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It's about time we define "fedora"

Can we define "fedora"?

  • Yes. An adequate definition exists.

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • Yes. We're getting there.

    Votes: 1 25.0%
  • Probably. We're pretty smart guys.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I don't know.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No. It's like trying to define happiness.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Why are you making me think?

    Votes: 2 50.0%

  • Total voters
    4
  • Poll closed .

BanjoMerlin

A-List Customer
Messages
477
Location
New Hampshire, USA
But, so well anyway.

Is this hat a FEDORA?

stetson.jpg
 

1961MJS

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,370
Location
Norman Oklahoma
Genus or Species?

Hi

I think that we need to first decide if a Homburg and a Fedora are different kinds of hats, OR if a Homburg is a type of Fedora. Good luck and good hunting.

Later
 

Yeps

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,456
Location
Philly
1961MJS said:
Hi

I think that we need to first decide if a Homburg and a Fedora are different kinds of hats, OR if a Homburg is a type of Fedora. Good luck and good hunting.

Later


Over in one of the historical threads, this popped up.

rlk said:

I know we are not looking for a historical definition, but rather a modern, working one, but this I think is interesting. Fedora appears to mean Alpine and also Homburg.
 

fluteplayer07

One Too Many
Messages
1,844
Location
Michigan
A visual organizer?

...................................Felt hats
Soft Felt.............................................................Hard Felt

*Fedora.............................................................*Derby
*Homburg
*Western
*{Porkpie?}
*{Tyrolean?}
*{Straw?}


A map like this? Fedora being merely one style?

Edit: Duh.
 

Panda Moanium

New in Town
Messages
46
Location
Ireland
What about hats like Akubra's Banjo Paterson? For me, it doesn't quite say Fedora, yet I'm struggling to define why not.

Heritage-BanjoPatterson-HerFawn-preview.jpg


Is it that the brim is too large at 3 inches? Or that the back is turned down? Or (perhaps this is the most likely) the narrow leather band instead of a larger ribbon.

It is fur felt, and has the pinched front and and crown features of a Fedora. So is it one?
 

Lefty

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,639
Location
O-HI-O
That's two guys to bring a porn analysis to the thread.

Hats,


they're just


hats.


Let's not get worked up.



:D
 

Panda Moanium

New in Town
Messages
46
Location
Ireland
Mobile Vulgus said:
Panda, I think that leather hat band instead of a ribbon says "western" to me instead of "fedora."

I agree with you....but it does demonstrate how impossible a task it is to reach a definition of a fedora.

I think I'll leave it to those more expert than I. Good luck guys!
 

rlk

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,100
Location
Evanston, IL
It is not possible to create a definition broad enough to include all hats sometimes described as Fedoras but is specific enough to exclude any hats which would never be called Fedoras.

If you exclude the crease, all soft(ish) hat bodies with a brim break may perhaps be Fedoras.
 

Mr. Gardner

New in Town
Messages
3
Location
Austin TX
This is bordering on philosophical debate! I have only a few guidelines that I use. First I agree that a fedora is a "style" of hat. The material doesn't necessarily concern me as I think a Panama hat can be had in a fedora style. I would put porkpies in a sort of hybrid category as I feel that some sort of crease is important to a fedora look. I think a snap is required as well as a brim width within certain dimensions (2-3 inches or so). And finally my enemy, the stingy brim. About a year ago I began buying and wearing wide brim fedora type hats. This was my stylistic response to the gigantic trend (still going on) of the "California hat", "stingy brim", "trilby", or whatever. It's not that this style can't be worn well (see Leonard Cohen) but the predominance of them and the fact that there are now so many cheap ones being made, drove me nuts. So I have mounted a one man war (here in Austin TX at least) against the "Hipster hat" or "stingy brim" which in my mind is NOT a fedora.
 

Yeps

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,456
Location
Philly
Mr. Gardner said:
This is bordering on philosophical debate! I have only a few guidelines that I use. First I agree that a fedora is a "style" of hat. The material doesn't necessarily concern me as I think a Panama hat can be had in a fedora style. I would put porkpies in a sort of hybrid category as I feel that some sort of crease is important to a fedora look. I think a snap is required as well as a brim width within certain dimensions (2-3 inches or so). And finally my enemy, the stingy brim. About a year ago I began buying and wearing wide brim fedora type hats. This was my stylistic response to the gigantic trend (still going on) of the "California hat", "stingy brim", "trilby", or whatever. It's not that this style can't be worn well (see Leonard Cohen) but the predominance of them and the fact that there are now so many cheap ones being made, drove me nuts. So I have mounted a one man war (here in Austin TX at least) against the "Hipster hat" or "stingy brim" which in my mind is NOT a fedora.

If you poke around here, there are some fantastic stingy fedoras, and I don't think anyone would debate them taking the name. I don't think that the cloth ones should be called fedoras (not sure why, but the distinction hast to be drawn somewhere). I think it has to be made of felt (although I would refer to a straw fedora, but not a cloth one), wool or fur. Well, theoretically you could make a synthetic, but I would rather not think about that.
 

DAJE

One of the Regulars
Messages
144
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Richard Warren said:
Actually, if one may be permitted to say it, there is some merit in DAJE's definitions.

Well, they weren't my personal definitions, I was saying that if you were to say the word "fedora" to most people, what they would think would be one or both of those definitions: wannabe-hipster hat or olden-days hat.

Any better definition than those may be of interest to hat-lovers like us, but - in my experience - enthusiasts are given to arguing about fine details that are invisible to everyone else.

There aren't really any definitive answers to "what is a Fedora?" A Fedora is in the eyes of the observer. There isn't any hat-DNA, there's no scientific test to establish exactly what is or isn't a Fedora. So any debate is going to remain unresolved, and opinion is all we have.
 

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