Optimo visit

[Neil]

Am in Chicago on business, and visited Optimo. For those of you who have only been to the website, here's the scoop.
Very classy, luxe, minimalist setting, quite a way from downtown, where my hotel is. A wall of felt hats, mainly fedoras, and strangely, more Panamas than felts.
Felt hats start at $550. That buys you any of their smooth beaver-rabbit blend numbers, and you can expect to pay $50 more for satin or longhair finish.
The salesman on duty was a pretty cool dude, and he knew all the answers. He also had the good sense to advise me not to buy the bluish-ivory number I was staring at, on the grounds that I would not likely ever have much use for it in the real world. Ditto for their porcelain-colored "Optimo 1000."
Went for a light-grey "nickel" fedora, wide brim, high crown.
Basically, the place is a candy shop full of expensive sweets. And of course the most expensive confections of all are the Montecristis. He had several gorgeous "open-weave" fedoras, with prices around a grand. The cloth-tight weaves under glass head up toward ten grand.
Optimo doesn't post prices on its jazzy website, probably for fear of frightening people away. But once you're in the door, well, you're snared.
In sum, the nicest hat shop I have ever seen.

 

[Delthayre]

Soon, in relative terms, to be 1/4!

I really would love to visit their store some day, although given the expense of travel and their hats, I would have to have an excellent reason to visit Chicago before I could do so. A black Optimo homburg is part of my long-term eight-hat plan (currently 1/8th complete... might take a while...).

Having perhaps seen the thing yourself, could you, or anyone else, enlighten me as to why the Optimo 1000 is called, and presumably costs, that?

 

[carter]

Neil, What hat were you wearing when you visited Optimo? Are you going to post pictures of your visit? When will you post pictures of your new Optimo fedora? And...have you posted pictures of the changes youintended to make to your Stetson Pinnacle? Inquiring minds want to know. Carter

 

[TopGumby]

Nice report, although if I ever bought a hat for 550 clams on our budget, after my wife got through with me I'd have to start posting on the "Intensive Care Lounge."

 

[Neil]

Answers

The Optimo 1000 is constructed from "beaver belly fur," although I am unsure of how exactly that makes it so much better. It is light cream colored, and the binding along the edge of the brim almost resembles a Cavanagh, but is in fact neatly turned under and sewn tight. Obviously that takes a fair amount of work.
As for pictures, I might be able to post a link to some video we shot in the store. That would be forthcoming late tomorrow (Monday).
Carter, the Pinnacles look more or less the same as they did when you put them into boxes. Just really clean, and the black one now has a dark grey ribbon. I will nonetheless post them when I get home.

 

[Neil]

Optimo on TV

Anybody who is interested in seeing a bit of Optimo can go to www.cbc.ca/national tonight after 2200 EST and click on "watch latest video." My pre-election story is fairly high in the lineup and the Optimo sequence is at the end.
Dropped in again today, and met Graham. Knowledgeable cat. Reshaped the top of my new hat for me. I think I might buy a Panama from the guy next spring, too.

 

[RBH]

Thanks. Great info!!!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The Optimo 1000 is constructed from "beaver belly fur," although I am unsure of how exactly that makes it so much better. It is light cream colored, and the binding along the edge of the brim almost resembles a Cavanagh, but is in fact neatly turned under and sewn tight. Obviously that takes a fair amount of work.
As for pictures, I might be able to post a link to some video we shot in the store. That would be forthcoming late tomorrow (Monday).
Carter, the Pinnacles look more or less the same as they did when you put them into boxes. Just really clean, and the black one now has a dark grey ribbon. I will nonetheless post them when I get home.

the optimo 1000 is also available in black. both are available only in "classic weight" which is a heavier & thicker felt than their regular smooth finish felts. it can be made into any style you can think of as well as any type of brim edge, not just underwelt.

it is also called 1000 becasue that is what it costs.

 

[Cary Grant]

Anybody know where the bespoke prices start for Optimo?

 

[randooch]

That visit to Optimo certainly qualifies for a response in the thread, "What's the most you've ever paid . . . .?"

 

[mannySpaghetti]

Optimo's are some fine hats, but man, I couldn't fathom paying more than a $150 for a lid. Any more than that and I'd be placing it under a glass case with infra-red motion detectors with alarms linked in to the local police! lol

 

[daizawaguy]

A little picture justifies the price

Satin finish Driftwood color Manhattan

 

[Lefty]

 

[Lefty]

[for Carter]

 

[Aerol]

Bespoke prices

start, and pretty much finish, at $550. That get's you a hat where you pick the color, weight, style, ribbon, crown height, brim width and edge treatment. The only up-charges are for satin finish or longhair bodies. While there are many hats on display, and they'd be glad to sell one to you, they cost the same as the bespoke hats.

D-guy and HungaryTom are right: the prices for custom work are reasonable. The next time you're in a department store, check out the prices for the high-end women's purses. They can easily exceed $1000.... and women will change their purses twice a year, when the new styles come out. Optimo's prices, for something that will last a lifetime, are more than reasonable.

 

[animator]

Lefty -those pictures are GREAT! Thanks for posting them. I wish I had known about Optimo when I lived in Chicago.

 

[besdor]

I had the pleasure of meeting Graham a few years ago in New York. He knows his hats and is one of the best custom hatters on the world. But I think that Art Fawcett is just as good without the glitzy hat shop. Hence the difference in the price.



Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[Lefty]

The price of a felt hat seems to have gone up by $50 since my visit in Spring.

 

[jimmy the lid]

Great photos, Lefty! Thanks for posting them.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Bruce Wayne]

The price of a felt hat seems to have gone up by $50 since my visit in Spring.

so has the quality & the thickness of the felt. and the pouncing is finer...