Did fedoras originate with the "upper class"?

[Undertow]

1930 Sears Catalog Scan

Notice the most expensive hat is $6.98 and the least expensive is a $2.19 wool felt. A very rough estimate (based on the US Inflation Calculator) puts that at $89.34 and $28.03 by today's standards. Part of a man's wardrobe was his hat(s), so spending $30-50 wouldn't have been unreasonable. At least in the 1930's, a soft felt hat did not indicate wealth.

I'm short some scans - I had a few from the 1920's Sears catalogs but they aren't popping up anywhere on my computer. I'll post when I come across them.

 

[Richard Warren]

The fedora was named after the hat worn by the male lead in a prodcution of the play before the one with Bernhardt. I misremember the names.

Sure the upper classes wore them first. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Well done folks some fantastic info there .......prehaps those ad pages could be made into a sticky before they're lost on the net.
Wouldn't it be more to the point in comparing the prices with the wages at the time (especially of the different class stratas) rather than calculating their cost at today's exchange rate. ?
If you were only earning a couple of bucks (or pounds in the UK) a week then prehaps even a $3.00 hat was outta your reach. These ads look more directed to the white collar middle classes rather than the working ones to me.
I think if your primary concerns were to put food on the table, pay the bills & keep a roof over your head you may not have had the luxury to flick through a magazine to choose your hat.

 

[mayserwegener]

The fedora was named after the hat worn by the male lead in a prodcution of the play before the one with Bernhardt. I misremember the names.

Please read the following.

This information is a myth that has been repeated as people merely mimic the erroneous statements. Only the name part of the statement is true. Introduced in the USA as a men's hat by Knox copying the traditional European Alpine style and exploiting the first USA production of the popular play for marketing. A more casual "Bohemian" soft style of hat. Story is identical for the Trilby. Same general type as Edward VII's trendy Homburg of the period.

Marketing begins to tie in with the first USA(New York) production of Fedora with Fanny Davenport opening later in December of 1883, years before Sarah Bernhardt's French language 1889 production came.

To L.A. by January 1884:

Soon Sears and Montgomery Ward had Fedoras and soft felts for less than $1.00

Also check out this thread for the details.

Fedoras in the 19th Century.

 

[rlk]

The fedora was named after the hat worn by the male lead in a prodcution of the play before the one with Bernhardt. I misremember the names.

Sure the upper classes wore them first. Nothing wrong with that.

It is possible that Knox had him wear the exact hat, but it was introduced just before the play opened. I'm still trying to locate a photo of Robert Mantell from the original production(wearing a hat). Should be in some New York Archive(Public Library or Columbia U. perhaps). If I make it there I may do a search, unsuccessful online so far.

 

[mayserwegener]

Well done folks some fantastic info there .......prehaps those ad pages could be made into a sticky before they're lost on the net.
Wouldn't it be more to the point in comparing the prices with the wages at the time (especially of the different class stratas) rather than calculating their cost at today's exchange rate. ?
If you were only earning a couple of bucks (or pounds in the UK) a week then prehaps even a $3.00 hat was outta your reach. These ads look more directed to the white collar middle classes rather than the working ones to me.
I think if your primary concerns were to put food on the table, pay the bills & keep a roof over your head you may not have had the luxury to flick through a magazine to choose your hat.

Yes a hat was a major investment for the common folk of the time (America, Europe, UK) but most still had one. I am not sure you can get anymore "American Working Class" than the Sears catalog. They also carried Western and other working hat styles at a low price point.

 

[rlk]

Fédora date corrections. My recollection of dates was off a bit.

Note that Knox's "Fedora" Hat debut was Sept. 29 with the play opening October 1.

 

[mayserwegener]

Did you ever find any connection between the lead male character and the men's Fedora hat? I might be able to find more info at the Library of Congress.

 

[rlk]

Did you ever find any connection between the lead male character and the men's Fedora hat? I might be able to find more info at the Library of Congress.

I've come across a few references to his hat creating the style trend, but all from later sources, not contemporary accounts. Here's the only photo I've found of Mantell in a Fedora, later and unrelated to the play.

 

[rlk]

Original 1894 George du Maurier Trilby Serialization

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/dumaurier/trilby/33.html

Both Fedora and Trilby took place in Bohemian Paris. Trilby originated in the USA as Novel and Play before later Plays and Movies in the UK.

 

[Brad Bowers]

A few more thoughts to add to Robert's well-researched argument. Robert Mantell played Russian Count Loris Ipanov (Japanov/Japanoff, depending on which version you read), living in a self-imposed exile in Paris. The Alpine-style of hat would have been entirely appropriate for his character, which fits the facts as we know them. I suppose a soft, wide brim hat might also be appropriate for Bohemian Paris, but American audiences and the play's costumer probably expected to see something Homburg-like on his character, denoting his status. Knox simply capitalized on the popularity of the name of the play when naming a hat perhaps based upon the Count's hat, rather than on the hat worn by the character of Fedora, as the myth goes. "Fedora" would've had more selling power than "Loris."

Brad

 

[Undertow]

Wouldn't it be more to the point in comparing the prices with the wages at the time (especially of the different class stratas) rather than calculating their cost at today's exchange rate. ?
If you were only earning a couple of bucks (or pounds in the UK) a week then prehaps even a $3.00 hat was outta your reach. These ads look more directed to the white collar middle classes rather than the working ones to me.
I think if your primary concerns were to put food on the table, pay the bills & keep a roof over your head you may not have had the luxury to flick through a magazine to choose your hat.

Certainly, $3.00 in the 1920's, and especially the 1930's, was a little bit of money. It's very easy to say [x] amount of money was equal to [y] amount in today's currency, based on inflation. However, as you've pointed out, it's still not an accurate description of actual costs (hence, my use of the term "very rough estimate".)

Scholars, including some on this board, would likely be able to give you some kind of accurate window into just how much a hat for $3.00 actually cost. However, to answer your point about men browsing through a catalog or purchasing headware, it's safe to say that these practices were quite common across the board.

Simply reviewing pictures from different decades produces endless accounts of men wearing hats - often purchased with whatever funds were available, obviously. Same is true about suiting which was often 3 times the cost of a hat. Take from that observation what you will, but consider that evidence would suggest, at the very least, priorities were different than you state.

And regarding catalogs, yes, the Sears Catalog was quite prolific in many households from rich to poor. With the equivalent of "free shipping" as well as comparable prices, catalog shopping versus in-store shopping would have likely been much more accessible, especially for those rural customers who may not be able to get into town but perhaps once a month.

 

[Brad Bowers]

A brief history of hat prices:

In the first half of the nineteenth century, hat prices were far more expensive than in the second half. Since all production was by hand, $10 and $20 wasn't unheard of for the average hat price. But after 1850, the benefits of industrialization, division of labor, and mechanization of many hat-making processes meant that costs, and therefore prices, dropped considerably. The top hat didn't benefit from mechanization, and still had to be made by hand, but most factories mechanized as many of their processes as possible to take advantage of more cost-effective methods. If were are looking at the era when we have the increasing popularity of the Alpine-styled original Fedora, between 1883 and 1900, the very most that the general population of men were willing to pay for a hat was $5.00. Typically, hat prices between $1.00 and $3.00 were more common. This is true of stiff hat Derbies (but not the top hat, which remained an upper-class hat), sewn straw hats such as Boaters (though not the completely hand-woven ones, such as the Panama), and soft felt hats.

Average hat prices remained relatively inflation-proof from 1900 to 1930.

When we look at the 1920s, that period of headwear history when the soft felt snap-brim hat that we now call a Fedora became popular, a couple of things become apparent. Prices are remarkably stable throughout the decade (which is also true for most goods throughout the American economy until the Depression hits and prices start to fall), while real wages remain relatively high. U.S. Census information for 25 different manufacturing industries shows us that throughout the '20s, real average wages for skilled and semi-skilled workers fluctuated between about $29.00 per week to over $32.00 per week. For unskilled workers, their weekly wages hovered around $22 the entire decade. So, for the middle and the working classes, affording a $5.00 probably wasn't much of a problem, much less a $3.00 hat.

The only ones that would struggle to afford a new hat would be farm workers, whose average weekly wages ranged from $8 to $10, but then the entire agricultural sector was in a depression shortly after World War I and did not recover until World War II.


Brad

 

[Joshbru3]

A brief history of hat prices:

In the first half of the nineteenth century, hat prices were far more expensive than in the second half. Since all production was by hand, $10 and $20 wasn't unheard of for the average hat price. But after 1850, the benefits of industrialization, division of labor, and mechanization of many hat-making processes meant that costs, and therefore prices, dropped considerably. The top hat didn't benefit from mechanization, and still had to be made by hand, but most factories mechanized as many of their processes as possible to take advantage of more cost-effective methods. If were are looking at the era when we have the increasing popularity of the Alpine-styled original Fedora, between 1883 and 1900, the very most that the general population of men were willing to pay for a hat was $5.00. Typically, hat prices between $1.00 and $3.00 were more common. This is true of stiff hat Derbies (but not the top hat, which remained an upper-class hat), sewn straw hats such as Boaters (though not the completely hand-woven ones, such as the Panama), and soft felt hats.

Average hat prices remained relatively inflation-proof from 1900 to 1930.

When we look at the 1920s, that period of headwear history when the soft felt snap-brim hat that we now call a Fedora became popular, a couple of things become apparent. Prices are remarkably stable throughout the decade (which is also true for most goods throughout the American economy until the Depression hits and prices start to fall), while real wages remain relatively high. U.S. Census information for 25 different manufacturing industries shows us that throughout the '20s, real average wages for skilled and semi-skilled workers fluctuated between about $29.00 per week to over $32.00 per week. For unskilled workers, their weekly wages hovered around $22 the entire decade. So, for the middle and the working classes, affording a $5.00 probably wasn't much of a problem, much less a $3.00 hat.

The only ones that would struggle to afford a new hat would be farm workers, whose average weekly wages ranged from $8 to $10, but then the entire agricultural sector was in a depression shortly after World War I and did not recover until World War II.


Brad

Brad, this is exceptionally well written and extremely interesting. Thank you so much for posting this info. I hadn't thought of the fact that hat prices remained inflation proof from 1900 to around 1930. I actually had no idea that in the early part of the 19th century that hats commonly sold for between 10 and 20 dollars. That was an exceptional amount of money back then, and I would have to imagine that those prices were for true beaver top hats and not the later silk plush top hats that were developed in the late 1840's/1850's.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Great stuff Brad, very interesting reading. I have no idea of the exchange rate with the pound sterling at the time but those salaries do seem far superior to those in the UK.
Not sure if Borsalinos have been mentioned, (could they be classed as fedoras ?) which were first manufactured at the begining of 1857( which precedes the fedora ,or the play at least) in Italy by a family run workshop. They were originally made using rabbit fur felt & were definately for the well off.

 

[Colonel Adam]

I've been wondering a lot lately about the name "fedora" and how long it's really been around. I'm nearly 60 years old, and I grew-up in Illinois. This is important just because 1) I remember the 1960s like it was yesterday--as well as some younger folks remember the '90s. And 2) Because I know that a lot of names are regional and not used universally all over the country.
Now then, I remember my dad, and most ever other man, wearing brimmed hats all the time, but I never heard anyone use the word fedora to describe them--ever. It wasn't until the late '70s - early '80s that I first heard this name, usually by young people my age, late teens and early 20s, never by people my parents age. Even then, when someone my age called a hat a fedora, he or she always meant a wide brimmed "gangster" hat most commonly worn in the '40s and '50s. I even asked my dad one day in the late '80s if he ever used the word fedora to describe the brimmed hats he used to wear, and he said no. It turns out he started hearing this name around the same time I did. So, I can't help but think that the word fedora doesn't pre-date around 1980, at least in the Mid West. Also, I'm very curious to know where this name actually comes from. I've heard a few theories--like it came from the name of a play--but that's about it.
If anyone can offer some genuine, verifiable, insight into the origin of this name, and when it was first used, I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks!

 

[alanfgag]

The "ask a question thread" would be a good place to ask this question. Your answer, with suggestions for good reading:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/fedoras-in-the-19th-century.48956/

 

[Doctor Strange]

Yo Colonel, this question - and a lot of the things you've been posting - have been discussed here many, many of times. Try doing some searches before you put up a new post like this, the Fedora Lounge is a long-running site with an amazingly vast amount of material.

 

[Redfokker]

The "ask a question thread" would be a good place to ask this question. Your answer, with suggestions for good reading:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/fedoras-in-the-19th-century.48956/

+1

 

[Redfokker]

Yo Colonel, this question - and a lot of the things you've been posting - have been discussed here many, many of times. Try doing some searches before you put up a new post like this, the Fedora Lounge is a long-running site with an amazingly vast amount of material.

+1