new hat in the near future. That will be a relatively conservative hat in some shade of blue. After that, something like this one would be on my list. It is really nice. Can one of you (Root or Matt) post more details like the maker, approximate vintage, what you think of the felt, etc.

This is the sort of conversation I was really hoping to get going in this thread. For some reason, people (including me) are easily side-tracked by the technical information on felted edges, but I am really interested in the aesthetic stuff. Perhaps someone else can start a thread on ribbons and bows - narrow v. wide ribbon; single color v. contrast (I am thinking of JP’s Panama), bows v. fins, bows v. whatever you call the thing on the Open Road style, bows in back, etc. People here have a wealth of knowledge and so many varieties of hats. There is a lot to think about. I haven’t done a great job of photgraphing what I have, and in any event, my collection, at less than 20 and hastily assembeled on the cheap, pales in comparison to
what many of you have. I don’t wish to impose on people’s time, but I would love it if someone with more stuff than me could assemble a mini-catalog of the variations they have and have seen with their comments on what they think of the trimming treatment and what affect they think it has on the hat.

Edited to add: I would like someone else, who knows more and has more to show and tell, to start a “trimming“ thread, but to give an idea, here is a photo of one of my nicest felts, a Mallory Premier Quality, with a bow in the back. I first posted it, with some questions on this thread: http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=3329 Click on the thumbnail for a bigger pick.

 

[dopey]

Matt: This one looks a bit like the Mallory Century I mentioned above. Does the binding wrap all the way around the edge or is it only flush to the edge like mine? If it is flush, would you happen to have a picture of the underside of the brim? I bet someone would be interested in what the stitching line I tried to describe looks like.

Thanks for posting the photos you have.

 

[Matt Deckard]

It is a mallory, and the edge wraps around. It is also a Wild Root hat.

 

[Matt Deckard]

The Commander and Chief himself in one of them high end bound edge hats he wears.

 

[jamespowers]

This is an interesting thread and Matt hit it on the head about the Cavanagh Edge as well as the Mode Edge and Guild Edge. They are all done by the felter of the body. The edge is sewn down at the beginning of the felting process and then the stitches are removed to finish the felting process of the whole hat. That is why you will see the leftover "holes" from the Cavanagh Edge. The reasons for it being expensive are already mentioned by Matt so I need not go into it. That Matt is a smart guy.
If I have a bound edge on my hat it has to be wide like the Mallory. I have a few hats that I need to take pictures of to give you an example or two.
As for the stitched edge, geez there were tons of them made by Dobbs, Stetson Knox and probably others I have not seen. Here are a few of mine:

and an ad for the Dobbs Gay Prince:

Gee, I wonder how many they sold of those.

Regards to all,

J

 

[dopey]

Hmm... The whipstitching on my Borsalino looked little like that. The stitches were more finely spaced, finer in width and not as long. The overall effect was not Western at all, which is how the “Gay Prince� appears to me (keep your snickers to yourselves). The Borsalino, which was gray, also had a darker gray ribbon rather than a self ribbon. The whole package was much more traditional-fedora-looking than what you pictured, jamespowers. As I gave it away, I can’t post pictures.

 

[jamespowers]

The best part about the two Stetsons I pictured is that they both have the Suede Finish felt. It is very nice and soft. Fine to the touch and sort of fuzzy in a short hair way. I suppose they do not look very fedoraish but they really are in person. It is a look you really have to get used to. Thank goodness they are the Stetson version. I don't think I would actually wear a Gay Prince.

Regards to all,

J