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Feltfan's recent mention of his old (quite old) Stetson Boss of the Plains in nutria felt prompts me to post what I do believe has to be among the more unusual hats I've ever come across. (Not the best, mind you, and certainly not the most desirable, but unusual, and worthy of note for that reason alone.)
I recently came into (via eBay) a Stetson nutria hat myself. I was a bit skeptical of the liner that proclaimed it as being such (liners have been known to find their way from one hat to another), seeing how the body is PINK, but yup, I do believe it is indeed a nutria felt body. The felt is as fine as any I've ever encountered -- dense and smooth and substantial but still soft to the touch -- and the liner looks original to the hat and the paper tags pasted to the inside of the crown say it came out of the old Philadelphia plant. It's a Western, with the "cattleman's" crown. But it's not a particularly large Western. (Its dimensions fall somewhere between an Open Road and a drugstore cowboy's lid.) The very narrow ribbon (in purple, by the way) has a bow on its left. All in all, it looks like something Liberace might have worn for his week in Vegas.
I'm seriously considering fedoraizing it. The crown opened out and took a new shape without so much as a hit of steam, let alone a reblocking. It's a 7 1/8, but it's a small 7 1/8, so it doesn't really fit. But a visit to the 7 3/8 #52 block would address that. I have some 2 1/8-inch wide (what's that, 25 ligne? or 26?) antique grosgrain ribbon coming my way -- 10 yards in a burgundy hue and another 10 in a sandy shade. One or the other of those colors might look good against that pink. And then I could always dye the body. I'm thinking a very, very dark red. I had good luck dyeing another body with Jacquard acid dye. There's some risk of shrinkage, but this body is of such dimensions that even shrunk a bit it would still be more than large enough to make a tall-crowned, wide-brimmed hat.
I have very little into this hat (pink cowboy hats don't draw much eBay action, even if they are made of nutria fur), so about the worst I can do is devalue an interesting artifact. That has me a bit torn, because I do believe those labels are right -- it's Philadelphia-made Stetson (which makes it at least a bit "vintage"), and it's a very good condition (excellent, really), but man, wouldn't a nutria fur hat in a black cherry color and a sand-colored ribbon be just too cool?
Sorry for the poor focus on this interior shot. Beneath "Stetson" it says "nutria."
I recently came into (via eBay) a Stetson nutria hat myself. I was a bit skeptical of the liner that proclaimed it as being such (liners have been known to find their way from one hat to another), seeing how the body is PINK, but yup, I do believe it is indeed a nutria felt body. The felt is as fine as any I've ever encountered -- dense and smooth and substantial but still soft to the touch -- and the liner looks original to the hat and the paper tags pasted to the inside of the crown say it came out of the old Philadelphia plant. It's a Western, with the "cattleman's" crown. But it's not a particularly large Western. (Its dimensions fall somewhere between an Open Road and a drugstore cowboy's lid.) The very narrow ribbon (in purple, by the way) has a bow on its left. All in all, it looks like something Liberace might have worn for his week in Vegas.
I'm seriously considering fedoraizing it. The crown opened out and took a new shape without so much as a hit of steam, let alone a reblocking. It's a 7 1/8, but it's a small 7 1/8, so it doesn't really fit. But a visit to the 7 3/8 #52 block would address that. I have some 2 1/8-inch wide (what's that, 25 ligne? or 26?) antique grosgrain ribbon coming my way -- 10 yards in a burgundy hue and another 10 in a sandy shade. One or the other of those colors might look good against that pink. And then I could always dye the body. I'm thinking a very, very dark red. I had good luck dyeing another body with Jacquard acid dye. There's some risk of shrinkage, but this body is of such dimensions that even shrunk a bit it would still be more than large enough to make a tall-crowned, wide-brimmed hat.
I have very little into this hat (pink cowboy hats don't draw much eBay action, even if they are made of nutria fur), so about the worst I can do is devalue an interesting artifact. That has me a bit torn, because I do believe those labels are right -- it's Philadelphia-made Stetson (which makes it at least a bit "vintage"), and it's a very good condition (excellent, really), but man, wouldn't a nutria fur hat in a black cherry color and a sand-colored ribbon be just too cool?
Sorry for the poor focus on this interior shot. Beneath "Stetson" it says "nutria."