New Biltmore Milan weave fedora

[myronw]

Hi Guys,

I just received a couple hats from Charlie Swindal (The Gladhatter) yesterday. One of them is a Milan weave fedora from Bilmore hats in Canada. I have a few Panama hats, including two that Art blocked, one of which I bought from Robert (Panamabob). I like the panama hats, but it is quite often very windy here in Idaho during the spring and summer, so I wanted something a little less expensive and more substantial than the Panamas. There's nothing quite like getting out of your vehicle and feeling a hat that you paid hundreds of dollars for, starting to lift off you head in the wind!

Anyway, I'm quite impressed with the quality of the hat from Biltmore. It is definitely heavier than the Panamas, but it has a more open weave, so it should be just as cool. Also, it looks like it will hold it's shape better than the panamas if I get caught is a bit of rain. As any of you who have Panamas can attest, even a dense fog will make them go limp and loose their shape! I also like the shape that it is blocked in... It's a nice classic fedora shape, with a nice snap to the brim, as opposed to the garnder or boy scout shapes you see most straw hats blocked into around here.

If anyone is looking for a good quality summer hat, but still wants one they can wear all the time, take a look at a Milan weave.

Keep smiling,

Myron

 

[Biltmore Bob]

I have one...

I wear it in the summer here in Southeast Texas. It's cool enough and has been throu a couple of rain storms. It won't keep your head dry though. Nice hat.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Feels like plastic

I bought one a few months ago for $40.00 plus $6.00 shipping. It has a 2 5/8 brim 4 inch crown with a center dent.

It feels like a plastic hat to me.

http://www.millerhats.com/productimages/382.jpg Milan straw ?

I have found just buy a lesser weave Montecristi and they stand up better to everyday wear and they are as cheap or cheaper than the so called Milan straw.

If Panamabob has it in stock $35.00 plus $6.00 shipping. Much better hat IMHO.

http://i18.ebayimg.com/03/i/03/1d/a1/16_2.JPG Montecristi

 

[Panamabob]

I think if you shellaque the Montecristi it would hold perfect form, too. From the answers Biltmore puts out...yes, some of their "straws" are really paper.

 

[Biltmore Bob]

You don't like Biltmore, do you Bob?

 

[Panamabob]

That isn't exactly correct. I don't like those that exhibit something as something that it isn't. Be it Lock and Shushan's with their "montecristis" or Biltmore and others that call some paper hats "straw."

 

[Matt Deckard]

Some people pay up for the soft super tightly woven panama hats, and some like the stiff open weave hats that breath a little better. It is a matter of prefference. The Biltmore products are of lower quality, yes. Though they perform their task. My father used to wear similar hats and with their shellack finish I don't think that they can be repaired or reblocked like a Panama.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Make your own !!

I got an idea. Buy a straw hat a cheaper one and for six bucks just spray it. Now you have a Milan straw.

http://www.lowes.com/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=185436-90-408 $6.00

http://www.e4hats.com/_e/Safari_Straw_Hat/product/ss13895su-Safari/Safari_Straw_Hats.htm $16.00

 

[Panamabob]

To each his own, that is for sure. I like the Milan weave hats just fine but I don't want paper.

 

[Andykev]

It is all a matter of budget and taste

I have bought the Biltmore hats, and some Stetson from Miller Hats. Great hat for the money ($70 to $100). These were the first hats I owned of the straw variety. Back then, I did not know about COW, or Optimo, or anyone else. To find a hat, you looked in the phone book, or internet places with fancy screens and lots of inventory.

There are many hats offered that are actually made of rice, paper, and other materials. None of them are "Montecristi" hats. Some do feel like plastic, but as a novice to hats, I did not know anything else. It was only when I saw my first real Montecristi hats that I realized what the differences were. And the prices. Until Panama Bob, I was getting raped by prices that made my wife mad.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

For your reading pleasure

I had this saved on another disk.

Milan hats
Those hats will not last and soon take on a shabby appearence. Milan is actually a special rice paper, that is first rolled very tightly (for strength) and then coated (for additional strength) before it is woven into the hat rounding.

I'm sure some so called hatters would think it was straw.

 

[myronw]

Hi Sharpetoys,

The main reason I got the Milan weave from Bilmore was the shape... The hat is blocked to look like an actual fedora, just as your Panam hat is, rather than the dorky looking gardener hats that you see most of the time.

As for buying another Montechristi from Panamabob, I doubt that he would sell me one. I used to email him most days when he lived in Ecuador, but since he returned to the US and I made the unforgiveable mistake of buying hats from Charlie Swindal, he won't even answer my emails.

Keep smiling,

Myron

 

[Mycroft]

Thanks for the suggestion on the hat material.

 

[Panamabob]

Myron,

Haven't received a mail from you in a long, long time.

I thought I'd answered every email...maybe not, my mistake if I didn't.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Hi Sharpetoys,

The main reason I got the Milan weave from Bilmore was the shape... The hat is blocked to look like an actual fedora, just as your Panam hat is, rather than the dorky looking gardener hats that you see most of the time.

As for buying another Montechristi from Panamabob, I doubt that he would sell me one. I used to email him most days when he lived in Ecuador, but since he returned to the US and I made the unforgiveable mistake of buying hats from Charlie Swindal, he won't even answer my emails.

Keep smiling,

Myron

Myron,
I bet he would sell you another one. Hell , he even sold that CS guy some.
I'm happy for you on your new hat.
Enjoy!!

Roger

 

[Michael D]

Shantung

Milan hats
Those hats will not last and soon take on a shabby appearence. Milan is actually a special rice paper, that is first rolled very tightly (for strength) and then coated (for additional strength) before it is woven into the hat rounding.

If you're talking about shantung (which is made from Chinese rice paper) I can tell you from personal experience that a hat made from it lasts forever, or so it seems.

I've got an outback style 'straw' hat in shantung from Beaver Hats that I bought in the early nineties. I wear it nearly everyday in the summer and it has been through scorching dry heat and unexpected thunder storms. It has held up very well. After all this time it has just developed some character, the front has a prominent sweat stains and the color of the hat has mellowed from white to an amber color, due to the lacquer aging.

This aged tone is desirable in acoustic guitar tops now. Martin Guitar Company stains some of their tops to this amber color as a vintage-looking feature because modern guitar finishes don't age like this anymore.

In the same time that I've had this shantung hat I've gone through several other straws one of which was a Panama from Fiesta hat company. That hat had a short life. After owning it for a year it blew off my head in a parking lot and landed on the front brim. It broke the straw, if you can believe it. I actually had to use superglue to fix it, but that didn't work for long.

My point? You may not like the shell-like feel of a shantung hat but believe me they can take all sorts of use and abuse.

Mike

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Sorry about your experience!

Quote,
Panama from Fiesta hat company. That hat had a short life. After owning it for a year it blew off my head in a parking lot and landed on the front brim. It broke the straw, if you can believe it. I actually had to use superglue to fix it, but that didn't work for long

I was speaking about Milan not Shantung.

Panama Montecristi.

There are alot of company's that say they are Panama hat and they are not.

I would just guess your hat was a Cuenca hat and most of them are machined blocked and many have alot of stiffner.I have seen them get wet and fall apart and look like a bunch of noodles!

A real Montecristi Panama hat can even be rolled up so tight that you could pull it thru your wedding band and it would be no worse for wear.You can even hand wash one if it gets dirty then just re block it.

A fine Montecristi usually does not have any stiffener in them like some of this junk you see on the net.

I have one Montecristi Panama hat that is 55 years old and it has never broke yet.

Sorry you had a bad experience with yours!!

 

[Michael D]

I also own a Montecristi

Sorry,

I failed to mention that last summer I bought a Montecristi from Casey in Ecuador (panamahatsdirect.com). It's a nice hat, no complaints except that I'm not that fond of how it's blocked.

I recognize that what I bought from Fiesta Hat was probably a Cuenca. The strange thing about it is that it didn't seem to be stiff at all, which was all the more puzzling when the straw broke.

Back to Milan straw and Shantung - they're both made of rice paper. Is Shantung better or are they about the same??

Mike

 

[Nathan Flowers]

Real Milan straw isn't made from rice paper, in my experience. I have a Milan from Optimo that isn't shellacked at all. It is very flexible, and actuallly quite cool in the summer heat. The hat is made from a wheat straw/grass, and when I open its box, it smells like freshly cut hay.

They certainly aren't as nice as a good Montecristi, but they are decent hats, when you are actually getting real Milan straw. Our state troopers wear "milan" straw hats, and they are actually shellacked paper with plastic thread holding them together. Mine is actual straw, with cotton thread holding the weaves together.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

Real Milan straw. Now thats a hat

Quote,

Back to Milan straw and Shantung - they're both made of rice paper. Is Shantung better or are they about the same??

Mike

Mike, i don't know!! A pure guess the same.

Here is a gorgeous real Optimo Milan straw that Zohar owns.

.http://images4.fotki.com/v47/photos/9/98066/525912/1090956_IMG-vi.jpg Optimo Milan Straw

Compare it to a Paper Biltmore

Art Fawcett can re block your Montecristi for you. He is a lounger here.

http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/m_hats_fedoras.htm








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