Modern open crown hats?

[Jerekson]

Where are they all?

It seems that outside the vintage and custom areas, open crown hats are not very popular. Personally, I can't understand this - why on earth would someone buy a preshaped hat when they have the opprotunity to bash it themselves it mkae it unqiue from everyone else's?

If were in the hat market, I would start making open crown hats (even cheap wool felts). I can gaurantee that sales would be boosted; that is a million dollar idea.

Sorry, I guess I'm just ranting at this point.

Does anyone know of any modern stock open crowns? BESIDES AKUBRA

 

[fedoralover]

Miller makes one for the Indy crowd, the 257 model. $125.00 in coffee, black or gray.

Here is the link.

http://www.millerhats.com/miller_fedora/index.html


fedoralover

 

[fatwoul]

I've seen some Resistols here and there (on eBay, too) that are open crown, but they're cowboy hats.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

I know Miller Hats carries a couple of open crowned hats made by Biltmore... so maybe Biltmore has others. Also, some of Millers shaped hats are available open crown but it doesn't say so on the site. I found out by asking.

My guess is, since few people wear hats anymore, and most are used to the lazy way of life that has been cultivated over the past few decades, there hasn't been a market for open crowns for a while, until recently.

 

[Andykev]

Open Crown

You can basically get an "open crown" hat by having a competent hatter block your vintage one on a plain block. This would entail stripping out the entire hat and then having it finished almost like a new hat body would. You then have the guts (liner, sweat, ribbon) replaced, and then upon receipt, hand block it to your desired shape.

Miller hats, and Art Fawcett...and Optimo..all come to mind as having a "modern hat" in the Open Crown offerings.

 

[besdor]

Open Crown Hats

Open crown hats are available from most manufacturers today, but few customers actualy want them . It is much easier to sell a preshaped hat than one which needs to be shaped . Todays customer wants to see the finished product. It is a select few (most of them are on the FL) that want to shape their own hat . We carry the Alessandria from Borsalino that is open crown in seven colors. But we sell hundreds of others Borsalinos that are preshaped . It is much easier this way.
The best open crown hat made today in a regular production hat is Biltmores Royal quality hat. That is the one that Millers has as does JJ hat Center .



Steven
Selling lots of hats in Brooklyn NY

 

[John in Covina]

Some of the Akubra hats are available as open crown such as rthe Bushman and the Squatter thru David Morgan.

 

[Edward]

As others infinitely more knowledgeable than me have already said, it's not what most people want these days. Quite honestly, I didn't know that there was such a thing as "open crown" and that it was possible to buy a hat that you shaped yourself until I discovered these forums. Most folks probably just assume that a hat comes as the already-shaped creation that they see in most places. Most folks' experience of a fedora or similar, after all, is going to be seeing the pre-shaped wool and canvas versions on the high street.

When I first discovered the Akubras I want came open crown, I was intimidated by the idea of shaping a hat myself. I am emboldened now by the desire to learn, the attraction of having a hat that is somehow the more personal to me, and the support from the wealth of knowledge available here. I could imagine a lot of folks who aren't aware of that though or who aren't as fussy about their dress as let's face it we on here tend to be (out there in the "real world", I suspect a lot of folks wouldn't even notice the difference between a diamond bash, a C crown and a centre dent, much less care) being put off by an open crown as not knowing where to start.

 

[Not-Bogart13]

I could imagine a lot of folks who aren't aware of that though or who aren't as fussy about their dress as let's face it we on here tend to be (out there in the "real world", I suspect a lot of folks wouldn't even notice the difference between a diamond bash, a C crown and a centre dent, much less care) being put off by an open crown as not knowing where to start.

As a former English teacher, I feel obligated to point out; Edward, that last sentence left me gasping for air! lol

 

[J.T.Marcus]

You can actually turn any hat into an open crown, with no memory of its previous bash. (Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.) Take the liner out, and push the crown out into the "open" position. Run a sink full of COLD water. Submerge and soak the entire hat for 15-30 minutes. When you take it out of the water, do any "fine tuning" necessary to the open crown, and to the brim shape. Hang it on the spout of the kitchen sink to dry. It will hold the shape it dries in. Once it dries, you can shape the crown any way you desire. (The new momory will be open crown.) If you want another shape to be the memory, shape it that way while it is wet, and let it dry with that bash. It will set.

 

[fatwoul]

As a former English teacher, I feel obligated to point out; Edward, that last sentence left me gasping for air! lol

I'm guilty of the same thing. I break up sentences with hyphens and semi colons where they probably should not be. I got told off for it by my English teacher too.

Anyway, as to the open crown discussion, I suspect it has a lot to do with immediacy and with imagination.

We now live in a world of immediacy, where we can buy suits off-the-peg, and order our groceries online for the same evening without having to set foot outdoors. Society has been spoiled for anything which takes more than the minimum effort, so an open crown hat would probably represent too much work for the average consumer. That sounds derogatory, but it isn't meant to. FLers know that bashing a hat can (and probably should) be a 10 minute job (any longer and you'll likely fiddle too much and overdo it). However, to the uninformed, who may even want to wear a hat out of the shop, or at least the moment it arrives on their doorstep, an open crown hat may simply not be wearable fast enough.

My other point - imagination - is that we now also live in a very visual world, where we are shown everything in a finished state, and seldom require our imaginations to fill in any blanks. An open crown hat can look substantially different from the same hat once bashed, and it may be that the modern, spoon-fed public can't see a bashed hat without it being put in front of them.

 

[LindyTap]

So few people wear hats now that wearing one in itself makes you look individualistic, you don't need your own bash to make you look different from everyone else, like you would have needed in the golden era, because your the only one wearing a hat! That's my guess on why fewer hats come open crowned now.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Aw, come on...

As a former English teacher, I feel obligated to point out; Edward, that last sentence left me gasping for air! lol

...Ease up on Fast Eddy.

Edward, I'm in the same boat as you. I had no idea that "bashing" a hat even existed until I hit this forum.

 

[Colby Jack]

I'm in agreement...before the lounge, I knew nothing of bashing a hat. You had to buy it one way or another, and thats how you lived with it....But I jave seen the light!!!:eusa_clap

 

[indycop]

As a former English teacher, I feel obligated to point out; Edward, that last sentence left me gasping for air! lol

lol lol lol lol

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Some of my 1930s hats are so soft I have to shape them every time I put them on. If you watch some old movies, you'll see that in action. For example, Alan Hale Sr. (the Skipper's dad) in "Stella Dallas."

 

[D00R]

If it weren't for my recently found knowledge about them I would never have bought a hat.

 

[Edward]

As a former English teacher, I feel obligated to point out; Edward, that last sentence left me gasping for air! lol

lol I'm a holy terror with the brackets - I think that's what comes of being a lawyer. Everything has to be qualified.

 

[Edward]

Some of my 1930s hats are so soft I have to shape them every time I put them on. If you watch some old movies, you'll see that in action. For example, Alan Hale Sr. (the Skipper's dad) in "Stella Dallas."

The first fedora / trilby type hat I ever had was a brown one I rescued from a box of stuff at my aunt's house - all items which had been given to her for the church jumble sale. I wish I still had that hat - I have no idea what happened to it, though chances are it would be far too small for me now if I did. It was a dark brown, C crown, dark brown narrow ribbon, unbound, raw edge, leather sweatband an no liner (may or may not have had the liner removed). I wore it to death as my "Indiana Jones" hat. no idea whether it was wool or fur, but it was really soft yet held its shape well. Totally crushable - I used to love pushing it into what I now know to be an open crown, and then shaping it back into the front dents and c crown bash. Not that I had any idea that's what I was doing at the time, though. That would probably have been 84/85, post Temple of Doom.

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Not that I had any idea that's what I was doing at the time, though. That would probably have been 84/85, post Temple of Doom.

In 1985, I had no idea what I was doing, either! lol