How do I conceal retaining string & button?

[Naphtali]

The news is generally good. I was given a vintage Borsalino fedora this afternoon. It has on its left side a button with an elastic string. Button is arrested by a loop. It and the anchored end of the string are sewn through the bottom of the crown beneath the hatband.

Okay, how do I conceal the string when I'm not using it?

 

[Andykev]

It wraps around the hat!

I don't know what you mean by conceal. It is sewn to the hat. You make a "loop" and it goes around the crown, and you snug it up by sliding the button to tighten the string. So, just poke the cord thru the "eyelet" and "lasso" it round the crown. Does this help?

 

[fedoralover]

It's never actually concealed, more like stored in a resting position. The button always shows when you wear it and the string is generally at the bottom of the ribbon around the crown and while it's not noticably visible it's not really concealed either. looks like this

fedoralover

 

[tonyb]

Can't say that I've ever used a wind string for its intended purpose, but I like that it's there. A wind string "dresses up" a hat, and, while I have had several good hats without one, I've never had a lousy hat with one.
I love that town of yours, Naphtali. The dewy-eyed bride and I spent part of our honeymoon in Missoula, and I've visited on numerous other occasions. Shoot, it's only 500 miles away.
Fedoralover, was that Stratoliner in that condition when you got it? Looks good as new in that photo. Any idea as to its age?

 

[jeboat]

Wind string

The short answer is you don't hide the string. It is an indication of a really fine hat. A lot of the vintage hats have the wind string and it makes them more valuable to the connoisseur.

jeboat:cool2: :cool2: :cool2:

 

[tonyb]

Just a sec

Fedoralover, does that lid in the photo not have a bound edge? Or is the picture playing tricks on me, now that I'm three beers in? Stratoliners have bound edges, right?

 

[fedoralover]

Actually the pic is of the same hat in my Avatar, its a lightweight summer felt fedora called a Dobbs 2 Ouncer. I just like the little TWA pins and have them on several of my fedora's other than my Stratoliners. Yes you are correct Stratoliners do have a bound edge.

fedoralover

 

[tonyb]

Whew!

Glad for the clarification. Now I can have those other three beers without worrying that they'll overly mess with my eyesight. TGIF.

 

[tonyb]

And ...

OK, so where can I get one of those pins? I bought a couple of Stetson Stratoliners at a thrift store, oh, 30 or so years ago. One, a tan lid, left on a friend's head and never came back, and the other I mistreated to the point that it was beyond salvation. They were the hats that got me in the habit, and I miss them dearly.
I bought an apparently NOS (unbashed) one on eBay and am now eagerly awaiting its arrival via FedEx. It, unlike the Stratoliners of my misspent youth, even has a wind string.
I also have an oval Stratoliner box, also purchased on eBay. Now all I need is the authentic pin.
Trivia: The aircraft for which the Stratoliner was named, the Boeing 307, was something of a commercial flop. The only consolation to the Boeing Airplane Manufacturing Co. was that it had relatively little invested in the plane's development, as it was but a variation on the B-17, the "Flying Fortress" bomber of lore. Boeing made only 10 Stratoliners, three of which went to Pan Am, five to TWA, and one to Howard Hughes. The other one was a Boeing-owned test plane, which was lost in a crash. The last remaining Stratoliner, one of the Pan Am planes, was restored by volunteers in the Seattle area (where it was originally manufactured), but was ditched (in 2002 , as I recall) into Elliott Bay, that inlet on Puget Sound that abuts downtown Seattle, when it ran out of fuel. It was pulled from the drink and re-restored and is now in the care of the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum.
Personal aside: As a teenager I worked at a bowling alley in Renton, Wash., a blue-collar burg immediately south of Seattle that is home to a Boeing plant. (These days, 737s are assembled there.) I emptied ashtrays and swept lanes and sprayed disinfectant into rental shoes. Our busiest nights back then were the nights when Boeing workers bowled in their league games. The bowling alley had been there since the early 1940s and was called Strato Lanes. Yes, it was named for the Boeing 307 Stratoliner. The structure is still there, although it is now the showroom of a Chrysler dealership and has been so extensively altered that, unless you had heard the story or had lived in the area for a good long while, you would never know what it once was.

 

[fedoralover]

Where else but---

ebay of course, but you have to really watch for them as they don't come up very often. They come in different sizes, mine are all about 1 inch in length. I personally don't think the bigger ones would look right.

fedoralover

 

[Naphtali]

I think I've got it. Many thanks to you all and ALL of you have a pleasant, safe holiday season.


(I'm not being politically correct. I've never been accused of that crime. I'm just keeping the post short.)

Fedoralover: The graphic appears to be my hat. Same charcoal gray, same narrow ribbon, same unbound brim edge. Mine has no DC-3.