Brown A2 jacket, Blue/Black Peacoat, 1 hat, what color?

[T Rick]

Not sure this will work out, but wondering your thoughts WRT color matching (or not). I'd like to start with one decent hat (fur felt minimum, beaver is better). The two coats/jackets I'll be wearing for the Winter are the brown goatskin USAF issue A2 flight jacket and a USN issue peacoat (navy blue, very near black).

I spent a lot of time reading the site (like many, I like the Indy hats, read hours on those alone, I'll get one eventually, but not for awhile). But I know a lot more than I did a couple of days ago, and have a huge amount more to learn.

Spent some time today at Henry the Hatter in downtown Detroit, great knowledgable folks, very giving of their time (flat out told them I wouldn't be buying today, yet they were still quite helpful and willing to give me lots of info, and had me try on several hats).

Anyway, I seem drawn to a sage green hat, which would be fine with the A2, but awful with the Peacoat (same with brown and I think tan). Black, blue or gray would be fine with the Peacoat, but the A2? Hmm... actually, maybe the tan would work with both? Or maybe I shouldn't even be considering the color of outer wear?

Just thought I'd run this by you for opinions, let me know what you think (I know, I'm the one who's got to wear it, but I learn from the twists a thread will take ).

Thanks for your time and your thoughts.

 

[The Good]

I think a grey hat, whether light, medium, or dark, could fulfill the purpose of one single, versatile hat that can go with what you're thinking of. I know it can work with a peacoat, although that is not something I have. I do have a brown leather jacket myself, although it is very dark brown, and I typically wear it with my light grey homburg rather than my brown fedora, which in my experience is more suggestive for the Indiana Jones comments. There's nothing wrong with the Indy comments, he's a cool fictional character amongst both adults, teenagers, and children, and sometimes people just go for that look anyway; I have myself, pretty recently, shown up in khakis, brown leather jacket, white shirt, and the brown fedora...

 

[danofarlington]

Not sure this will work out, but wondering your thoughts WRT color matching (or not). I'd like to start with one decent hat (fur felt minimum, beaver is better). The two coats/jackets I'll be wearing for the Winter are the brown goatskin USAF issue A2 flight jacket and a USN issue peacoat (navy blue, very near black).

I spent a lot of time reading the site (like many, I like the Indy hats, read hours on those alone, I'll get one eventually, but not for awhile). But I know a lot more than I did a couple of days ago, and have a huge amount more to learn.

Spent some time today at Henry the Hatter in downtown Detroit, great knowledgable folks, very giving of their time (flat out told them I wouldn't be buying today, yet they were still quite helpful and willing to give me lots of info, and had me try on several hats).

Anyway, I seem drawn to a sage green hat, which would be fine with the A2, but awful with the Peacoat (same with brown and I think tan). Black, blue or gray would be fine with the Peacoat, but the A2? Hmm... actually, maybe the tan would work with both? Or maybe I shouldn't even be considering the color of outer wear?

Just thought I'd run this by you for opinions, let me know what you think (I know, I'm the one who's got to wear it, but I learn from the twists a thread will take ).

Thanks for your time and your thoughts.

Dark brown.

 

[Pat_H]

Not what you're looking for at all, but I have favored A2 jackets for a long time, and I used to have a dark blue pea coat. I often wore a blue Pendleton newsboy, which had a leather bill, with both. Nice cap. I lost it in the Portland airport.

 

[monbla256]

Two colors that ALWAYS work with the coats you describe would be most of the true brown shades and darker greys ( charcoal shades) . Another almost universal color (worn here in Texas, though mostly in Western hats) is Silverbelly. I'd guess that out of ten Western hats you'd see, at least 6/8 would be Silverbelly and you see them worn with just about EVERY color shirt, coat, and jeans/boots.

 

[Nebraska Schulte]

Perhaps a gray felt called "granite" might work? I'd describe it as a light-medium gray, but with brown undertones instead of gray. Penman Hats and Adventurebilt have it, and perhaps other hatters have a similar felt color. I've seen it go well with brown leather jackets and with navy suit jackets, and I have one on order from John Penman myself.

 

[Blackthorn]

It's good to see you here, Nebraska.

 

[Lloyd]

I'd say dark brown, with a black or very very dark colored ribbon

 

[EggHead]

I think Glen Grey color from Akubra might work. It has some blue in it and grey will go with brown too.

 

[T Rick]

I think I've solved the dilemma. I can get whatever for the brown A2 now, I just picked this up from eBay (paid $30 best offer btw, not the 47.77 BIN- coming from Canada so it'll be maybe a couple of weeks before it gets here). I think it'll do for the blue/black Peacoat (and the black shirts). Now, I'm down to brown, tan or green... I can see I'm going to need to create some space for a hat collection. "One hat"... lol What was I thinking?

 

[danofarlington]

I]One hat[/I]"... lol What was I thinking?

One hat is like one pair of shoes.

 

[Fletch]

Nonetheless - it was what a lot of guys were limited to back in the day.

Apparel Arts in the 30s used to recommend a brown hat with a black band. It went with any outfit because most all the traditional "man colors" go well with one or the other. They're harder to find nowadays though. Tan with black band might be easier.

 

[scottyrocks]

I was gonna suggest a tan, or 'tawny fawn' (Akubra) to go with both brown and navy. Works for me!

 

[Nebraska Schulte]

BTW, here's a link to photos of the granite-colored felt hat that I'll be getting. You can see from the background how this gray (which obviously will go with navy) goes just fine with brown, too. https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=90471&id=94550378449
As you can see from my avatar, I'm certainly a fan of dark brown fedora with an even darker brown ribbon, too.

Best wishes,
NS

 

[Not-Bogart13]

Granite gray also works pretty well with brown. It's one of those warmer grays.

 

[gtdean48]

Silver Belly

Not sure this will work out, but wondering your thoughts WRT color matching (or not). I'd like to start with one decent hat (fur felt minimum, beaver is better). The two coats/jackets I'll be wearing for the Winter are the brown goatskin USAF issue A2 flight jacket and a USN issue peacoat (navy blue, very near black).

I spent a lot of time reading the site (like many, I like the Indy hats, read hours on those alone, I'll get one eventually, but not for awhile). But I know a lot more than I did a couple of days ago, and have a huge amount more to learn.

Spent some time today at Henry the Hatter in downtown Detroit, great knowledgable folks, very giving of their time (flat out told them I wouldn't be buying today, yet they were still quite helpful and willing to give me lots of info, and had me try on several hats).

Anyway, I seem drawn to a sage green hat, which would be fine with the A2, but awful with the Peacoat (same with brown and I think tan). Black, blue or gray would be fine with the Peacoat, but the A2? Hmm... actually, maybe the tan would work with both? Or maybe I shouldn't even be considering the color of outer wear?

Just thought I'd run this by you for opinions, let me know what you think (I know, I'm the one who's got to wear it, but I learn from the twists a thread will take ).

Thanks for your time and your thoughts.

 

[The Good]

Silver Belly

Well there you go. Silverbelly can go with nearly anything, right? I think that's a good deal for one choice of hat.

 

[T Rick]

Thanks all for the considered and well thought out responses.

As it turns out, I've come to grips with the fact that there will be more than one hat, and most likely several, with lots of different colors. I have one vintage black snap brim Fedora now coming from an eBay purchase. And I've decided to order an Aukubra Campdraft in the Bluegrass Green color (which may or may not work with either outer garment, the pics I've seen seem to show it looking quite different in different light).

Bottom line, looks like I'm going to need a hat rack, and a place to put it.