Playboys on Parade!

[RBH]

LNL's... thats a new one Mr Dean.

 

[gtdean48]

LNL's... thats a new one Mr Dean.

I thought about that TLA when I first posted but let it just drift across the Lounge....

 

[Atticus Finch]

I just spoke the rep from Optimo. She says my Playboy cleaned up very nicely and they shipped it to me this past Friday. Yes, I am a very excited LNL right now.

AF

 

[Atticus Finch]

My Playboy is back from Optimo. I guess this is a Playboy. Looks exactly like an Open Road or a Stratoliner, don't y'all think? But the ribbon, sweatband and binding all appear original...at least to my eye. I think whatever this hat is, it has always been this way.

Optimo did a great job of cleaning and blocking this hat. It was in pitiful shape when I sent it. They got the stains out, then cleaned it and reshaped it into a nice teardrop. Except for a few moth bites, it looks dang near new to me. Anybody hazzard a guess as to the age of this hat? I'm thinking the late 'fifties?

BTW, sorry for the lack of (Large) Noggin shots. When I took these photos, it was nearly 100 degrees and the humidity was 72%. I was sweatin' like a hog.

AF

 

[DJH]

Call it what you like, AF - that is a very tasty looking hat.
The colour (especially in your shot of the inside that includes some of the brim) looks as though it is very similar to my blue/grey Open Road.
I hope your temp and humidity drops soon so you can enjoy wearing it!

 

[HatsEnough]

My Playboy is back from Optimo. I guess this is a Playboy. Looks exactly like an Open Road or a Stratoliner, don't y'all think? But the ribbon, sweatband and binding all appear original...at least to my eye. I think whatever this hat is, it has always been this way.
AF

I wonder if the guy that bought it originally back in the 50s is the one that changed out the ribbon? Possible?

 

[T Rick]

I wonder if the guy that bought it originally back in the 50s is the one that changed out the ribbon? Possible?

Could it simply be a factory error (wrong sweatband installed by Stetson employees)? Seems like that must have happened from time to time.

ETA: Or perhaps just wrong printing? (The gold embossing may have been applied after the hat was built, certainly rthe store names were added after, why not the rest of the printing?). Any which way, Optimo seems to have done a nice job!

 

[HatsEnough]

Could it simply be a factory error (wrong sweatband installed by Stetson employees)? Seems like that must have happened from time to time.

It was my understanding that all imprinting on sweats is done before installation. Only name holes (the circles cut into the sweat with punches) are added with the sweat in the hat. That is how I understood it, but I could be wrong, of course.

But a factory error on the ribbon, now that makes perfect sense. It was sure to happen once in a while, right?

 

[Lefty]

Factory error on the ribbon doesn't make sense to me, as that's an OR style binding. IIRC, Playboys all had either a single row of stitching around the brim (no binding), or had just the raw edge.

Have you looked behind the sweat for any stamps? Buler found a few hats that had something like "factory reject" stamped on the back of the sweat, even though the hats looked perfect. -Of course, there's the strange one at post 143 that also looks nothing like the usual Playboy. Vic's at post 48 is also unusual.

 

[HatsEnough]

If an error, then the wrong sweatband in the wrong hat, then?

 

[T Rick]

Doubt we'll ever know, but it seems one of the above scenarios may be likely. Then again, the Playboy had lots of variants. Maybe they actually made a thin ribbon version at one point? (Seems sort of pointless with the other models, but I'm sure stranger things have happened).

Any which way, it's a cool vintage Stetson, nicely cleaned up by Optimo. And it says Playboy on a factory sweat in it, who are we to argue with that?

 

[buler]

Looks like it belongs on the island of misfit stetsons.... MisfitStetsonsThread

You can see the Whippet I had with the Playboy sweat there.

B

 

[T Rick]

Looks like it belongs on the island of misfit stetsons.... MisfitStetsonsThread

You can see the Whippet I had with the Playboy sweat there.

B

Ooh, I wonder if Rusty might see fit to ad this one to the "Links to the important threads" thread? Seems like it may qualify.

 

[Lefty]

Looks like it belongs on the island of misfit stetsons.... MisfitStetsonsThread

You can see the Whippet I had with the Playboy sweat there.

B

Thanks for that.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I've looked behind the sweat and there is a short, wide tag that says "Size" and "Depth" and "Block" and "To Duplicate" across its top. The size (7 3/4) is printed under "Size" and there is some faint, red writing in the other spaces, but I can't make out what it says. Otherwise, there is nothing behind the sweat.

The sweat appears original. I don't think it could be replaced without leaving some kind of marks on the hat and/or the sweatband that would indicate the hat had experienced a sweatband replacement somewhere along the line. The brim binding and ribbon match, and the ribbon has been sewn on in the exact manner that was employed on all my other vintage Stetsons. I guess it could have been replaced professionally when the hat was new, but the ribbon is clearly old and was installed by someone who knew what he or she was doing. And the brim binding was sewn over a raw edge. I know some Playboys came with raw edge brims, but there is no brim treatment on this hat other than the binding.

Finally...XXX and Royal Delux Open Roads were not that expensive back in the 'fifties. Why would a person go to the trouble to buy a Playboy and then convert it into an OR? Why not just buy an OR? Conversely, why put a Playboy sweatband in a new Open Road or Stratoliner? If an OR needed a sweatband replacement, why not use a Open Road sweatband or just a blank one?

Regardless of this hat's pedigree...I love it. I'm still not jumping up and down about the color, but I love the hat. I think it will make a great "old jeans and tweed sports coat" hat, if nothing else.

AF

 

[John Galt]

Guess I have my answer...

I have a 1960's stingy brim Playboy II with a very thin band and a strange sort of slash instead of a bow.

 

[John Galt]

Well, here is my Playboy II, which is a 1960's redux, by all accounts. The original Vita-Felt tag is still attached. The felt itself is extremely thin and pliable. The hat is much lighter than my Champ Featherweight, Stetson Zephyr Weight, Champ Spaceweight, Bandera Stratoliner clone, and my older Stetson Playboy.

 

[zetwal]

Well, here is my Playboy II, which is a 1960's redux, by all accounts. The original Vita-Felt tag is still attached.

Interesting, I don't recall seeing one like this before ... :yo:

 

[Joshbru3]

Interesting, I don't recall seeing one like this before ... :yo:

I didn't know that Stetson was still producing Vita Felt into the 60's.

 

[Lefty]

It was reintroduced after disappearing in 45. The later stuff is all marked as DuPont processed.