Plaid fedoras: yea or nay?

[mustangman3000]

I've seen some plaid Irish walking hats I really liked!

 

[mikespens]

Hats were always a fashion trend until the last couple of decades. Styles changed with the times. So it is here. I see lots of kids wearing stingy fabric fedoras and more power to em. I have a stingy straw Borsalino that I love but is probably "too young for me". I still wear it regardless. I say if you like the hat, wear it. Read somewhere else "wear the hat, don't let the hat wear you" or words to that effect. Rock on PhilosophyDragoon.

 

[TipTop]

Well, Welcome; sorry it's not going so admirably, but I will add an important qualification to your enquiry: You noticed that facial features can make a difference in choosing hat styles. So does skin and hair coloration, as well as height, shoulder width, etc. In the old days, if you went to a proper haberdasher (I never did), he'd select some styles that he thought suited you best--on all the above counts. Then, he let you choose which you thought suited your needs best, and everybody was safely happy.

Today, guys decide they want to wear something different from the ubiquitous baseball cap and all hell breaks loose...except that there are so few people around who "KNOW" anymore, it probably doesn't matter much.

So, to wrap up, just ask yourself why you asked us if that plaid "trilby" was right for you? I'll bet you'll discover what you and "Who Nose" knose....it probably isn't. But if you are going to wear it with teeshirt that sorta matches, or some other item (complementary scarf, plaid sneakers?) then maybe it might work. Then you can come back and tell us that yes, we are old and conservative. But heck, you came in, so you must have an inquisitive streak along with your sense of style!

Keep analyzing styles--yours and others--and you'll be fine. Take that from an old-guard eastern preppie who wears cowboy hats. :cool2:

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Plaid...humm...I have seen a few thicker material wool hats made for winter use that are plaid, in the winter time I could see myself wearing one.

 

[masiaka]

Plaid and houndstooth fedoras were a trademark of legendary American Football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in the 1960s-1980s. Real men, older men, can pull them off. I happen to attend his school's rival so they're a "no no no no no!" for me, though.

Rick Blaine, that cloth fedora in the top picture looks interesting. What's its provenance?

 

[scottyrocks]

None fer me, thanks, I'm drivin'!

 

[scooter]

Well, I for one, am trying to quit. In point of fact, I'd rather get poked in the eye than wear one. However, I respect the right of others to take their stance. And I promise not to laugh. (While they're looking)

 

[Rick Blaine]

Plaid and houndstooth fedoras were a trademark of legendary American Football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant in the 1960s-1980s. Real men, older men, can pull them off. I happen to attend his school's rival so they're a "no no no no no!" for me, though.

Rick Blaine, that cloth fedora in the top picture looks interesting. What's its provenance?

A Mid 2oth century duck cloth fedora w/ two vents each side & a 2.5" brim.

Look in any Sears or Monkey Wards catalog & you are sure to see them. Once ubiquitious & cheap, now nonexistent!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Well, Welcome; sorry it's not going so admirably, but I will add an important qualification to your enquiry: You noticed that facial features can make a difference in choosing hat styles. So does skin and hair coloration, as well as height, shoulder width, etc. In the old days, if you went to a proper haberdasher (I never did), he'd select some styles that he thought suited you best--on all the above counts. Then, he let you choose which you thought suited your needs best, and everybody was safely happy.

Today, guys decide they want to wear something different from the ubiquitous baseball cap and all hell breaks loose...except that there are so few people around who "KNOW" anymore, it probably doesn't matter much.

So, to wrap up, just ask yourself why you asked us if that plaid "trilby" was right for you? I'll bet you'll discover what you and "Who Nose" knose....it probably isn't. But if you are going to wear it with teeshirt that sorta matches, or some other item (complementary scarf, plaid sneakers?) then maybe it might work. Then you can come back and tell us that yes, we are old and conservative. But heck, you came in, so you must have an inquisitive streak along with your sense of style!

Keep analyzing styles--yours and others--and you'll be fine. Take that from an old-guard eastern preppie who wears cowboy hats. :cool2:

Very well stated, indeed!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I do think if someone wears a "hat" that is classified as a Trilby or Fedora, no matter what material it is made from, that the "act" and comfort-ability and liking the style of fashion, can and more than likely will lead the hat wearer to see what hats are all about. Once that happens, they will be bitten by "the hat bug"...the it is all about tossing aside the paper hats, cheaper cloth hats and looking for a fur felt hat that has some quality to it.

 

[Bird Lives]

I personally would have said no....But...http://www.whosdatedwho.com/tpx_2770832/life-magazine-united-states-23-april-1965/

Frank Sinatra on the cover of 'Life' magazine from April 1965 says yes by example....

I also read on the Baron's Hats web-site that Sinatra; when he had a new suit made; would have some of the same fabric sent to one of his hat makers to have a matching dress hat made...

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

If one reads the vintage hat trade magizines on Google books you will see fabric hats. RLK has a few of them and they are interesting. Most did not make it as the material and the cost made the hat throw away. Today's cloth Hats are the same way throw away except for Tilley hats.

 

[Blackthorn]

I'm reminded of this thread:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?41284-the-face-of-evil&highlight=evil

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

It's most redeeming quality to me is that it is a "gateway hat".
I have happily purchased them for my son's in hope it will lead to sartorial selections beyond caps and t-shirts.

 

[Edward]

The biggest barrier to the sort of hats we like becoming more mainstream again is the more general absence of headwear on people in general for much of the year. Central London was very busy yesterday, with a reported one million on the streets, but plastic costume novelties aside there were very few hats of any sort, despite the inclement weather. If this sort of thing raises the number of people wearing hats of any sort, that automatically raises the potential market fro what, in these parts, are known as "real hats".

 

[TomS]

Not so much, no.

 

[danofarlington]

When I was growing up in the 60s, plaid became among the most un-hip patterns you could wear. Especially in a hat, which we youth wouldn't wear then anyways. So a plaid hat would be the epitome of dorkiness in that day. However, fifty years or so down the road, plaid has been "out" for so long it might be "in" again. I see plaid hats for sale, and they're being bought. The young men I see on this site wearing plaid hats, look pretty good. I would never do it, but I'm several generations removed from them. So my thought is, like anything else, if you can carry it off, wear it, and don't worry about what others think if you think it looks good, which many of those plaid hats do.

 

[job]

I'm kind of fond of my Adam. It's kind of plaid.

 

[motorpsycho67]

I say nay to the plaid fedora.

Ditto

 

[masiaka]

I do think if someone wears a "hat" that is classified as a Trilby or Fedora, no matter what material it is made from, that the "act" and comfort-ability and liking the style of fashion, can and more than likely will lead the hat wearer to see what hats are all about. Once that happens, they will be bitten by "the hat bug"...the it is all about tossing aside the paper hats, cheaper cloth hats and looking for a fur felt hat that has some quality to it.

That's exactly what I did. My first fedora was pinstriped polyester trilby and my second was a fur felt Campdraft.