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I must admit that when I go to "general" thrift stores here in Paris, most of the fedoras I see are black. It depends however, because some of these stores are more specialized than others, and in these we tend to see more colorful hats. And, I keep in mind that not every item we can find there are French.
As you say, maybe black hats were worn more rarely or for more "special" occasions and that's why a greater number of them have survived ... That would be interesting to know.
Black hats were the biggest seller but that was the case everywhere (pre 1940). It's not like people in the America were wearing colorful hats (actually they were very conservative) while everyone in Europe was wearing black hats (general view on the FL which IMO is wrong). American newspaper ads (late 1800s to early 40s) for Euro hats almost always mention unique colors and finishes as selling points. I know for sure that Velours came in very unique colors and they were popular in France (both French and Austrian).
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