Post New Hats Here!

[mattface]

Matt, What you have is a very rare hat, that I've only seen in old advertisments.

You know when I picked it up, I suspected it was unusual, an i KNEW I had to have it, but I didn't suspect it to be as rare as it apparently is. I'm having no luck finding pictures of another one like it and so far I haven't found the vintage ads you speak of either. Could you point me to one?

Looking at the grime on the sweatband, it strikes me this hat was used as it was intended to be used as a casual outdoorsy hat to wear in hot, potentially grimy situations. I suspect most of them were worn that way which along with the super thin felt may explain why it's so difficult to find one.

With that in mind I may be having second thoughts about using this as my summer hat since it really deserves preserving. In fact I might not even replace the ribbon as that ribbon is a part of this hats history, anything can be restored, but it can only be original once, and this might be one of those situations where an original example is hard enough to find that it would be a shame to destroy one.

 

[Joshbru3]

You know when I picked it up, I suspected it was unusual, an i KNEW I had to have it, but I didn't suspect it to be as rare as it apparently is. I'm having no luck finding pictures of another one like it and so far I haven't found the vintage ads you speak of either. Could you point me to one?

Looking at the grime on the sweatband, it strikes me this hat was used as it was intended to be used as a casual outdoorsy hat to wear in hot, potentially grimy situations. I suspect most of them were worn that way which along with the super thin felt may explain why it's so difficult to find one.

With that in mind I may be having second thoughts about using this as my summer hat since it really deserves preserving. In fact I might not even replace the ribbon as that ribbon is a part of this hats history, anything can be restored, but it can only be original once, and this might be one of those situations where an original example is hard enough to find that it would be a shame to destroy one.

I can't find the advertisement for some reason, but here's a couple links to a couple NOS Weekenders that JohhnyPhi sold some years ago. These are the only other ones that I've seen.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?33300-AUCTION-117-Stetson-Royal-quot-Weekender-quot-Size-7-C0000228871-SOLD&highlight=weekender

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?32281-AUCTION-86-Stetson-Royal-Stetson-Weekender-Size-7-1-4-C0000228918-closed&highlight=weekender

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?32774-AUCTION-105-Stetson-Royal-quot-Weekender-quot-Size-7-C0000228869&highlight=weekender

 

[alanfgag]

Borso rollable thoughts

After looking at David and Ale's boxed Borso hats and spending some time this morning with my new one, I am wondering if these hats were ever designed to be rerolled. I have Borsalinos that are almost identical to David and Ale's... they arrived fully creased and although both are lightweight neither appears to have been designed to be rolled up for travel. Looking at the new one which has been in a box for 60+ years, I see no construction details that seem selected specifically for a packing hat. The light gray leather sweatband is quite substantial and not particularly soft. It held up well to being rolled, but is it designed to be rolled again and again?

Perhaps this lovely box was a package designed for European tourists to bring their Borsalino hats home... or as a gift box? The styles we have seen are diverse enough (as David pointed out) to suggest we are not seeing a specific Borsalino "rollable", but rather many lighter weight hats that were suitable for being packaged in a box for convenient travel and, once home, steamed back into shape following the instructions on the sheet that Ale posted earlier. The one common feature is that they all appear to originate from Italian stores.

There are, or course, hats designed to be rolled for travel convenience, from the contemporary Christy and Borsalino crushables on back to the Borsalino fabric banded pocket hat. But I am thinking that this Borso box was a different animal. Has anyone found an advertisement that would suggest otherwise?

cheers,
Alan

 

[carouselvic]

Perhaps this lovely box was a package designed for European tourists to bring their Borsalino hats home... or as a gift box? The styles we have seen are diverse enough (as David pointed out) to suggest we are not seeing a specific Borsalino "rollable", but rather many lighter weight hats that were suitable for being packaged in a box for convenient travel and, once home, steamed back into shape following the instructions on the sheet that Ale posted earlier. The one common feature is that they all appear to originate from Italian stores.

There are, or course, hats designed to be rolled for travel convenience, from the contemporary Christy and Borsalino crushables on back to the Borsalino fabric banded pocket hat. But I am thinking that this Borso box was a different animal. Has anyone found an advertisement that would suggest otherwise?

cheers,
Alan

 

[Aureliano]

Alan, I agree with you 100%. The sweat on mine is thin but not particularly flexible and it's reeded and, like you say, there's no indication that the felt is designed for rolling. It's thin but quite substantial. I always had the feeling that the rolling was a one time thing based on my instruction sheet.

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks for follow-up posts Ale and Victor.

I'd really love to see that Homburger roll... wouldn't you?

8^o

 

[carouselvic]

they never look quite as good as they did in the store....

 

[gtdean48]

I like the Western versus the Cowboy!!!!

 

[jbucklin]

Just got my new Whiskey VS in the mail just a few minutes ago.

 

[zetwal]

Just got my new Whiskey VS in the mail just a few minutes ago.

:beer:

 

[randooch]

jb, does it feel as good as it looks?

 

[jbucklin]

Oh yeah Randall, it does indeed.

 

[Shangas]

With summer approaching, I finally couldn't wait. I headed into town today and bought a boater. It fits really well and wasn't that expensive, but I'm not a fan of the ribbon. Fortunately, the shop where I bought it also does ribbon-replacements. The lady said I should bring it back next week for her colleague to have a look at and replace the ribbon for me.

PICTURES:

If possible, I'm thinking of replacing the ribbon with a royal/navy blue or even black one, but if that ain't possible, I still like the multifoloured one shown there. Just not as much.

A headshot:

 

[delectans]

Looks great on you, Shangas. I like the multi-colored ribbon.

 

[m0nk]

Shangas, love the hatrack full of nice hats!

 

[Shangas]

Thanks, Monk! The hat-rack was my idea. Between us, my father and I have probably a dozen or more hats (it started as his hobby, but it quickly spread to me, and then we both started buying hats...and...you get the idea).

Soon, we had hats all over the house! I insisted we had to find a better way of storing them apart from stacking them up on shelves. I went to the local flea-market a month or so back, and saw a nice hat-stand for sale for cheap. I told dad about it and he went off to buy it. As you can see, it's been well-used!

Here's the hat-tree without any fruit on it:

It holds a total of twelve hats/coats on the swivelling head, with space in the bottom for umbrellas and walking-sticks. For something so tall (roughly six feet) and light, it's surprisingly stable.

Thanks, Delectans! I had real misgivings about purchasing a boater. The first time I went to the shop and tried one on, I thought: "No! No this is not for me...no...no forget it..."

This time I decided to dress for the occasion, as you can probably see. Put on some nice, summery clothes and headed off to the shop. I finally convinced myself that I looked good in a boater (a few sweet words from the salesgirl helped...) and so I decided to buy it.

 

[Jauntyone]

I received this new Bluegrass Green Campdraft a couple of days ago from Everything Austrailian:

They had it in stock and the shipping was super-fast (Australia to France).
The color is unusual, but very nice. It really looks different in daylight than it does under electric lights. The felt on this Campdraft is extremely smooth and well-finished; it doesn't have any of the "fuzziness" of my other Campdrafts. A really cool hat!

 

[Shangas]

In my experience, Australian-made hats are made of rabbit felt. Rabbit felt is significantly smoother and firmer than beaver felt (which I believe is used more often in European and American hats); beaver felt being softer and 'fuzzier'.

 

[Henry Gondorff]

I finally did it: this is the brand new bowler I just got yesterday:

The color is far to grey on this picture. The hat is actually black:

 

[davidraphael]

Interesting brim for a bowler because it seems to be evenly raised all the way around. I've never seen that before.
Did you buy it in Germany?