I'm horrified.

[Woodfluter]

Copy and paste the quote into google. Although you probably be in a better mental state if you don't. The site is horrendous. It's heart-wrenching to anyone who knows anything about fedoras.

Yeah, a fount of misinformation. Here's one gem:

"The pork pie style is another felt fedora that has a slightly wider brim. It is considered closely related to the Borsalino fedora made with a slight differentiation in form. This felt fedora hat has a retro panache without appearing dated. ...Felt hats were primarily intended to be a fashion accessory, so it is also recommended to keep it dry at all times."

Like Brad, I'm not clear on the business model at play here unless some sellers are persuaded to give some money to the owners of these websites to funnel bidders to eBay auctions. But it just doesn't seem plausible - can't affect the outcome that much. Especially not after you suggest using fur felt flowerpots!

- Bill

 

[cptjeff]

Every day, in all parts of the world, valuable and precious items are being destroyed, damaged, and altered from their original states to satisfy the whims of a select, ignorant group of people. They foolishly break down things better left in their original state, purely to make a buck. I have seen antique coins with holes drilled through them to make charms, and any number of other travesties to make a collector cringe. Sadly, there is nothing we can really do to stop this, except spread our message to preserve and protect the important pieces of history we so enjoy wearing. And occasionally, I even have reservations to wearing my vintage hats in public, for fear of exposing them to the elements. But what is the point of having a hat, if it cannot be worn? So, no matter what, there are those who spread these lies to even more ignorant consumers, telling them to destroy precious hats for decorations. I suppose we can only be thankful we have this wonderful community to spread the message, and salvage what we can. Just my $0.02 on the issue.

--flute

I understand that perspective from the PoV of a collector. However, you're collecting, not using. Others may be buying things like typewriter key cufflinks because they know nobody uses them anymore and they figure that people might want something to actively use made with a bit of history. Same with those pens made with wood from old ballpark seats. If nobody's using them in their current form, what's wrong with breaking them down? What's the inherent value in preservation, especially if the items are easier preserved at least in some form by spreading the wealth around, so to speak? To be honest I'm not a fan of collecting for the sake of collecting. More often then not, all sorts of cool usable stuff winds up in the attic in a box because the collector can't display all or even most of it, while there are people who might still want to use such things.

That said, there are still plenty of people who want to use fedoras as they are, and they can't really be preserved in another form like typewriter keys. But if a fedora is beyond wear, I would have no problems with seeing it become a flowerpot, if that would even work.

Besides, I very much doubt that many people are buying whippets for $200 flowerpots.

 

[QMcK]

Save the hats in a box. I'd love to find a box of hats in my attic.

 

[MCrider]

- Place a potted plant inside the hat to use as decoration.

- Hot glue the rim of the hat onto a hat box for a really neat look. Use as decoration and as hat storage.

- Simply hang 6 or 9 hats in a box shape over your bed or other wall as artwork. You can also nail them to a piece of wood as your headboard.

I can only hope that someone who does stuff like this to innocent hats, gets what they deserve... Which I think would be that the hats attract moths (possibile since they won't care about their condition) and the moths get in their closet and... the rest would be like a fashion designer's nightmare.

heh,heh heh

 

[ScionPI2005]

Actually, now that I've stopped to think about it, I really don't think using a fedora as a flower pot would work. Not only that, but I think it would look tacky and ugly. Flowers should stick to flower pots, and good fur felt fedoras should stick to heads.

 

[Trotsky]

Ugh. This kind of stuff makes me a little sick inside. There is one huge reason I hate Ebay and people solely out to make a buck: they will separate something purely for the money.
At the salvation army I saw an USAAF Officer's jacket: Hart, Shaffer, Marx branded. Had his "US" Lapel Insignia and a remaining Lt. bar. The outlines and hole of his missing Lapel wings were evident. The Salvation Army people had taken them off and put the in the case as a separate sale.
They'd been on that jacket for 60 years and greed got the better of the thrift store folk. Sad, really.

 

[tonyb]

Come to think of it, it has been suggested that I put dirt (or something quite akin to it) in my hat every time I put it on.

 

[NoZen]

It's one of those ubiquitous sites whose sole purpose is to look like a legitimate site full of useful information, but in fact all it does is funnel searchers to eBay auctions. I've never figured out the business model of these types of site, i.e., how they make money, but they're plentiful.
Brad

eBay pays a referral fee to such sites. If you click through from that site to eBay and then make a purchase (possibly even an item other than the one you clicked on; I'm not sure) eBay pays a commission to the site owner.

These sites are inevitably set up by someone who has thousands similar sites and no particular interest in the topic; the articles are usually written by a third party who is paid by word count rather than by accuracy.

Linking directly to junk sites from somewhere respectable like thefedoralounge gives those sites more mojo with search engines, thus more profit, so you may want to name them without linking to avoid inadvertently supporting vermin.

Except the one here is different. Domain registration info is (surprisingly) public and the site owner is eBay seller happy4123, who is pursuing the general "eBay commission" model but also seems to have a genuine interest in vintage fashion based on her eBay pages, blog, etc. She might actually welcome corrected definitions, hat care tips, etc, and a (friendly) nudge that the "how to destroy a perfectly good fedora" article be re-titled "things to do with a fedora that's already damaged beyond repair."

(Don't know her myself, just found the info from the domain reg.)

 

[JimWagner]

One man's treasure is another man's trash.

And always will be.

 

[Geesie]

Yeah, a fount of misinformation. Here's one gem:

"The pork pie style is another felt fedora that has a slightly wider brim. It is considered closely related to the Borsalino fedora made with a slight differentiation in form. This felt fedora hat has a retro panache without appearing dated. ...Felt hats were primarily intended to be a fashion accessory, so it is also recommended to keep it dry at all times."

It's like they threw a bunch of hat terms into a computerized text generator and posted the results. It's more than just wrong, it's complete nonsense.

 

[Fedoraadorer]

It doesn't seem like a site dedicated to vintage fedoras to me. Maybe a site dedicated to designers who don't care about vintage fedoras.

+ 1!

 

[AlterEgo]

This reminds me of the government's cash-for-clunkers program. You would not believe the number of classic automobiles, not to mention the plethora of decent, usable cars that were sent to the crusher for a program that confered an infinitessimily small contribution to fuel savings and environmental protection.

The key thing to remember about all old items is that, once gone, they are irreplaceable, and a slice of history is gone for good. Significantly, examples of the expensive, valuable-in-their-own-day artifacts are often preserved, while the mundane, everyday things are almost always discarded. It is these items that are most reflective of the people who used them.

Archeologists have found such artifacts that are so revealing about culture not in protected places but in moats and trash heaps where they were either lost or thrown away.

I'm not saying to keep all things old, but unless enough people preserve a few such items, a part of history is forever lost.

Anyone got a leftover Porche 911 or the like that they didn't trade in on the cash-for-clunkers program they'd like to put in caring hands for, say, a couple hundred bucks? If, so, I'm your man!