How many hats do you have?

[Frunobulax]

I hear that! Buying is much more fun than selling. Opening a box with a new hat is much more satisfying than carefully packaging a hat for shipping.

Yeah, but scoring a hat for $10 at the antique market and having it run up to $150 on eBay is pretty darn satisfying. Then I can buy more hats.

 

[belfastboy]

Yeah, but scoring a hat for $10 at the antique market and having it run up to $150 on eBay is pretty darn satisfying. Then I can buy more hats.

Yes, that was my thought....for every hat I am boxing up to ship means there is money in my PayPal account to SPEND on another hat.......win win win!

 

[1967Cougar390]

I have 8 fur felts, Akubra and Stetson. Two inexpensive straw fedoras, Silver Creek and PFG. I also kept one of my early wool fedora conversions, it’s Ivory and it’s lightweight.

I wear all of my hats so that is very satisfying. I don’t own any vintage hats because I have a “big ole head” , 7 5/8.

Steven

 

[dkstott]

On the topic of collections. I once visited a fellow antique radio hobbiest in New Jersey.

He had just reached his goal of having 100 different console radio's from the 1930 - 1940 era in his house.

All were restored, working and in absolutely beautiful condition.

The problem was that you couldn't move around his house. Heck, his living room was so packed the front door couldn't fully open.

 

[DaveProc]

I have never counted, but most likely around 75

 

[belfastboy]

I have never counted, but most likely around 75

not counting them gives you plausible deniability.....good plan.

 

[DaveProc]

not counting them gives you plausible deniability.....good plan.

If my wife asks, I have three.

 

[mark balen]

If my wife asks, I say "Probably about 10 or 12." Seems to help that the 30 or 35 are are in 4 different rooms...and in 2 closets...and the car.

 

[Rmccamey]

Yep, that's my story! A brown, a grey, and a black!

If my wife asks, I have three.

 

[Delthayre]

Twelve, in sum: Six by Vintage Silhouettes, four by Leon Drexler,, one by Optimo and one by Penman. I have a thirteenth pending from Black Sheep Hat works and a perhaps a fourteenth from Leon Drexler if Mr. Temkin ever decides to resume hatmaking. I'll probably have to stop just past those, being as one-bedroom apartments seldom have cavernous closets.

 

[Daniele Tanto]

It's the wrong question I think. How many books do you have or how many CD's (LP's or whatever)? Having handled the over 300 hats of my collection recently I realised that, yes, there are too many of them. But that's more to do with the lack of storage and not with me not wanting all of these and more of them. Even if I don't wear several of them, six toppers and eleven bowlers come to mind, I can still appreciate them. Sure, some of them could go, because they don't suit me or fit me well enough, but that's part and parcel of collecting vintage hats. So if I had sufficient storage space I would see no reason to stop collecting. And in my small size it's not about the money either; I can have a hat for the price of a few drinks and a small snack. Every few weeks I select about 8 of them and wear them in rotation.

I mention Stefan for the number of hats which is very similar to mine, even if in my collection there are no top hats and bowler hats, there are a fair number of hats not my size and a good number of unfinished ones, bought for the their beauty. This guides me in the choice of hats, although they are now in uncontrollable numbers Every week I open a box and I wear most of the hats I found in it, then I change hoping to find hats that I remember little. This is the game for me.

 

[belfastboy]

Twelve, in sum: Six by Vintage Silhouettes, four by Leon Drexler,, one by Optimo and one by Penman. I have a thirteenth pending from Black Sheep Hat works and a perhaps a fourteenth from Leon Drexler if Mr. Temkin ever decides to resume hatmaking. I'll probably have to stop just past those, being as one-bedroom apartments seldom have cavernous closets.

Do you think Mr Temkin will start up again? Is his hiatus health related? I know before he had to take a break due to early stage carpal tunnel syndrome.

 

[Edward]

Uhm... I think I'm at around twenty caps in varying textiles (tweeds, wools, canvas, linen, pigskin and cowhide), about fifteen to twenty or so furfelts (mostly fedoras, but also a couple of top hats, bowlers and hombergs), and maybe six or eight brimmed straws / polystraws, including two straw boaters. Oh.... and four or five cotton nightcaps, and maybe a dozen or so Fezzes/smoking caps, which do wonders at keeping the Bald warm in Winter (in bed and around the house respectively).

All of mine get worn regularly; I deliberately don't collect or buy hats that I wouldn't wear.

 

[belfastboy]

Uhm... I think I'm at around twenty caps in varying textiles (tweeds, wools, canvas, linen, pigskin and cowhide), about fifteen to twenty or so furfelts (mostly fedoras, but also a couple of top hats, bowlers and hombergs), and maybe six or eight brimmed straws / polystraws, including two straw boaters. Oh.... and four or five cotton nightcaps, and maybe a dozen or so Fezzes/smoking caps, which do wonders at keeping the Bald warm in Winter (in bed and around the house respectively).

All of mine get worn regularly; I deliberately don't collect or buy hats that I wouldn't wear.

Yes, that is my 'collecting' rule.....if it don't get worn it gets sold. I had an extensive collection of vintage mountain bikes and the rule held too.......if it don't get ridden it gets sold.

 

[BJC88]

Only four. Three Penman Hats and an Adventurebilt. I wear all of my hats throughout the year except for my gray. I keep that one clean for formal wear.

 

[Yahoody]

Enablers all

 

[jlee562]

Around 40 if we count the few disassembled and not yet built hats. A good mix of vintage, modern, and custom.

 

[Delthayre]

Do you think Mr Temkin will start up again? Is his hiatus health related? I know before he had to take a break due to early stage carpal tunnel syndrome.

Any guess on that is beyond me. I hadn't known about the carpal tunnel syndrome, although that wouldn't be a shock given the fine handwork that he does. The last time that I corresponded with him, which was in February of this year, he wrote that he was going to finish work on his remaining orders, then take the spring and summer off to make hats for himself and contemplate the future. (This instagram post corroborates that) I would hope so, of course, because I had designs on at least one last homburg and he's an excellent hatter whom I've enjoyed dealing with, but he's certainly not obligated to and I figured out a long time ago that I'm lousy at predicting the future.

 

[belfastboy]

Any guess on that is beyond me. I hadn't known about the carpal tunnel syndrome, although that wouldn't be a shock given the fine handwork that he does. The last time that I corresponded with him, which was in February of this year, he wrote that he was going to finish work on his remaining orders, then take the spring and summer off to make hats for himself and contemplate the future. (This instagram post corroborates that) I would hope so, of course, because I had designs on at least one last homburg and he's an excellent hatter whom I've enjoyed dealing with, but he's certainly not obligated to and I figured out a long time ago that I'm lousy at predicting the future.

Yes, I love all my customs but Stephen's sit at the top of the heap in terms of quality and attention to detail. I would love to get one more but I fear that at this advanced age I may sit on the wait list too long to matter. I hope his physical health is good and he is taking a mental health break.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Yes, I love all my customs but Stephen's sit at the top of the heap in terms of quality and attention to detail. I would love to get one more but I fear that at this advanced age I may sit on the wait list too long to matter. I hope his physical health is good and he is taking a mental health break.

His waiting list for just in case he returns to hatting is over a year...and I’m on it. Speaks to his craftsmanship that even when he’s stopped making hats there are enough people wanting one to line up hoping for his return. I’m just glad that these hatters aren’t from the Adam Smith school of supply and demand and haven’t raised their prices commensurate with their scarcity. I bet he could raise his prices 50% and still have more work than he could handle. Bless them.