My hat collection!

[gtdean48]

I'm confused to as how my thread got somehow merged with this thread??

Bartenders find threads of the same or similar topic & merge them....keeps the pages & number of threads down...

BTW, hardly ever wear a suit but always wear a lid...

 

[bowlerman]

I, too, am most definitely a fool. Welcome to the lounge!

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

 

[TheDane]

So not a bad little collection for a 19 year old, I don't really wear them though. I'm a staunch believer that a fedora should be worn with a suit that's cut in 1920s, 30's or 40's style (as modern cut suits don't 'cut it' pun intended) and if worn without a suit like that and especially if worn with modern casual clothing, makes you look very foolish.

I think you'll find that a majority here do not wear their hats with suits on a daily basis.

I was born in the mid 50's and in my teens we were so tired of looking at all those 'grey, colorless old men in their boring suits and soft hats'. We reacted by dying T-shirts and white working clothes in wild whirls of colors and make hats from leather and old denim pants - or 'funked up' an old homburg with some nice beads and feathers. I often wonder if it's the same genes, that make some young people of today want to dress up like their grand and great granddads

When I was a kid, my dad (born in 1922) dressed in a way, we would call 'classic'. His grandfather - who happend to be a taylor - certainly didn't think so. The meaning of terms like 'classic' and 'casual' is highly dependant on the time of useage, and not in any way absolute. Many at my age would probably find a 19 year old, dressed up like his grandfather, a little funny - if not foolish. Just as the grunge periode was a funny flashback to a lot of middle aged people.

Many of us, who were raised around 'classic wardrobes', feel quite fine wearing casual everyday clothes in combination with a classic fedora. That should not keep a young guy of today from playing around with graddad's wardrobe, though ... fashion tends to move in circles. But he should probably not see the neighbor as 'foolish', if he chooses to dress in a more contemporary style and wear a fedora with it

 

[TheDane]

And btw: Actually there is nothing 'classy' about a fedora - even if the studio pictures from the era seem to say so. In the 20-30-40's everyone wore a fedora with all kinds of clothing - from the dustbowl to the steelworkers on top of the Manhatten skyline. Back in the day a fedora was just a necessity like a pair of shoes

 

[alanfgag]

good thoughts.

 

[TheDane]

Hmmmmm ... took a second look at your avatar, Redfan45x. If a fedora would make me look like a fool, would be the very last thing I would worry about, if I were you!

 

[CaramelSmoothie]

And btw: Actually there is nothing 'classy' about a fedora - even if the studio pictures from the era seem to say so. In the 20-30-40's everyone wore a fedora with all kinds of clothing - from the dustbowl to the steelworkers on top of the Manhatten skyline. Back in the day a fedora was just a necessity like a pair of shoes

I've never thought about it this way. Good observation and I do agree.

Hats for women are a whole different ballgame. I could never wear any of my hats with shorts. Only dresses or dress slacks as somethingtoo casual would ruin the look not to mention 20s-40s hats were made to be worn with dresses.

 

[TheDane]

I would on the other hand never wear a short fringed dress with one of my old fedoras

No really, I totally agree!

 

[Redfan45x]

Hmmmmm ... took a second look at your avatar, Redfan45x. If a fedora would make me look like a fool, would be the very last thing I would worry about, if I were you!

Hey, the Germans have always had the best looking uniforms in both WW1 and WW2. I prefer Imperial Germany though, I get less crap about having things with them. Being there was nothing "evil" about the German Empire, no more or less evil than Great Britain or any other victorian age Empire.

 

[Redfan45x]

I was born in the mid 50's and in my teens we were so tired of looking at all those 'grey, colorless old men in their boring suits and soft hats'. We reacted by dying T-shirts and white working clothes in wild whirls of colors and make hats from leather and old denim pants - or 'funked up' an old homburg with some nice beads and feathers. I often wonder if it's the same genes, that make some young people of today want to dress up like their grand and great granddads

When I was a kid, my dad (born in 1922) dressed in a way, we would call 'classic'. His grandfather - who happend to be a taylor - certainly didn't think so. The meaning of terms like 'classic' and 'casual' is highly dependant on the time of useage, and not in any way absolute. Many at my age would probably find a 19 year old, dressed up like his grandfather, a little funny - if not foolish. Just as the grunge periode was a funny flashback to a lot of middle aged people.

Many of us, who were raised around 'classic wardrobes', feel quite fine wearing casual everyday clothes in combination with a classic fedora. That should not keep a young guy of today from playing around with graddad's wardrobe, though ... fashion tends to move in circles. But he should probably not see the neighbor as 'foolish', if he chooses to dress in a more contemporary style and wear a fedora with it

It's not really even the "classy" thing that gets me, I've often considered wearing suits from then as just a casual thing, and would think weirdly if someone came up to me and asked what the occasion was. Because I'm aware that once upon a time it was just everyday wear for people.
I've got a lot of different era styles I really like, in fact the era you were born into I think has some great style in the late 50s an early 60s with the street gangs and "greasers" (hate to use the term because I know that the movie Grease is a horrible representation of that culture, stuff like The Wanderers is much better at showing that era I think)
Hell if i had the money, I'd probably buy replicas of Regency era things, Pride and Prejudice movies got some nice clothing.. Would I wear it a lot? No.

 

[TheDane]

I've never thought about it this way. Good observation and I do agree.

I checked my collection of Percy Edward Anderson ads for Crofut & Knapp from 1929/30. They could suggest a rule of thumb: "The less dents and the more curl - the more classy". The derby, homburg and homburg'ish hybrids seem to be the classy hats of the day. The fedora was the more modern/contemporary hat, that was worn with casual office and labor clothing. I'm no expert on western hats, but from what I see on old pictures, the same could be true there(?)

And still ... there are no absolutes