Feathers and pins?

[ScottyBlues]

I just got a new Stetson Pinnacle. It came with a nice feature and a little pin with that says "Stetson". What do you do with your hats? Do you leave them in?

I took the pin off. As with most articles of clothing, I'm not willing to advertise for someone unless I'm being paid to do so. The feature looks nice, so I left that in.

Does anyone know what folks did traditionally in the 30s, 40s, and 50s? Was it common to leave the feature in or take it out?

 

[David Conwill]

I don't know what was common in the era. If old films and photos are to be believed the majority removed them. I think the feather is probably a matter of personal taste: I don't like them, so I take them out, but I could understand leaving them in. As for the pin, I think of that as equivalent to a tag - you wouldn't wander around with the tag on the sleeve of your suit.

-Dave

 

[Alon]

I don't like the feathers at all. I've never seen historical images of hats with feathers, I think it's a modern addition that's much too ostentatious and superfluous. Particularly those bright red or blue feathers. A nice bow tie should be all the decoration on a vintage lid. Elegance in simplicity.

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Personally, I don't care for either the pin or the feather. However, in about forty years, I can imagine someone asking, "Has anybody got one of those turn of the century STETSON hat pins that everybody threw away, back then?"

 

[Atticus Finch]

I left the silver "JBS" branding iron pin on one of my Stetsons. I left the feather on my Akubra. Otherwise, all the pins, tags and feathers in and on my other hats had to go.

Atticus

 

[HamletJSD]

During the Christmas season I used a live sprig of Holly (couple of leaves with a few berries) as a feather. Other than that, I take them off. I think most here do.

And as David said, it seems from most photos and even modern films set in a past era that the feathers used to be taken out, or never included with the hat in the first place. Someone can likely answer with more certainty

 

[Doctor Strange]

I always take 'em off too. A nicely styled hat doesn't require additional decoration. I throw the pins into my jewelry box(*) and give the feathers to my daughter.

(* A cheap covered-cardboard affair that my mom gave me when I was about 12. Since I don't wear jewelry anymore, it's actually filled with old watches, rings, chains, tie claps, key chains, and such by now. I also put those scrap leather zipper-pull extenders from my flight jackets in there too: I prefer using just the metal pullers.)

 

[duggap]

Feathers

Actually I think a nice, neat feather is not bad at all. The problem is the first time you go into a wind the feather becomes all frayed. Nothing you can do will fix it back the way it was, so off it comes. I have come to feel the only decoration I want on a hat is a wind trolly. I call them that because I like the looks of a wind trolly and I probably would never use it for its intended use. And I agree with others here that I don't like the new Boralinos that put the name on the knot in the ribbon. It looks tacky.[huh]

 

[lookoutscj]

I always remove them as well. However, if I ever find that perfect Stetson Stratoliner I've looked for so long, I would probably like to have that original DC-3 pin that came along with it as well as the box. Being a fan of the vintage aircraft of this era, I probably could'nt help myself.
Lookoutscj

 

[NonEntity]

I started a thread recently on hat logo pins, but it's dropped out of sight. No one who posted liked them--the unashamedly walking-ad types--which is what I was referring to, but a few, including myself, do like those airplane pins.

Now, feathers. If you think they are a relatively new trend, think again. Some of the most ostentatious feathers ever were affixed to men's hats, often military ones dating back for millenia and up through the first part of the 20th century.

My dad and granddad, born 1902 and 1923, respectively, and noiw deceased, both wore feathers in their hats when I was a kid in the 1960s. I saw photos of them and other "civilians" in the decades before, and their hats almost always had feathers.

I like a feather, but not just any old feather. It has to have the right color combination and go with the style of the hat, so I buy my own feathers and personally select and afix which ones I like. I even switch feathers to coordinate with the casualness/dressiness or colors of the clothes I have on.

Not a feather, but a can't-miss decoration is the large badger-bristle brush on my Tyrolean. People have one of two reactions: love or loathing.

Question to all: Is it appropriate to put a feather on a hat with a puggaree?

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Question to all: Is it appropriate to put a feather on a hat with a puggaree?

I'd say it depends on whether it's your hat or someone else's.

By the way, thank you for the history lesson on feathers. I found it enlightening and entertaining. I love learning stuff!!!

 

[Rick Blaine]

I like pins

This 'un is on a 3x beater of an Open Road.

this is on a Royal DeLuxe O.R. The hat is really much more of a dove grey & the pin complements it more than this photo shows. It is the very elegant logo to the old Ford flat-head V-8 although someone told me they thought it was a snowman on skis as seen right before he lands on you...(???!!!).

Here is a Dobbs w/ a Canadian Pacific RR pin:

... and although it is not a pin here is a detail from the pugeree of a Stevens Royalist, kinda a unique treatment, I think;

 

[Wolfmanjack]

INow, feathers. If you think they are a relatively new trend, think again. Some of the most ostentatious feathers ever were affixed to men's hats, often military ones dating back for millenia and up through the first part of the 20th century.

You're right NE. Traditional dress in the Scottish highlands (both military and civilian) is a Glengarry, Balmoral or Tam o'Shanter with a badge and a "hackle"

Modern dress continues the tradition. Here is the The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) deployed in Iraq, wearing the Tam o'Shanter with the traditional red hackle.

That being said, I don't wear pins or feathers in my fedoras. With one exception: One of my beaters is a Filson wool packer hat

that I wear with my clan badge and a crow feather. I'll post a pic if there is interest.

 

[NonEntity]

Wolfmanjack,

I'm of Scotch-Irish heritage and enjoyed those photos. That Highlander could be a distant relative; perhaps I have feathers in my genes. I've been told I have feathers in my head, but let's not get into that right now.

Sure, I'd love to see a pic of your "beater" with the feather. Filson makes some fine products.

On "beaters:" We must all be careful not to get too uppity here. True, I appreciate fine fedoras and quintuple fino Panamas & regal Homburgs and oh-so-British Bowlers and formal Top Hats and the like, but they are not the be-all and end-all of headgear. Yes, there are many occasions when another kind of hat is a better choice.

For example, if I know I'll be out in cool or cold moderate to heavy rain, my Harris Tweed Irish walking hat is my first choice. It's lined in Gortex so is absolutely water-proof yet still breathes, and I got it from Land's End for $50. Looks? That's entirely subjective. Sexy and serious or light-hearted and laughable? Sean Connery in film or Chuck Barris on The Gong Show?

Like the Irish walking hat, berets are inexpensive ($12 - $45) and practical, too, but some stuck-up hat people look down their noses at them, as well. Water-resistant and warm, a beret will not blow off in any wind less than gale force and are easily folded to compactly stow in a pocket. Looks? Again, totally subjective. Tough right-wing warrior or leftist liberal? Monty, elite U.S. Marines, or Che Guevara, Hollywood directors?

This concludes the editorial segment, and we now resume the regularly scheduled posting on the topic, Feathers & Pins.

 

[RBH]

I always remove them as well. However, if I ever find that perfect Stetson Stratoliner I've looked for so long, I would probably like to have that original DC-3 pin that came along with it as well as the box. Being a fan of the vintage aircraft of this era, I probably could'nt help myself.
Lookoutscj

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[J.T.Marcus]

...On "beaters:" We must all be careful not to get too uppity here. True, I appreciate fine fedoras and quintuple fino Panamas & regal Homburgs and oh-so-British Bowlers and formal Top Hats and the like, but they are not the be-all and end-all of headgear. Yes, there are many occasions when another kind of hat is a better choice.

That has to be the "QUOTE OF THE YEAR." Maybe you could save it, and insert it into other threads, as the need arises.

 

[Fastuni]

Feathers and pens... this is about writing instruments right?

Being silly here - but infact I have started to stick a nice little 30's pencil into my everyday hat (a 30's Mossant).
Just a quirky gimmick since I doodle and draw a lot.

 

[Dan Allen]

Can anyone give me the year range of the "JBS" branding iron pin ? I have a couple and was wandering the approx. age

 

[LeBois46]

During an earlier era, the tricorn or cocked hat, the cockade was indicative of many things. Political faction, rank either military or social were most common. If I remember correctly near the end of the 18th century, the color cockade one wore was important. While I would not wear something that ostentatious today, a small feather would be acceptable. I do agree that wearing a brand name of a hat would be in poor taste.

 

[-30-]

" I do agree that wearing a brand name of a hat would be in poor taste."
LeBois46.

As do I, but Borsalino does not agree with us, in that, it comes part & parcel with their hats bows.


Regards,
J T