Optimo south side mobsters

[Aureliano]

Very nice, David!

 

[jlee562]

According to my invoice, my hat is supposed to be finished today and ship out Monday.....I'm dying of anticipation!

 

[MikeP]

In Public Enemies, Stephen Lang as Agent Winstead wears a cut / turn down brim fedora as he steps of the train in his opening scene. Later in the film he appears in a ribbon bound brim w/thinner band. I believe the latter was made by Optimo. Any one know if Optimo made the cut brim or who did? I'm looking for one. I have the Akubra CEO which is close but would like to find "the real thing" if possible. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[jlee562]

this one?

 

[zetwal]

Just fantastic!

 

[jlee562]

I bet an Open Road or Alessandria could nail that look dead on.

 

[DJH]

Very nice, David!

Thanks. I'm enjoying the cooler weather for wearing my felt hats right now.

According to my invoice, my hat is supposed to be finished today and ship out Monday.....I'm dying of anticipation!

Cool - Oxblood, if I remember correctly.

 

[jlee562]

Cool - Oxblood, if I remember correctly.

Yup, Oxblood with their #52 crown which is their straighter sided block.

 

[MikeP]

I've not seen that picture! Great look. Beautiful floral carved holster carrying a Colt (probably an Official Police). He used a .45 auto in most of the film.This is the second hat, and yes it looks like an Open Road. Early on he had a "less finished" hat similar w/wider ribbon band. Thanks for the pic and the suggestions.

 

[jlee562]

Mine's on the truck, but they sent it to my billing address and not the shipping address I gave them, so somebody might not be home to sign for it :eusa_doh:

 

[danofarlington]

In Public Enemies, Stephen Lang as Agent Winstead wears a cut / turn down brim fedora as he steps of the train in his opening scene. Later in the film he appears in a ribbon bound brim w/thinner band. I believe the latter was made by Optimo. Any one know if Optimo made the cut brim or who did? I'm looking for one. I have the Akubra CEO which is close but would like to find "the real thing" if possible. Any thoughts are appreciated.

I don't own one, but judging by the pictures I've seen of the CEO, the only similarity between it and the hat you have in the picture is a down-turned brim, which you can achieve with pretty much any brimmed hat. One big difference between the Akubra CEO and the hat in the picture is that the latter has a much higher crown than the CEO is likely to have. That's the most outstanding feature of the picture hat. Your search might be most efficient by looking for a high-crown hat, such as a 5 1/2" one like that one seems to be, with a 2 1/2" brim, which it seems to be. I don't know offhand of a model matching that description, but there should be more than a few out there. One alternative would be to buy an Akubra Fed IV model and cut the brim down, as I think its brim is wider than the one in the picture. Anyway, that hat isn't a CEO IMHO.

 

[monbla256]

In Public Enemies, Stephen Lang as Agent Winstead wears a cut / turn down brim fedora as he steps of the train in his opening scene. Later in the film he appears in a ribbon bound brim w/thinner band. I believe the latter was made by Optimo. Any one know if Optimo made the cut brim or who did? I'm looking for one. I have the Akubra CEO which is close but would like to find "the real thing" if possible. Any thoughts are appreciated.

As much as I like Akubra's I don't think your choice of the CEO would replicate that hat. Something along the lines of one of the many "Indy" styled fedoras would probably get closer to what you want.

 

[RBH]

this one?

I had forgotten this one.
Sweet hat and one cool photo!

 

[jlee562]

Gah, dang you UPS! I missed the first attempt.

Why Optimo didn't ship to my SHIPPING address is a but if a mystery. A minor inconvenience in the scheme of things, but considering the amount I paid, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't a bit peeved that I could have my hat in hand right now.

 

[MikeP]

Thanks for all the suggestions and info. BTW the hat in the picture is the second he wore in the film. I think it could be pretty well matched with an Open Road, and I like the idea of triming an Indy. I'm actually trying to find something similar to the first one he wore in the train station scene, which appears to have a little wider brim. It may even be a western hat cut down and reshaped. Remember, he was a Texas lawman coming to Chi town. When I spoke to the folks at Optimo they were definately talking about the hat seen in the above picture. Thanks again for the thoughts & ideas.

 

[jlee562]

Thanks for all the suggestions and info. BTW the hat in the picture is the second he wore in the film. I think it could be pretty well matched with an Open Road, and I like the idea of triming an Indy. I'm actually trying to find something similar to the first one he wore in the train station scene, which appears to have a little wider brim. It may even be a western hat cut down and reshaped. Remember, he was a Texas lawman coming to Chi town. When I spoke to the folks at Optimo they were definately talking about the hat seen in the above picture. Thanks again for the thoughts & ideas.

You know, I pulled out my blu ray of Public Enemies and watched the scene, and that train station hat looks an awful lot like one of Optimo's blocks, because it does have a bit of taper in it. Ironically, it looks like the same block they use on their "Dillinger" hat.

 

[jlee562]

Well, I picked it up from UPS this morning.

Mine is a modified Dillinger, shortened the crown height a bit to get it more proportional to me, and had them block it on their #52 crown which has straighter sides. I also requested a 2" Black ribbon, as I really like the wide ribbon look on this hat. It retains the standard 2" brim with underwelt and of course is in the Oxblood felt. This hat has been my Holy Grail for a while, so I'm quite pleased to have it in hand now, as seems as if they'll finally be retiring the Oxblood.

Apologies for the camera phone photos, I seem to have misplaced my digital cam. I tightened up the pinch a bit, and moved the side dents a bit forward to make it more like the film hat. Gosh, what else can I say about this hat? The felt is amazing, you can feel that it has a good density and it's absolutely smooth to the touch. These Optimo hats are definitely the real deal! I hope to get some better pictures soon, because these do not do this hat justice. The felt color is much darker than the Optimo website pictures led me to believe. I was beginning to think that the darker appearance it has in the film was due to post production color processing. The color is really so much more rich than my camera phone will allow however. It's simply a stunning color.

trying to emulate this angle:

 

[Aureliano]

Very nice! If you don't mind me asking, why did you go with a black ribbon instead of the dark, almost matching purple that Depp's hat had?

 

[jlee562]

Well, mostly because the only 2" ribbon they had in stock was black, but it ended up being alright because I wear a lot of black as it is. I also have this Stetson Golden Century that I got from the bay which has a 2" burgundy/maroon ribbon which is not quite as dark as the film hat, but would compliment it nicely, which I have been thinking of swapping. But I am pretty satisfied with the black for now.

 

[HatsEnough]

Could I note something that amuses me about this thread? We always complain when ebay sellers call their hats "gangster" or "mobster" hats, yet we have named this thread the "south side mobsters" thread.
Just pointing out the irony, is all.