It's all in the attitude

[epic610]

I have a few hats in the closet...

that i seldom wear because i don't really feel up to it; on a good day, the hat is stronger and more imposing than i am. have any of you had that experience?

 

[D. Hats]

a few unworn hats...

I bought new hats from the store and obviously I liked the way they looked and fit before I made the purchase. However since I started purchasing vintage hats from auctions on Ebay I have a few that looked great on the computer screen... I could even visualize wearing them, but after I received them and plopped them atop my shinny dome I didn't like the way they looked. This happens to be how I learned I didn't look good in a shallow crown fedora... these hats have become closet shelf hats. But I'm learning !!

 

[PutALidOnIt]

"Costume" is in the eye of the beholder...

I, too, have some 4" crown stingies and those are the ones that draw the "Heh, Heh, it's one of the Blues Brothers" comments. Hah, they probably wouldn't know Steve Cropper from James Burton!

So, I rarely wear them, except to the frequent local blues jams in the area where its de rigeur. Of course, in that environment a cool stingy draws comments that usually run to the complimentary rather than the sarcastic or obtuse.

So, I guess it's fair turnabout for those in Hummers with 3 piece suits going 5 mph over speed bumps - talk about pretentious costumes!

 

[Senator Jack]

Originally posted by PutaLidOnIt -

I, too, have some 4" crown stingies and those are the ones that draw the "Heh, Heh, it's one of the Blues Brothers" comments. Hah, they probably wouldn't know Steve Cropper from James Burton!

All of my hats are stingies and, as I posted before, I always get the Blues Brothers comment, especially when I'm wearing sunglasses and drivng around in my Mustang. Just for once, ONCE, I'd like to hear 'Sam and Dave'. I don't understand how all 60s soul history is based on that one movie. Did people not even know of Stax Records before that picture? Hard to believe considering they sold millions of records. (All right, I'm passionate here, but as a guitarist, Cropper and Burton are my heroes)

But moving on, I'm going to prepare everyone for the worst to come. Fedoras are going to be a big fad this year - no doubt about it. And then that fad will pass and you will receive the comments of "Hey 2006 is calling, they want their hat back.' I've been wearing 60s suits and narrow ties since I was kid. People never realized it was '60s fashion and associated it with the New Wave 80s. After that fad passed, I still wore the same 60s suits I always liked, and to this day, I still get the New Wave comments. Courage, men. Courage.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[tonyb]

D and Lid and epic and Senator are onto something here. I rarely wear my stingy brims because I think I look kinda goofy in 'em, and if that's the way I feel about it, that's the sort of vibe I'd be putting out. Nothing against the hats themselves, mind you, or the guys who wear them. They're all vintage and in very nice shape and one of these years I may decide that I like the way they look on me. Or I may never get to that point and pass 'em along to somebody who really wants 'em. But I sure as hell ain't gonna let 'em fall into the hands of someone who would relegate them to the trash heap as soon as the latest styles are seen on the streets.

 

[Senator Jack]

As I posted in another thread, I always think short/slim guys look goofy under wide brims. I see a lot of guys in fedoras on the streets of NY these days and less than 5% have a hat that fits his face.

About having the hat relegated to the garbage, I just had this conversation today at Andy's Cheepees here in NY. Vintage is coming back again in a big way and the sad part about it is that when the look is out, the 'haves' will simply throw those pieces away. They don't realize that it's history, they just know that 'big pop star today' is wearing it and they can afford it. Very sad, indeed.

As I'm writing this I'm listening to the soundtrack of Robin and the Seven Hoods. Bing, Dean, And Frank are singing "you either got or you haven't got style - a hat isn't a hat till it's tilted.' What a coincidence.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[tonyb]

Well, Senator, I'm neither short nor slim, so I guess that explains it. You're probably right about a fedora fad on the horizon. The biggest downside of that, from my way of seeing things, is that the escalation in old-hat prices will only accelerate, and that so many of those irreplaceable lids will end up in the possession of people who don't really appreciate them. I'm happy for Lid that he managed to score that vintage Borsalino for all of 51 bucks. I'm guessing we'll never see deals like that again. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[vespasian]

Just watched the peculor Mr Blaire on Tv tonight, banging on about how good it was when his Dad was a kid and how the youth of today have no respect. Perhaps the golden era revival is due and not only for the better fashions it brings, but for the attitude that went with it. I get the urge occasionally to tip my hat to a lady in passing, but guarantee she would either shout rape or burst out laughing. Guess there arent too many ladies around, as well as gents. Attitude, its all about attitude, but that word has become synonymous with disrespect and bad manners today. Bring on the revival, in more ways than fashion.

 

[Raindog]

By the way Vespasian, your hat's look nothing like cowboy hats....Other peoples brainboxes are defective as they always are nowadays.
I agree on the 'take it as a compliment' comment. It's hard though, because it requires a certain strength of will which can be lacking. The instinct is to cuss them off.
I can also appreciate how I am tempted to make funny comments about people, in friendly fun, which could be just what other people are doing....So I usually either ignore them or smile. I still can't bring myself to chat to the swines though....Which shows a certain hypocrisy on my part maybe. If I make a funny comment about someone I'd love them to come over and chat.
I guess it's just all part of the complex social interaction which we have to endure in daily life....Which is why I want to buy an island with razor wire round it sometimes!

 

[simmo]

Can i go halfs with you on the island Raindog... as long as you stick to your half though !! lol

 

[Raindog]

Done Simmo!
Maybe we should build a club in the middle. Call it the Diogenes club, after the Sherlock Holmes club....Here's an extract from the story describing it....

"There are many men in London, you know, who, some from shyness, some from misanthropy, have no wish for the company of their fellows. Yet they are not averse to comfortable chairs and the latest periodicals. It is for the convenience of these that the Diogenes Club was started, and it now contains the most unsociable and unclubable men in town. No member is permitted to take the least notice of any other one. Save in the Stranger's Room, no talking is, under any circumstances, allowed, and three offences, if brought to the notice of the committee, render the talker liable to expulsion."

When we feel like some sort of contact we could go there for port and cigars.

Jeff.

 

[simmo]

Sounds like my kinda place

 

[The Wingnut]

I still feel a little awkward wearing a fedora with anything other than vintage clothing...just doesn't seem to fit the rest of my wardrobe, which is mostly t-shirts, jeans, sweaters and boots or Chuck Taylors. I've a newsboy cap that I'll wear more readily. The fedora just strikes me as a more formal hat that needs to be part of an overall appearance. My beef with my newsboy is that it gives me hathead...the tall crown of most of my fedoras won't do that. I generally avoid wearing any of my fedoras with my A-2s...'Indy' comments still get under my skin. I'm more annoyed at the ignorance than I am at the actual comments.

Oddly enough, I feel more confident going out in public dressed in suit, tie, overcoat and fedora than I do in my usual jeans and t-shirt. It's not that I like the attention, I just feel more prepared to face the world, and more presentable. The hat is just part of the overall presentation.

...and as for it being mistaken for a western, my cousins' wives think I'm a cowboy, despite the suits...they're both from Vietnam. One of them gave me a George Strait album last Christmas. I don't dislike country, but I don't listen to it, either. Must be the hat. *shrug*

 

[vespasian]

I do wear fedoras with jeans and T shirts. Well, my old brown one anyway. Looks fine if it looks like its doing a purpose which is generally what I use hats for anyway. Hat to keep me dry, warm, sunshade. There are very frequently times I just dont bother.

Its still a look Im experimenting with. I'm going to get a Yorkshire flat cap too, which is my heritage calling. Well, if they still make them!

http://ayup.co.uk/shuttup/shuttup0-4.html

 

[Raindog]

Great minds think alike Vespasian....I won two flat caps off ebay yesterday....
item number 6837116977 and 8248671207.
The John Rocha one wasn't a bargain at all, about the same price as you can get in a shop. The other one's pretty cheap though.
I got them with the same purpose in mind, a more casual hat for the scruffier days. I just hope at least one fits....


Jeff.

 

[vespasian]

Just rooting through the web and found a couple of pics of my hometown, (I left twenty years ago). A sea of flat caps and I can even see a couple of fedoras there.

 

[Biltmore Bob]

Just me, but...

I really perfer the Eight Quarter Newsboy/Gatsby/Big Apple/et al, to the Flat Cap/5 Point. I actually think it goes with more.

 

[John in Covina]

Battle royale!

I like that eight point a lot also. Shortly before graduating high school and my first year at college I had one that I had bought at a men's store. I don't know why but it was the target of a lot of pranks by people I did not know. I actually got in a fight at the Pastime Pub in Amityville because some horse's patoot kept grabbing it off of my head from behind (4 to 5 times) while we were watching the band. I just remember grabbing the guy and hammering his face into the edge of the bar and throwing his friend off of my back when he jumped in. And why? Because he had to be an idiot about my hat. You can say anything, but touch me and you're in for trouble, especially if there's no good reason for it.

?¢‚Ǩ?ìI won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, and I won't be laid a hand on.
I don't do these things to other people, and I expect the same from them."

The Credo of J.B. Books from "The Shootist" played by John Wayne.

 

[vespasian]

Must admit that I had a similar experience in a bar in ex soviet central asia with some idiot ex pat from Liverpool. He met a table kind of head on which was unfortunate for the table as it was quite nice.
I really like the flat cap, probably because my Grandad wore one all the time. By the way my Grandad wore collarless shirts, wasitcoats and a cravat with his flat cap, he always used chewing tobacco and worked in the colliery. Great role model, especially as he looked the spitting image of John Wayne, my other hero.:cheers1:

 

[tonyb]

Well, John, I hope to never again witness such an altercation, and let's not even consider my being in the midst of one. Nope, I just ain't that tough. Late one drizzly night a few years ago I saw a guy get beaten nearly to death by a pair of thugs on an otherwise deserted Chinatown street. Had I jumped in, I would have been in as bad a spot as the guy getting stomped (literally) on the pavement. One of the assailants broke a 40-ounce beer bottle over the victim's head and both kicked him repeatedly about the head and torso. I thought for a moment that what I was witnessing could turn into a murder, but being unarmed and wishing to stay alive, all I could do was lean on my car horn (didn't have a cell phone then) and render aid after the goons had had their fun. Poor guy was a bloody, curled-up mess. I imagine he was in shock (as I was, once it was all done with and I resumed my drive home). Made me understand why some people do indeed belong in prison, at least until they get their testosterone in check.
I know that's not nearly the same situation as you faced in that drinking establishment (there were lots of other people there, right?). But guys out looking for a fight, as that guy messing with you apparently was, often travel in twos and threes.