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How do folks react to your hat wearing?

TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
WoW ... I'll spare you the Danish words that flew from me right there! Now that's a sharpster :eusa_clap

Some scary mobsters you've got down there! Luring the kids with lollipops, so they become easier to hit :eeek:
 
Last edited:

mojoboots

New in Town
Messages
14
Location
montana
I have been a staff sgt in the air force (military hats); a chef (chef's toque), a horse wrangler (cowboy hat), and now i wear fedora's...i suppose i am use to being in the public wearing various uniforms (and hats) of my current trade...i have been proud to do so - in my mind it set me apart as a "specialist."
I can not remember any negatives, only looks, which i interpeted as interest...the one's who might have been negative always recieved direct eye contact and a faint smile...seems to work!
 

Genuine Classic Gangster

One of the Regulars
Messages
163
Location
Canada
Today as I was shopping, a girl aged about 6-8 looked at me and then asked her mother, "Why does he look like a spy?"

So far, after wearing fedoras for about 15 years, I've still only received one negative comment, when a stranger I walked by randomly shouted at me, "What the H*** are YOU supposed to be?!" I suspect that perhaps he had some anger management issues and/or other mental health problems.

Due to my hat and complementary attire like the full-length overcoat that I always wear in Winter, others have also called me: dashing, vampire, ninja, the Invisible man, movie star, G-Man, Godfather, Humphrey Bogart, and Al Capone. I have been called many of those names many times by many different people. They were all meant in a positive way. When I'm called Al Capone, I love it. The gangster look is what I'm aiming for. I know some of you don't like the association between fedoras and gangsters, but I am fine with it. Gangsters look awesome, so why not look like them? That's my opinion anyhow, you don't have to agree, of course. :D

I have been asked if I am a P. I.

I also get the comments "nice hat!" and "great hat!" a lot. One woman said to me the other month: "that hat is so elegant."

Many people assume that I am very well-off financially when they see my overcoat and fedora.

As a result of my hat, I have also been asked, many times over the years: "Are you a Jew?" I suppose that many more people than have asked me that directly have silently thought that my hat signifies that I am a Jew. I do not wear black hats or hats with super tall and super flat crowns as are the type of hats that I think (?) some Jews wear as a part of their religious uniforms. I suspect that to many modern bystanders, any felt fedora worn nowadays signifies a Jewish religious hat.

Overall, my impression is that most people like how I dress, but they are confused because they don't know what is going on when they see me. They wonder why I am wearing a fedora and not dressing in the way that most people dress.
 

scottyrocks

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,178
Location
Isle of Langerhan, NY
One time at a wedding, I was wearing city-western attire - a gray, 3"-brimmed hat with a thin leather band, a bowler tie, stitched boots - and someone asked someone else within my earshot if I was the rabbi.

So yeah, people don't know what they're looking at.
 

TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Yeah, but we're not so different after all. I wonder how many fedora wearers know the meanings of different jewish hats - and when and why they are worn. Probably only a very few of us. My impression from reading Aaron's elaborations on the subject is, that most of us users in those threads knew appr. as much about the issue at hand, as any ballcap wearer knows about fedoras. We all share nearly all our genes - our knowledge-holes are just situated in different areas :)
 

Lotsahats

One Too Many
Messages
1,370
I've probably mentioned it before, but no one ever asks me if I'm Jewish. Maybe because it's too obvious to mention? :D

A
 

Genuine Classic Gangster

One of the Regulars
Messages
163
Location
Canada
I like hat wearing but I'm still waiting for that positive comment that just makes ones day...I've been called Indy, Frank, Dick Tracy, gangster and probably a few others I can't recall at the moment. I don't particularly care that much, but as someone relatively new to hats, positive comments would be a nice boost to confidence.

In my opinion the comments that you have listed there are positive comments; they are compliments. The people who made those comments are associating you with those figures because they like those figures.
 

The Fedorable

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Califonria
Today as I was shopping, a girl aged about 6-8 looked at me and then asked her mother, "Why does he look like a spy?"

So far, after wearing fedoras for about 15 years, I've still only received one negative comment, when a stranger I walked by randomly shouted at me, "What the H*** are YOU supposed to be?!" I suspect that perhaps he had some anger management issues and/or other mental health problems.

Due to my hat and complementary attire like the full-length overcoat that I always wear in Winter, others have also called me: dashing, vampire, ninja, the Invisible man, movie star, G-Man, Godfather, Humphrey Bogart, and Al Capone. I have been called many of those names many times by many different people. They were all meant in a positive way. When I'm called Al Capone, I love it. The gangster look is what I'm aiming for. I know some of you don't like the association between fedoras and gangsters, but I am fine with it. Gangsters look awesome, so why not look like them? That's my opinion anyhow, you don't have to agree, of course. :D

I have been asked if I am a P. I.

I also get the comments "nice hat!" and "great hat!" a lot. One woman said to me the other month: "that hat is so elegant."

Many people assume that I am very well-off financially when they see my overcoat and fedora.

As a result of my hat, I have also been asked, many times over the years: "Are you a Jew?" I suppose that many more people than have asked me that directly have silently thought that my hat signifies that I am a Jew. I do not wear black hats or hats with super tall and super flat crowns as are the type of hats that I think (?) some Jews wear as a part of their religious uniforms. I suspect that to many modern bystanders, any felt fedora worn nowadays signifies a Jewish religious hat.

Overall, my impression is that most people like how I dress, but they are confused because they don't know what is going on when they see me. They wonder why I am wearing a fedora and not dressing in the way that most people dress.

The only thing that comes to my mind would have been Inspector Gadget. My uncle was wearing a trench coat one day and my dad plopped my hat onto his head... First thing out of my dad's mouth was "Inspector Gadget". Good laugh and he just played along with it.
 

Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
I think it also depends a lot on your grooming and clothes. In a suit, clean shaven wearing fedora I have been subjected to the odd comments such as "wanker". These days with a beard, a black shirt and jeans, no one says a thing.
 

The Fedorable

One of the Regulars
Messages
220
Location
Califonria
I think it also depends a lot on your grooming and clothes. In a suit, clean shaven wearing fedora I have been subjected to the odd comments such as "wanker". These days with a beard, a black shirt and jeans, no one says a thing.

That's a bit harsh, don't you think? Not familiar with the rules of the game down under. Sounds like there's some local color happening and a grand entrance wouldn't go amiss.
 

hatflick1

Practically Family
Messages
623
On two occasions I got the Indiana Jones line. Each from guys wearing
Dodger hats, one backwards. But for the most part, I have had women approach
me and ask where I got the fedora because they wish their boyfriend/husband
would wear one, as well. And that goes to the many women I see who have dressed
up (appropriately) for a date only to be accompanied by a guy wearing a ball cap and
short pants. What happened to class?
 

TOuten2

Familiar Face
Messages
67
Location
North Carolina
I stopped at the local Starbucks this morning, wearing my Penman, and the late teen or early 20's young lady at the register said "I like your little hat". First time out with the Penman and got what I took it for a compliment.
 

TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
And that goes to the many women I see who have dressed
up (appropriately) for a date only to be accompanied by a guy wearing a ball cap and
short pants. What happened to class?

If we look under the stone where (we) the parents' generation parked the little word "responsibility", we may be able to catch a glimpse of some rapidly evaporating fumes of what once was known as "class". If we miss "class" with the youth, it's probably because nobody spent the energy to teach them about it. "Classy attire" is very often just a thin shell, but fortunately most today's young people are a lot better than their reputation. They radiate lots of sense, style and class, and they are just as capable as their parents. Actually, it's been like that for the last 2.000 years ... ever since Socrates complained about the youth ;)
 

John Galt

Vendor
Messages
2,080
Location
Chico
[F]ortunately most today's young people are a lot better than their reputation. They radiate lots of sense, style and class, and they are just as capable as their parents. Actually, it's been like that for the last 2.000 years ... ever since Socrates complained about the youth ;)

It's the immortal refrain - "Kids today!"

Interesting that Socrates was ultimately tried, convicted & put to death for corrupting the youth of Athens, no?

Aren't we all just waiting on a ship from Delos?


"Faint hat never won fair lady."
 

gear-guy

Practically Family
Messages
962
Location
southern indiana
This is how I feel about it as well. The only other person whose opinion(s) I care about is my wife, who has to be seen with me in public occasionally. If other people like my hats, fine. If not, they're entitled to their opinions no matter how wrong they are. :D

Like it, if my wife doesn't like I don't wear it. For the most part I get good comments and believe it or not most of the compliments come for young ladies. Hey love the hat, looking good, ect. Makes me young again.
 

Lotsahats

One Too Many
Messages
1,370
I had to share this: I went to synagogue tonight wearing a grey Stetson Whippet. As I walked into the shul, a guy I've known for ages said to me, "Do they call you Indy?" So as I noted before, no one asks me if I'm Jewish because of my hats, and now my Jewish friends are calling me Indy.

A fellah can't win.

A
 

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