Milan Mania

[vonwotan]

Great hat! I love the color!

RBH - Thank you. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do it justice. The color is a bit more golden in the daylight.

 

[feltfan]

Resistol

A big crown golden Resistol:

A beauty in the sun and just on the edge of too large for me.
Which is unusual.

 

[daizawaguy]

Optimo Milan

 

[jamespowers]

A big crown golden Resistol:

A beauty in the sun and just on the edge of too large for me.
Which is unusual.

Sounds like it might fit me.
That is a nice Resistol. 2 1/2" brim?

 

[Lefty]

What a bunch of severely plain hats. It makes me want to change my name to righty.

1929

 

[Mr E Train]

That copywriter sure knew how to move merchandise.

 

[Lexybeast]

Are there any good affordable milans still being made? I like the look of the Optimos, but I'm not a big enough straw fan to spend that much on one. I've tried vintage but it doesn't look like much comes up in a 7 1/2. :rage:

 

[daizawaguy]

The Dobbs Naples for $70...

 

[Lefty]

Are there any good affordable milans still being made? I like the look of the Optimos, but I'm not a big enough straw fan to spend that much on one. I've tried vintage but it doesn't look like much comes up in a 7 1/2. :rage:

Pretty much everything marketed as milan is just paper, plastic, or plastic coated paper. The dilution started long ago, as milan was never defined, and "lesser" manufacturers started selling any and every kind of straw as milan - which is supposed to be wheat straw woven in Milan, Italy.

If you buy most milans (I certainly don't know everything that's out there), you're going to end up spending $80-100 on a hat that's made of exactly the same stuff as the one's they sell at WalMart for the inflated cost of $12.

Even Optimo's wheat straw braids, which are woven in China, aren't true milans, but I'll take the geography distinction over the material distinction any day.

If you don't want to wait for vintage or shell out the cash for an Optimo, IMO RBH's hat from Miller is the best looking option.

 

[Mr E Train]

I think most of us know what we're getting when we buy a "Milan straw" hat for under $100. This is my $55 Pinzano. I'm not sure what it's made of, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's synthetic. But it looks nice, it's comfortable, water resistant, and my head somehow stays as cool in it in the summer heat as a brisa weave Cuenca.

I just recently ordered a Dobbs Soul for the princely sum of $61. It's a pretty decent looking hat.

 

[carldelo]

I think most of us know what we're getting when we buy a "Milan straw" hat for under $100. This is my $55 Pinzano. I'm not sure what it's made of, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's synthetic. But it looks nice, it's comfortable, water resistant, and my head somehow stays as cool in it in the summer heat as a brisa weave Cuenca.

That hat looks even better close up, nice ribbon, etc. We cranially-enhanced types have to take what we can get sometimes, at least until the twice-a-century vintage treasure appears....

 

[Feraud]

Note the Sennits on the left.
Does anyone else think this one was inspired by slapstick director Mack Sennett?

1929

 

[Mr E Train]

Note the Sennits on the left.
Does anyone else think this one was inspired by slapstick director Mack Sennett?

I don't think so because Sennett didn't start making movies until around 1912, and this is a newspaper ad from 1912 for sennit straw hats.

 

[Feraud]

I see. So Sennit is probably a weave?

 

[rlk]

Sennit Straw

Naut.
[var. of SINNET.]

a. = SINNET. b. (See quot. 1858.)
1769 FALCONER Dict. Marine (1789), Sennit. 1858 SIMMONDS Dict. Trade, Sennit,..plaited straw or palm leaves, &c., of which grass hats are made. 1881 Chequered Career 92 These young gentlemen are to be seen..making sennet, the latter amusement being on a par with picking oakum.
attrib. and Comb. 1882 NARES Seamanship (ed. 6) 79 A sennit eye is worked in. c1898 J. CHALMERS in Lovett Life (1902) 146 The long sennit hawser kept on deck had been passed ashore to natives on the reef.

[Note from Belinsky: Today, a Sennit Straw is more commonly know as a "Boater" or "Skimmer" or "Sailor Straw".]

 

[carldelo]

Some more

I posted this last year on another thread after perusing the OED for a while

Sennit is an interesting old word - it is a spelling variant of the source word 'sinnet'. From the Compact OED (without all the details):
sinnet - A nautical term of obscure origin. A kind of flat, braided cordage formed by pleating together several strands of rope-yarn, coarse hemp grass or other fibrous material. 1611 "A threefold rope cord string or twist, called by Mariners, a sinnet."
As sinnet is a nautical item, I wager that the original boaters were made by sailors who happened to have some extra sinnet (or sennit) lying around. The jump from 'sennit straw' to 'sailor straw' based on who was wearing the hats seems logical.

In a recent thread it was stated that sennit is a contraction of "seven-knit", in reference to how the cordage was made. It appears that this is incorrect however. It seems sennit is also a spelling variant of a totally different word, 'sennight'. Sennight is a contraction of 'seven night' and means one week. The two definitions appear to have become blurred. I found one dictionary with the 'seven-knit' explanation, but it is a 1913 Webster's, and appears to have been dropped in later editions.​

 

[Mikey P]

I think most of us know what we're getting when we buy a "Milan straw" hat for under $100. This is my $55 Pinzano. I'm not sure what it's made of, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's synthetic. But it looks nice, it's comfortable, water resistant, and my head somehow stays as cool in it in the summer heat as a brisa weave Cuenca.

I just recently ordered a Dobbs Soul for the princely sum of $61. It's a pretty decent looking hat.

Where did you order it from, if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks!

 

[Mr E Train]

The Dobbs or the Pinzano? The Dobbs I ordered from The Hat Company in Las Vegas (http://www.thehatco.com) just a couple days ago, and it hasn't had time to come in yet. I didn't know anything about that company, but it looks like they're one of those places like the Village Hat Shop or Berkeley Hats that offers a few nice hats and then a whole bunch of cheap crap for the tourist trade. I've ordered from those places a few times, though, and they always did me right as far as prices and shipping times, so I'm hoping The Hat Company will be in the same caliber. The price was right. I think it's going to have a cloth sweatband, so keep that in mind. The Dobbs Souls I've seen that sell for $90 or so, like at The Fedora Store, they have a grosgrain ribbon with a bow, unlike this one that has a puggaree. Other ones I've seen closer to this price point, they have pugs and are usually listed as having a cloth sweatband, or else it doesn't specify. I like the look of a pug on a hat like this, though, and I'll probably replace it with a little fancier one anyway. I'd rather have a leather sweatband, but I'm not going to order it from The Fedora Store and wait 4 to 6 weeks and then find out that the leather's not good. I'd rather make do with cloth and have a good leather sweatband installed later if the hat seems like a keeper.

Just in case this is the one you meant, I ordered the Pinzano from The Hat Guys (http://hatguys.com) in Oakland, Ca. They also did right by me. I called to confirm my order because I didn't get an email confirmation within a few hours, and the guy who does web orders wasn't available at the moment, so they told me he would call me back, which he did just a few minutes later. They couldn't have been nicer, especially considering that I was just buying a relatively inexpensive hat.

 

[Lexybeast]

Lefty, which RBH/Miller hat is it that you're talking about?

 

[Mr E Train]

Lefty, which RBH/Miller hat is it that you're talking about?

I was wondering the same thing. Inquiring minds want to know.