Homburg + Patch Pockets = ?

[TCMfan25]

Would the two work together?

 

[Nick D]

I've looked through all the catalogue scans I've collected and found a few examples, all from the '20s and '30s. It seems a light-coloured homburg was used for a sportier look with patch pockets.

 

[monbla256]

Would the two work together?

Seems it would depend on the color of the Homburg. It was originally worn in leu of a Topper and hence was considered more of a high dress hat years ago. It was usually worn with hard finished worsted suitings, chalkstripes, pinstripes etc and these were usuallt done either single or double breasted and had Besson style pockets not patch. When I was wearing suits, only my tweed sportcoats had patch pockets and these were not considered "dress" as much as the pinstripes. But that was in the 20th century and all the rules have gone out the window in the 21st so wear it with ANYTHING

 

[Dinerman]

Black homburgs were generally more formal. But you pinch it, and it becomes less formal. Other colored homburgs (brown, gray, etc) you should be fine with just about anything.

Historical precedent. for casual homburg wear. 1925.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Dinerman that is one of my all time favorite Shorpy images I use it for my Desktop photo for several of my computers.

 

[zetwal]

Dinerman that is one of my all time favorite Shorpy images [...]

That is a wonderful old photo.

 

[Scotus]

Black homburgs were generally more formal. But you pinch it, and it becomes less formal. Other colored homburgs (brown, gray, etc) you should be fine with just about anything.

Love this photo! I've not seen it before!

 

[Phineas Lamour]

Is that Edward?

 

[Chasseur]

I would second the color comment. If its black or charcoal it'll be hard to mix with casual or country clothes. However, you often see lighter color homburgs with country style clothing in the early 20th Century, in pariticular with shooting attire. So I think the right homburg could look good with a sports suit or sportcoat. In particular tweed.

Edward VII comes to mind... (though I in this particular photo it appears his jacket does not have patch pockets...)

Also the book The Big Shots on Edwardian shooting parties has some photos of other guns wearing homburgs while in tweed with some jackets with patch pockets.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Love this photo! I've not seen it before!

It is on page 3 of the Shorpy All Stars

Posted by Buler Shorpy-All-Stars/page3

 

[Edward]

Geography is also an issue here. As I understand it, the fedora as we now know it was much less common on this (European) side of the Atlantic prior to about 1930, with the homberg being relatively common. Michael Collins, for one, wore one the way folks in the US might have worn a fedora. All surviving photos of the Big Fella are b&w, but I suspect that it would have been in a brown colour, or at least a light grey. He seems always to have sported a "fedora pinch" on his. I've seen plenty enough photos from the period that would suggest he was far from alone in this. Not as common as a flat or eight panel cap, but they were there nonetheless. Seems to me that at least in some instances they maybe were less of a formal hat over here than they were in the US or than they became over here, in time. Similar trajectory to the bowler, possibly, which began as a casual hat for the working man.

 

[TCMfan25]

Despite the stomach turning nature of your rebel example, that is very interesting because I thought that the fedora was the number one hat across the world since 1919... I prefer Homburgs none the less.

 

[Dinerman]

Despite the stomach turning nature of your rebel example

You might want to avoid homburgs all together- it's hard to shake such negative associations. Bow ties and overcoats too. What might people think?!

 

[Sam Craig]

Hate to admit it ... or maybe I don't ... but I love this time of year in Kansas when it is cooler, but not quite jacket weather.

I love to wear (Please don't hate me) a homburg or derby with Hawaiian shirts and slacks.

I know. It's awful.

I also wear felt fedoras with Hawaiian shirts.

It's just for a couple of weeks.
I already have my sports shirts and 40s ties all out and ready to wear. I've worn a couple.
But it's been pushing 90 in the afternoons this week and sometimes you just gotta throw caution to the wind.

By the way ... I also love to wear homburgs and derbies with tweed sportscoats and even with windbreakers later in the season.

Sam

 

[monbla256]

Despite the stomach turning nature of your rebel example, that is very interesting because I thought that the fedora was the number one hat across the world since 1919... I prefer Homburgs none the less.

Spend some time on the Shorpy site ( http://www.shorpy.com/ ) and you will see that the Fedora ( as is usually refered to and worn here on this Forum) really did not come into predominate use till well into the mid 1920's and the most commonly worn felt hat was the Derby (Bowler in the UK) with the Homburg being seen as a more formal hat worn with more formal suitings. I would say that the Homburg style of hat was more commonly worn across the board with all suitings back in the turn of the century prior to the '20s. It definately is a unique and good looking hat style which IMHO is more of an anachronism today. I don't own any and probably would not just because of this. but to each his own. It is the "do anything, any way" 21st century after all

 

[Sam Craig]

MB, that is a great site.

To coin a phrase ... a picture's worth a thousand words.

Thanks,

Sam

 

[TCMfan25]

You might want to avoid homburgs all together- it's hard to shake such negative associations. Bow ties and overcoats too. What might people think?!

AHH! I have worn all three together!!!!!

I love Hommies, Bows, and Overcoats of course, however I detest Michael Collins.

 

[Edward]

Despite the stomach turning nature of your rebel example, that is very interesting because I thought that the fedora was the number one hat across the world since 1919... I prefer Homburgs none the less.

I prefer to leave the politics out of it; I raise Mick Collins simply as a very visible example of that approach to wearing a homberg - any photo I've seen of him prior to his becoming General Collins of the Free State Army in 1922 (by which point pretty much all photographs of him are in uniform), if he's wearing a hat it's a homberg bashed in that way. An easily remembered image that conjures a visual representation of the style to which I refer as readily as mentioning Winston S Churchill with the spotted bow tie (and the latter himself far from uncontroversial in some parts ).

Fedoras I understood to be a Thirties thing in terms of becoming common, but that said, both sides of the Atlantic were rather different on that score, even moreso back then, so the US may have been different. Of course, the Thirties in the UK and Ireland at least also saw the beginnings of the hatless trend, but that is another story entirely.

 

[Edward]

You might want to avoid homburgs all together- it's hard to shake such negative associations. Bow ties and overcoats too. What might people think?!

I'm sure there was some "gangster" dressed like that..... Personally, I'm of the opinion that if you love an accessory, be it a hat or a polka dotted bow tie, you should never let yourself be so limited by political affiliation that you can't bring yourself to wear something you love. It's not as if these things in and of themselves are a political statement, like wearing a Nazi armband or a t-shirt celebrating the killing of Tribal Group A by Tribal Group B's forces, military or para-military. As I see it, this applies to anything pretty much..... very little is beyond the reclaiming (if you want to see it that way), save perhaps the toothbrush 'tache.

 

[Sam Craig]

Yeah, it's best not to polticize fashion ... especially the type that we seem to love here, from bowties and derbies to Aloha shirts and fedoras.

I would be opposed to wearing a hat with a swastika on it ... especially a homburg, derby or tophat.

And I often wonder when the greenies will figure out what good hats are made out of and begin to attack us all as monsters.

Hey, enjoy it while you can.

Sam