Fedora History

[Pat_H]

As there are a couple of threads running around that relate to this, I thought I'd try it as a separate topic.

When did the hat we think of as a Fedora (as opposed to a hat named "Fedora") actually show up?

How has it changed, in an identifiable manner, over the years? Crown height, brim width, etc?

And when did it become nearly part of the uniform of the American male, and then go out as part of that uniform?

 

[Spatterdash]

The word fedora came from a play about a woman named Fedora, who apparently wore a soft felt hat. Even though it arose from a female character in the 1880's, I can document the use of the word 'fedora' as a man's hat, to at least 1907.

Indy fans and the Irish alike will likely have heard of "Mayor Harrison's Fedora", an Irish reel written in O'Neill's "Dance Music of Ireland" in 1907.

Mayor Carter Harrison Jr. of Chicago was a common dinner guest in the O'Neill household, and the reel was written in his honor and is called "Feadoir an Meara Harrison" in the original Irish.
So it appears the word 'fedora' was being used to describe the hat of a prominent political man by the mid 1900's.
"Mayor Harrison's Fedora" is still a very popular reel and recordings are easily found in Google.

 

[Brad Bowers]

My $0.02:

This is a generalization, but the style that we all know and love as a fedora really only thrived from around 1925 to 1955. Now, those dates are rather arbitrary, but they sum up the idea that their heydey was only a three-decade period.

As a style concern, soft felt hats have always been around, but they weren't very common or popular by the turn of the 20th century, at least among the urban dwellers who set the styles. Soft hats made a comeback starting around 1906, but it took the next two decades for the style to evolve from that of the homburg to the fedora.

As I said, these are generalizations, and it's hard to pin down exact dates on anything, as examples can be found all over the spectrum.

Brad

 

[Spatterdash]

I'd agree with that.
I can only document the term and usage, and then only sparingly. As to the shape or the look of those pre-WWI fedoras, I would have to guess you'd need an old Sears catalog or similar source.

I'd argue that the bowler/derby/coke hat began to sport softer crowns, and the homberg appeared, and versions of the early homberg soon lost their rolled edge and... umm, "looks like a fedora hat, you know... the hat that lady Fedora wore in that play?"

 

[Brad Bowers]

Yeah, the terminology is a curious thing. Today, we refer to a fedora, in most cases, as a felt hat with a snap brim, front pinch, and some kind of crease or shaping on the top of the crown. Doesn't always have to be soft, as some manufacturers these days have proven.lol

Back then, I suspect it was a generic term for any soft felt hat. I think I've seen pictures or artwork somewhere of the hat from the play, and it was just a plain soft hat, no real shape to it at all.

Brad

 

[Pat_H]

My $0.02:

This is a generalization, but the style that we all know and love as a fedora really only thrived from around 1925 to 1955. Now, those dates are rather arbitrary, but they sum up the idea that their heydey was only a three-decade period.

I've noted that in crowd photos from around World War One, in the US, you can see some hats that are sort of proto-Fedoras. They seem to be headed towards that hat we think of as a Fedora, but they aren't there yet.

Somehow, at some point in the 20s, they really took off big time Funny how that happened.

The other day, I was watching the film "The Apartment". It was filmed in the late 50s, or early 60s, and it still depicted all the business men as wearing Fedoras, although the brims were shrinking by that time. Likewise, one of the classic movie channels is running a Hitchcock film with James Stewart in it, which appears to be from the late 50s or early 60s, in which he's still wearing a fairly wide brim Fedora. He almost looks out of place in the film as a result.

I don't know that this contributes much to my own thread, but it does seem to me that it's hard to find a true Fedora much earlier than your 1925 general date.

To expand out the other direction, it seems to me that Fedoras are now increasing in number, but that the modern Fedora is a thin ribbon Fedora. Or am I wrong on that?

 

[dhermann1]

I'm not an expert on the subject at all, but I get the impression that fedoras started out in the 20's as a sort of hip, cool, casual fashion statement, as opposed to the homburg or the top hat (which was still commonly worn).
As the century wore on, it evolved from symbolizing casual to symbolizing formal. Now that I think of it, the same may have happened to homburgs. The picture of Michale Collins on another thread, shows him in a grey homburg with a less formal bash than we tend to associate with homburgs.
I guess this is a perpetual trend in fashion, one generation's casual statement becomes the next generations symbol of formality.
Tho I think most Loungers think of fedoras as an all purpose hat.

 

[Dixon Cannon]

I've noted that in crowd photos from around World War One, in the US, you can see some hats that are sort of proto-Fedoras. They seem to be headed towards that hat we think of as a Fedora, but they aren't there yet.

Somehow, at some point in the 20s, they really took off big time Funny how that happened.

The other day, I was watching the film "The Apartment". It was filmed in the late 50s, or early 60s, and it still depicted all the business men as wearing Fedoras, although the brims were shrinking by that time. Likewise, one of the classic movie channels is running a Hitchcock film with James Stewart in it, which appears to be from the late 50s or early 60s, in which he's still wearing a fairly wide brim Fedora. He almost looks out of place in the film as a result.

I don't know that this contributes much to my own thread, but it does seem to me that it's hard to find a true Fedora much earlier than your 1925 general date.

To expand out the other direction, it seems to me that Fedoras are now increasing in number, but that the modern Fedora is a thin ribbon Fedora. Or am I wrong on that?

Here's a photo of Woody Wilson disrupting a game by throwing a second ball into play.
As you can see the crowd's hats are not quite fedora style yet.

Yet here is photo from the same period and we can clearly see several fedora shaped
hats on some individuals in the crowd.
Apparently these are Washington Senators fans running Woody out of town on a rail!

-dixon cannon

 

[J.T.Marcus]

According to http://www.dirtybillyshats.com/

The U.S. Army was using this as a uniform hat in 1876

And these in 1883

http://www.dirtybillyshats.com/

Click on 19th and Early 20th Century. Then click on Post Civil War. Then click on US27, and US26.

 

[J.T.Marcus]

I just re-read the text for the US26. Very interesting.

"$125 (heavy nutria fur blend, snowflake or star vent; add $10 for brass ventilators)
Add $10 for bound officer's brim
Insignia Extra
Teddy Roosevelt's was gray . . . as used in "Rough Riders."

 

[Dinerman]

Do the photos of the originals in the third picture look like they have much higher crowns? Like the repros are a bit too tapered?

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Do the photos of the originals in the third picture look like they have much higher crowns? Like the repros are a bit too tapered?

Could be. I was especially taken with the third picture, myself.

 

[Pat_H]

Here's a photo of Woody Wilson disrupting a game by throwing a second ball into play.
As you can see the crowd's hats are not quite fedora style yet.

Yet here is photo from the same period and we can clearly see several fedora shaped
hats on some individuals in the crowd.
Apparently these are Washington Senators fans running Woody out of town on a rail!

-dixon cannon

Some of those in the second photo are pretty close.

 

[Russ]

If the fedora style is associated with a front pinch, then we have a few clues from old photos.

The "Stetson Hats" book has photos of Sears catalog hat pages. The catalog from the 1920s has only side pinches while the 1938-39 catalog has mostly front pinches. So judging from this, front pinches appeared between the 1920s and 1938 -- at least in the Sears catalog.

However, nothing prevented individuals from giving their hats a front pinch before that time, and I have seen at least one Civil War era hat with a front pinch (look at the hat resting on the right side of the photo).

 

[Colby Jack]

According to http://www.dirtybillyshats.com/

The U.S. Army was using this as a uniform hat in 1876

And these in 1883

http://www.dirtybillyshats.com/

Click on 19th and Early 20th Century. Then click on Post Civil War. Then click on US27, and US26.

DirtyBilly had a store front here at the Olustee Battle that IC and I went to.
I didn't see any nutria offerings...it was all cheap wool stuff.

 

[J.T.Marcus]

DirtyBilly had a store front here at the Olustee Battle that IC and I went to.
I didn't see any nutria offerings...it was all cheap wool stuff.

I'm not surprised. The page for the black 1876 says "(wool as original)- can make it in nutria or beaver..." Pity he didn't have any fur felt, there. How was the workmanship on the woolies?

 

[Dinerman]

1914/1915 hat catalogue, pics grabbed off ebay.