Putting on and Taking off your Fedora

[gtdean48]

I use the crown but grasp it around the base where the hatband/ribbon treatment is...

 

[Benzadmiral]

The younger Resistol Open Road clone is pretty soft, and there's a smudge on the crown I don't want to aggravate before I can get it clean. I either put the hat on with hands at 3 and 9 o'clock on the brim; or I palm the front of the crown gently and push it onto my head, then settle it using the brim.

The older Resistol has a tiny crack in the right side of the brim from its previous owner's years of use, so I try to use the left side to handle it.

For the others I try to use the two-handed brim method I described above.

 

[Tomasso]

I don't think this was true then or now. Wardrobe departments and costume designers do this work. An actor may have been given license on occasion to wear a special item, as in Jimmy Stewart's treasured hat... but the costume magic in movies and on stage is designed, shopped and built by the wardrobe crew.

The exception being Cary Grant, who had wardrobe approval written into his contracts and often wore his own clothes. And the garments provided by the studio were bespoke from the tailor of his choosing and were his to keep after filming closed. No other actor had that deal. But then he was the first (only?) freelance box office star and with that came unprecedented clout, which carried well beyond wardrobe.

 

[danofarlington]

I grab them by the pinch with pliers to prevent grease from my fingers to get on the crown.

 

[fmw]

I grab them by the pinch with pliers to prevent grease from my fingers to get on the crown.

Kitchen tongs should work better.

 

[danofarlington]

Kitchen tongs should work better.

Hot ones, so the crease can be reworked at the same time if need be.

 

[LondOfHoney]

Thought I would add my two cents in from a different perspective. I am heavily involved in the Stock Horse world (showing Quarter Horses and the like). Very expensive hats are just part of that world. Almost all are beaver, sometimes only 10x but often up to 100x or more. Hats in this world rarely cost less then 400 dollars and often cost more then 1000 dollars. This is just to give you some perspective. We are talking about a community that really knows hats. In the Stock Horse world it is practically a sin to touch the brim of a hat. The hats are always without fail handled by the crown. Children and those not used to working with the hats often have parents or trainers take them on and off and do the pinning in place. I have seen people chewed out for handling hats by the brim, and hat vendors will ask you to leave the store if you touch them like that. This seems to be a theme among all cowboy hats. I was shocked to hear that Fedoras are handled differently.

The shape of a western hat is really important in the ring. At every major horse show there will be a hat vendor who also cleans and shapes hats. Every 2 or 3 shows the hats have to be shaped again. The crowns tend to hold shape but the style (particularly for women) is to have the brim folded up quite tight sometimes almost vertical. Since the hat is part of the uniform making sure it looks perfect is just part of the job, and the brims just don't stay at such tight creases for more then a few months, no mater how expensive the hat is. Each barn has their own specks about how they want to hat shaped. The vendors get so they know how each trainer likes the hat, and I can go up to a vendor and say "I ride with such and such" hand them my hat, and come back the next day and have it exactly to spec.

Now granted these hats are not going to stick around for 60+ years, sweat and dirty from those hot dusty days just eats them. But I thought it was interesting the difference between the two worlds. The taboo of touching the brim in the western world seems to stem from keeping them in proper shape for as long as possible, though no one pinches the crowns either.

Hope someone finds this info interesting.



(Bah I have been waiting patently for some time now (2 weeks?) I quite foolish spelled Land wrong when registering and my correctly spelled account name has still not been approve. Not trying to complain I just feel silly posting with an incorrectly spelled name. )

 

[DesertDan]

I put on and take off my felt hats by the crown most of the time and always have. Gently. I've had some of my hats more than 20 years and I haven't had any problems with doing so. Straws, like others have stated, I handle by the brims. Their crowns are really too delicate for handling much. YMMV.

This. Of course all my hats are wool-felt but look none the worse for wear.

 

[Jedwbpm]

I put hats on I take them off

I put hats on I take them off

I put hats on I take them off

I put hats on I take them off
[video=youtube;pf37Ep_6-UY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf37Ep_6-UY[/video]

 

[danofarlington]

Thought I would add my two cents in from a different perspective.
Hope someone finds this info interesting.



(Bah I have been waiting patently for some time now (2 weeks?) I quite foolish spelled Land wrong when registering and my correctly spelled account name has still not been approve. Not trying to complain I just feel silly posting with an incorrectly spelled name. )

That is very interesting. Fascinating to hear from a different hat culture. I never knew those things.

On your moniker, I thought it was "London Honey" at first glance.

 

[fmw]

I come from the Western hat world as well. I used to show Paso Finos. In the Western classes, expensive gear wasn't necessary but it had to be Western. I rode with the hat below at over 40 horse shows. That was in the 1970's. I bought this hat (an ordinary 4X Stetson) at Shepler's in Dallas in 1966 to ride with my college rodeo team. I rode saddle bronc. It has been cleaned, reblocked and even changed from a cattleman's crease to the gus crease you see. It has had the sweat band replaced. It doesn't look new but it looks pretty good for being a true veteran.

I also handle hats by the crown. I always have. To me having a dirty brim is no advantage over having a dirty crown.

 

[gtdean48]

I competed in the NRHA for 20 years & never wore a hat into the ring that cost over $50 because chances are it end up on the arena floor & be right in the path of the pattern I had to run. The judges sure didn't care what sort of crease you had or what shape your brim was....

 

[alanfgag]

Thought I would add my two cents in from a different perspective.

Thanks for posting your perspective - an interesting read... and welcome to the Fedora Lounge!

Many of the hat enthusiasts here have dozens of hats - some quite rare. An individual hat is probably worn less frequently and handled more carefully than it would have been years ago when someone owned a smaller number of hats and wore them until they wore out.

That said, I think the hat tells you how to handle it. Some brims are too flexible to make lifting the hat's weight by the brim edge seem like a good idea. Others are too easily rebashed if held by the crown pinch.

With the goal being to change the hat as little as possible putting it on and taking it off, I usually listen to my hat and grasp each as it asks to be grasped. That may be a cop out to the original question, but that's how I roll on this one.

cheers,
Alan

 

[LondOfHoney]

On your moniker, I thought it was "London Honey" at first glance.

Ug I know, I have always signed as Land Of Honey why I misspelled it I have no idea. Took me a while to figure out why I could not log in *headdesk*


gtdean48 - I hear ya, we have some barrel girls at our barn. I know their hats are way less. I ride the pleasure though. I have no idea how you speed guys keep your lids on. Mine wants to tip up at a lope if I don't pin it down.

 

[gtdean48]

.... I have no idea how you speed guys keep your lids on. Mine wants to tip up at a lope if I don't pin it down.

A tight fit & hairspray on the sweatband right before you go in the pen....

 

[fmw]

I competed in the NRHA for 20 years & never wore a hat into the ring that cost over $50 because chances are it end up on the arena floor & be right in the path of the pattern I had to run. The judges sure didn't care what sort of crease you had or what shape your brim was....

That's a great competition. It requires nearly equal amounts of skill on the part of the horse and rider. In Paso Fino competition we were interested in controlling the horse so that it looked like it was controlling itself. We handled the horse mostly with knee pressure and an occasional vocal command. Probably a little of the same thing. We weren't judged on costumes at all. The costumes simply had to meet the loose requirements of the class. It wasn't a clothing show, it was a horse show. I think I paid about $20 for the hat. I remember the gaucho hat I had for the Spanish classes was over $40. For those classes I used an Argentine jumping saddle, not because it was Spanish but because it was cheap!

 

[fluteplayer07]

I'm terrible when it comes to this. I try as much as I remember to take them off by the brim, but usually I forget. If a hat is too weak for me to continually risk it, I try to avoid wearing it save for special occasions. I've been trying to be better about this, though.

 

[MikeBravo]

Most of the time I handle my hats by the brim.

By the front when taking them off. When putting my hats on I hold the front and back brims. I place the back of the hat in position on the back of my head, then I use the front part to settle it on my head at the right angle and adjust/snap the brim. I think I adopted this so as to snap the brim down on fedoras and started the habit that way. It gives more control than using the crown, and you have to adjust the brim anyway.

The only time I handle a hat by the crown is if I am doffing it to a lady. It looks more dashing, I feel, which is probably why they do it that way in movies

 

[danofarlington]

The only time I handle a hat by the crown is if I am doffing it to a lady. It looks more dashing, I feel, which is probably why they do it that way in movies

Do you doff? I never doff.

 

[Tomasso]

I never doff.

Neither do I. I'll lightly touch my brim; that's all you're gettin' out of me......