Dave Brown Hats

[Brent Hutto]

It seems very odd to me that a hat maker would have anything much to gain by claiming to make hats for a movie. After all, how tall was King Kong?

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Indy why do I feel like I would have to count your fingers after you shook his hand?? Not to mention he is a real sharp dresser...lol lol lol

 

[tonyb]

It seems very odd to me that a hat maker would have anything much to gain by claiming to make hats for a movie. After all, how tall was King Kong?

Might that be because you're not the sort so easily taken in by celebrity? Sounds like we'd get along pretty well.

But I betcha there's no shortage of people who would scramble to buy the "identical" hat (or whatever) as worn by whatever movie star in whatever hit film. This is especially likely when the item of attire becomes an icon of the character, as in the case of the hats worn by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies. Hat manufacturers paid good money for the rights to put the Indiana Jones name and likeness on cheap wool hats and on packaging and marketing materials. Never mind that the hats themselves bore only a very slight resemblance to hats actually used in the film.

We can all cite the example of one of our own members here who made the actual hat actually worn by the actual Harrison Ford in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. He's been quite busy ever since. But his is actually a high-quality hat, and it actually is indistinguishable (for all practical purposes) from the hats actually used in the film.

It's safe to say that he gained a great deal by having made the hats used in the movie.

 

[RobFedoraField]

Dave Brown

I've been in Dave's shop several times (it's run out the the back of his family's dry cleaning business) definitely has an "old school" feel to it. he seems like a nice enough guy, a little opinionated, but no more than most "old" guys if you know what I mean.

I've seen the pictures / invoices, etc that he has displayed in his office. I would tend to believe him. not sure what it's worth, but I recall someone on the lounge getting Optimo's "Public Enemy" hat and it not looking anything like the one in the movie.

I don't own any of his hats, the ones I have touched, creased, etc are much nicer than any of my akubras or Gus Miller's, but I have not had the opportunity to handle a Pennman or Fawcet as of yet.

not neccisarily trying to defend him or say he made the hat, but I doubt if any of us have all the information.....

 

[Mr. Lucky]

Not in the defense, nor the reprimand of anyone, but my initial impression, given the layout and such, is that he DOES NOT claim to have made the Dillinger hat, just that he has made hats for Depp and that pic is a stock image. It may imply something else to some, but I didn't get that inkling.

Now, in the motion picture business, and I bet Art can attest to this, many costume designers use the same vendors over and over again from movie to movie. They know them and have worked with them and are loyal, unless there's a MAJOR screw up. Now, some of the designers he lists have done multiple movies he has also listed. Take -

Louise Frogley - Credits include "Leatherheads" and "Goodnight and Good Luck"

Colleen Atwood - Credits include "Chicago", "Sweeny Todd" and "Public Enemies". Now, Mr. Brown lists the first two films, but not the last. So, maybe something happened on the last picture, a screw up, which cost him the contract for "Public Enemies".

Now, I'm not saying the pic isn't misleading, nor do I know the man personally. I'm just saying that people should not vilify a tradesman simply because of one picture. Especially in a very small world where a lot of business depends on word of mouth. And especially when the 'products' in question have not been put through their paces.

 

[Lefty]

it ain't ambiguous

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Yes very clear



Craftsman Enjoys A Heady Career
Stuart Low, Staff Writer



1:33 p.m. With its dense jumble of antique hat racks and wooden molds for different head sizes, Dave Brown's shop, 77-year-old Brownie Brothers Cleaners, looks like a throwback to Charles Dickens' times.
Brown is designing fedoras for Pitt, Depp


(December 17, 2006) — Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp don't mind getting a little wardrobe assistance from a Henrietta tailor.

In fact, they're letting it go to their heads.

For their latest films, the movie stars have ordered custom-made hats from Dave Brown — a craftsman who bills himself as "Hatmaker to the Stars." He's creating a pecan-colored fedora for Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount Pictures, 2008), while Depp will sport a dark-green homburg when he plays a homicidal barber in Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks Studios, late 2007).

Although he hobnobs with the likes of Richard Gere and Paul Newman, Brown is hardly addicted to glamour.

You can usually find him in a cluttered workroom behind his family's 77-year-old business, Brownie Brothers Cleaners at 3054 West Henrietta Road.

With its dense jumble of antique hat racks and wooden molds for different head sizes, the shop looks like a throwback to Charles Dickens' times. Brown's materials might have been familiar to Victorian hat makers: waterproof felt from beavers and rabbits, English grosgrain ribbons for hatbands. Only the din of a rhythm-and-blues band on a boom box tells you that Brown is very much of his times.

Now 63 with a grizzled mustache and salt-and-pepper hair, he started off as an apprentice at Manhattan's famed Jaylord Hatters. His teacher was the well-known master hatter Steve Martin (no relation to the wild and crazy actor).

"He was a tough guy, but a good teacher," recalls Brown as he operates an old Singer sewing machine.

"I'd present him with my work every month and he'd tear it up."

After five years at Jaylord, Brown opened his own Rochester shop as a sideline to his dry-cleaning business.

But he didn't start seeing celebrity clientele until a local friend's secretary joined a California law firm.

"She became friends with 'Red' Stromwall, whose detective career was the inspiration for the 1996 film Mulholland Falls," says Brown.

"He's a sharp dresser and she put him onto me. He told me: 'When they make a movie about me, you'll make the hats.'"

To their amazement, Nick Nolte was cast in the role and Brown ended up making him 30 fedoras. (They took some abuse, since Nolte beats up a witness with the hat.)

Another of Brown's Hollywood contacts was costume designer Colleen Atwood, who used his hats in several major productions. He traveled to Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto whenever actors needed on-the-spot fittings.

In 2001, Atwood called him to the Toronto set of Chicago, whose three stars all needed vintage headgear.

"I had to fit Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rene Zellweger," says Brown, who usually charges $340 per hat. "Gere came out of the costume room, walked right over to me and asked where I was from.

"'I knew it!'" he said. "He grew up in Syracuse and recognized my Rochester accent."

Brown recalls Zeta-Jones as "china-doll beautiful" and prefers not to discuss Zellweger's offstage personality.

But he has fond memories of Paul Newman and Tom Hanks' down-to-earth demeanor while shooting Road to Perdition (2002).

"They're nice guys, once you get past the Sumo wrestlers guarding them," he enthuses. "I went into Newman's trailer and we talked about his spaghetti sauce."

With Pitt and Depp in his immediate future, Brown has no plans for early retirement.

"I learn something with every hat I work on," he says. "And it's a thrill to see them in the movies."

SLOW@DemocratandChronicle.com

"I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Newman on the set of Road To Perdition."

 

[Viper Man]

"It's called Dry Cleaning. You heard me right, brother."

 

[tonyb]

Not in the defense, nor the reprimand of anyone, but my initial impression, given the layout and such, is that he DOES NOT claim to have made the Dillinger hat, just that he has made hats for Depp and that pic is a stock image. It may imply something else to some, but I didn't get that inkling.

It says, verbatim ...

JOHNNY DEPP AS JOHN DILLINGER HAT MADE BY DAVE BROWN @ WWW. DAVEBROWNHATS. COM-585-475-1791

(Spaces in the url so as to eliminate underlining and link that would be automatically added otherwise.)

Not to be disputatious, Mr. Lucky, but that is clearly a claim to have made the hat. It goes beyond implication or suggestion, which would be slippery enough, but which we've come to expect, sadly, from some in the trade. If he didn't actually make the hat in the picture that copy appears with, then it's a flat-out lie.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

The site also says "Mr. Brown studied under Steve Martin..."

 

[Lefty]

"It's called Dry Cleaning. You heard me right, brother."

lol lol lol
:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[GWD]

I emailed him this last night;

I would like to see some proof that you are indeed the maker of the John Dillinger Hat in Johnny Depp's latest movie Public Enemies.

No response yet.

 

[RobFedoraField]

re dave's email

I wouldn't be so urgent to get a response, I think a family member run his web site for him. it would be best to call.

is there any credits @ the end of the movie that might help clarify this? Depp sports at least 2 lids in the movie, may he made one and Grahm made the other.

here's a link to where this argument began...

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=45408

 

[AEH]

Tough treatment

Gentlemen,
I don't know any thing about Dave Brown Hats, but it seems to me that a few people here who also really do not know much about the man or his hats have very strong opinions about his enterprise. I can't see that anybody has presented any good reason for doubting his impressing claims to movie or other clients, other than the Dillinger hat in Public Enemies. Of course it is in every way ridiculous to make such a claim if it is not true. Maybe the movie company had more than one contractor for this hat? By the way, I could not find the proof that Optimo made the movie hat, can anybody point me to that?
Thank you

 

[Art Fawcett]

Gentlemen,
I don't know any thing about Dave Brown Hats, but it seems to me that a few people here who also really do not know much about the man or his hats have very strong opinions about his enterprise. I can't see that anybody has presented any good reason for doubting his impressing claims to movie or other clients, other than the Dillinger hat in Public Enemies. Of course it is in every way ridiculous to make such a claim if it is not true. Maybe the movie company had more than one contractor for this hat? By the way, I could not find the proof that Optimo made the movie hat, can anybody point me to that?
Thank you

He's creating a pecan-colored fedora for Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount Pictures, 2008)

AEH, in this article that was posted was the quote above. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Mr. Brown did NOT make the hat in question for Brad Pitt. I can say that because I made it and can privately send invoices to prove it. I won't put something like that over the net for privacy reasons but it is abundantly clear that Mr. Brown is stretching the truth in this case.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

^^

That did it!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol lol lol lol

 

[Garrett]

I'm predicting this thread gets locked [huh]

 

[Carlisle Blues]

^^
Even if it does the interloper was shown to be talking through his hat!!!! And that is one reason why I keep coming back to the Fedora Lounge..... I was just saved from entering an ill advised business relationship.

 

[indycop]

The site also says "Mr. Brown studied under Steve Martin..."

Did he make the rabbit ears also?

 

[indycop]

AEH, in this article that was posted was the quote above. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Mr. Brown did NOT make the hat in question for Brad Pitt. I can say that because I made it and can privately send invoices to prove it. I won't put something like that over the net for privacy reasons but it is abundantly clear that Mr. Brown is stretching the truth in this case.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap