Afraid it's a 7 5/8
I'm also going to sell a brown sort-of-Indy by Optimo, a high-crown moss green "Mitchum" and a pale-blue-grey classic fedora.
I'm going to let the market decide what the right price is. Who am I to say? I start the bidding low, and leave it at that.
My God that is a gorgeous hat. I could swim laps inside it, but good luck everyone else!
I see from the new website that Milans are up $100 and felts up $45. In the case of felts, that's nine per cent in an economy with zero inflation, and with the milans, that's 33 per cent. I'm going to go ahead and conclude I can no longer afford an Optimo.
But six hundred bucks (okay, $595) is just too much. He is charging what the market will bear, and good for him. I applaud a small businessman who can brand himself that brilliantly.
Hey Aureliano; out of the blue, my lovely wife told me she wanted to get me a new hat for Father's Day (getting a VS) so there is always hope!
I have long wondered whether there is any qualitative difference between an Optimo and a VS hat, or a hat from this new Black Sheep fellow, or Penman. Graham does have the great variety, and heaven knows his hats keep their value (I just sold two, and the fellow who uses the EBay name bimmerzimmer has sold several, none of which went for less than $350), but apart from the branding, is there an authoritative verdict on quality? Is Optimo unquestioned as the best, or is it just an assertion? As for straws, I actually once spent exactly the same amount for an Optimo Montecristi and a PB Montecristi. . . $650. Graham actually blocked the PB, and even he marvelled at how light and fine it was. The Optimo one, while a lovely, even hat, was considerably coarser and heavier.
Maybe all this talk about price is unseemly, but I think we gotta right to the conversation, given what many of us have shelled out.