Hat Sightings

[Mr E Train]

Walmart Open Road sighting

I was in the Walmart checkout line earlier today when an older gentleman walked by wearing an Open Road (or at least a quality Open Road clone) with a cattleman's crease. He looked the part, too, because he had on a checked shirt tucked into his jeans, but I didn't see if he was wearing cowboy boots. I was wearing my gray Milan straw fedora, and he glanced over as he walked by and I looked right at him and smiled and nodded, but he didn't seem to notice. Too bad I was stuck in the checkout line, or I would definitely have gone up to him and started a conversation about the hat.

 

[The Good]

Today while at church, I noticed three fedoras. One older gentleman was wearing a brown fur felt with a teardrop crease, a lady was wearing a straw Panama-looking one, and I also noticed a younger adult man wearing a straw stingy brim trilby.

 

[Michaelshane]

 

[Chinaski]

That there feller looks like he might have a story or two to tell you. Especially if you bought him a beer.

 

[Michaelshane]

Funny you should say that.He walked across the street right into the Coal street pub.

 

[DanielJones]

Prosector with a thirst. And a fairly clean looking one at that.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[texashatman]

This isn't really a "sighting" story but the other day I was flying from Lima, Peru to Houston and I was wearing the hat in my avatar and a sports coat and the woman at the counter upgraded me to business class. She said "you look like you deserve to be upgraded". The flight was pretty empty so they had plenty of open business and first class seats but if I hadn't been wearing that I doubt if she would have done it. My wife is a little embarassed by my wearing hats but now she's a little more appreciative of it. We're flying to Florida Sunday and she said "Are you wearing a hat?" I said "Heck yes and a linen sports coat too, maybe we can get another upgrade!" Now she's onboard.

 

[Michaelshane]

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[Yeps]

I was at the farmer's market today, and I saw a well dressed fellow wearing a navy blue hat that looked just like the hat in this illustration (the one the chap in the trench is wearing).

I also saw a man wearing a wide brimmed black fedora of some sort which had the front end of the brim folded under so that it looked almost like someone had taken a bite out of it.

 

[The Good]

No pictures, sorry, but for me there were several brimmed hat sightings today in town. An older guy that usually wears a black shirt and black jeans wore one of his black hats today, it was a cowboy hat I think, he jogs everyday in the area, sometimes he wears other hats too, I saw him in a bowler once (I think), and he wears black baseball caps too.

As I got to parking for school, I noticed a guy wearing a white cowboy hat with a cattleman's crease, probably a straw, but could have been felt, as far as I was able to make out from the distance. I also spotted a professor walking by wearing a tannish-off white Panama hat, probably 3 inches in width or wider.

After my first class, and on my way to the next, on campus I noticed a couple of trilby wearers (the kinds made from polyester, straw, or cotton). Then as I got to political science, my professor wore his brown fedora too class that day (he owns a black one too, both appear to be around 2 1/2 inches, pretty wide brimmed). He actually a complimented me on it, and told me that he knew good quality when he saw it, and said mine was a fine hat. A female student sitting next to me also remarked that my hat looked very authentic, and asked about where I bought it, then I told her about Hats Direct.

Seems in my area, brimmed hats are back, in a small way, and are mostly worn by older folks, or young adults and teenagers. I saw a couple of flatcaps out there too though, still nice.

 

[Michaelshane]

 

[Bingles]

I don't normally see any fedoras except the occasional modern stingy brim, but yesterday in downtown Little Rock, I saw a man across the street wearing a gray fedora with about a 2" brim. I'm usually the only one that I know of wearing fedoras. Given that there are only 2 places in Little Rock or North Little Rock that I'm aware of where you can get a fedora (& one of those was a recent surprise), you just don't see many of them here.

Now Now.. let's not be knocking the stingy brimmed. ALL of my hats have brims of under 2 inches.

I do tend to notice more people wearing nice fedoras.. and even the "walmart" style trilbys are catching on... though not the quality we may be accustomed to, they are an improvement to the baseball cap - at least in my book.

As a substitute teacher, I have to stand outside for bus duty at the end of each day at the middle school. I always wear one of my hats, and had received a few compliments from the staff. One day in November, one of the reading teachers came out to talk to me. He had just started buying and wearing vintage fedoras.. and was a big fan of retro clothing. He thought at his "advanced age of 50", he would be "allowed" to wear a fedora. When he had mentioned that to one of the younger teachers, she told him, "no you don't, there's a 20 something year old substitute who always wears a hat.. and he looks good". Needles too say, I made a hat friend.

The kids always want to know what hat I brought with me, and usually refer to my pork pies as "short top hats"... without giving a lesson on just hats, I do try to correct them from calling my beloved pork pies, "top hats". lol

 

[Atticus Finch]

This isn't exactly a personal hat sighting, but....

I watched the 1996 cult film From Dusk Till Dawn the other night, mainly because I could find absolutely nothing else to do. Any film with both Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis has to be a cult film, doesn't it? Anyhow, Harvey Keitel wears a classic Open Road in much of the movie and it seems to work well for him. This isn't a great photo, but it’s all I could find on Google Images.

 

[The Good]

I don't have a picture of it, but my political science professor's fedora reminds me very much of the Stetson Temple, in both shape and color:

Basically, it had a slightly lower crown than my own Akubra Federation, was tapered as the Temple looks to be, was just about the color in the above picture, had the front-dents in a similar manner spread apart from each other, and appeared to have a center dent on top. It had no liner, from what little I was able to glimpse of the inside, but he could have simply taken it off out of preference, due to the fact that it gets quite hot here in southern California, even along the coastal areas. It also had a feather on the ribbon.

It could very well have been the same hat in the picture, the Stetson Temple.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I see a fellow, I'm guessing in his 80s, driving a maroon Grand Marquis, driving around, proudly sporting his fedora. Sundays are a great day to go out to the stores after church time and go fedora hunting. I see tons of them in Wal-Mart or the IGA after church, always nice to see.

I'm also glad to see a cheesy Wal-Mart Trilby over a cap any day. I have one that I wear as my 'compromise' to a vintage one. It's a houndstooth trilby, and it makes me feel like Kojak, especially in my cop car haha.

 

[The Good]

I'm also glad to see a cheesy Wal-Mart Trilby over a cap any day. I have one that I wear as my 'compromise' to a vintage one. It's a houndstooth trilby, and it makes me feel like Kojak, especially in my cop car haha.

"Compromise," huh? You mean like those days where your family or friends just aren't interested in you wearing a classic fedora, and just want you to blend in with the crowd more? I can sort of relate to that, actually.

 

[The Good]

No pics, but today was a good day indeed for hat wearing. Initially I wore my brown fedora mainly due to the fact that it was foggy and rather chilly outside. Some little rain drops even came down, but that was brief itself. While at church I had noticed an older man wearing either a thin ribbon wide-brimmed grey fedora, or an Australian style outback hat with a leather band (I couldn't tell very well from the distance). While going to a couple of stores (I had actually tried to go to a Salvation Army nearby to check for some suits/sport coats, but it was closed), I noticed quite a few people wearing brimmed hats; mostly fedoras, and mostly of the cloth stingy-brim trilby kind (mainly black, or plaid). A couple of wide brimmed hats in the crowds too; an Australian outback, and a straw cowboy hat. Numerous caps of course; besides the ubiquitous baseball cap, there was an older man with a traditional-looking flatcap or newsboy.

 

[Mario]

There are not too many 'real' fedoras here in Berlin but literally thousands of cheap cloth trilbies. Lots of straws too. Two weeks ago at a festival in Thüringen about a third of the people wore straws. There is an upward tendency.

 

[Shangas]

Last week while in the City, I saw a group of people, probably three or four them. One man and two or three girls, chatting as they headed up the street. The man was wearing what looked like a felt bowler hat. Brown in colour. This is the second time in my life that I've seen someone wear a Bowler in public.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Here in the Swan River Colony, I often see an aged toff in Saint George's Terrace , in Morning dress with a black bowler, I am assuming he is a Lawyer and a huge fan of "Rumpole of the Bailey"