Return of the Broad Brimmed Hat

[bowlerman]

also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."

 

[SteveAS]

The low cost fedoras are a stepping stone to nicer ones. Like any trend with my gen it starts cheap then everyone buys better becuase it becomes a status symbol. The walmart fedoras are a start to a trend. People buy and see what they look like. After awhile theyll get nicer. Like prada purses, Ed Hardy clothes, and such.

Really? I see the presence of cheap trilbies and fedoras at Walmart as a sign that a trend has reached or passed its peak. When Walmart clothes shoppers are buying fedoras, the trend setters figure out some other way to distinguish themselves. When they do, the trend followers stop wearing fedoras and wear whatever the trend setters were wearing last year.

 

[John in Covina]

Really? I see the presence of cheap trilbies and fedoras at Walmart as a sign that a trend has reached or passed its peak. When Walmart clothes shoppers are buying fedoras, the trend setters figure out some other way to distinguish themselves. When they do, the trend followers stop wearing fedoras and wear whatever the trend setters were wearing last year.

It depends on how fast a trend disappears. Sometimes, a trend lasts long enough for the mass market to latch on to something. The general public can be stubborn about holding onto what was a trend. It's like imprinted t-shirts or Ugg boots. They have lasted longer than expected to the point that you can buy them all over.

 

[scottyrocks]

also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."

The media says what it says, and more specifically the way that it says it, to gain the greatest reaction. Thats what gets them noticed. Spin and controversy is what its all about. Its all ratings.

 

[John in Covina]

also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."

I think that it has to do with the perspective of the writer. The writer comes into a subject with little or no knowledge, 90% of what they have seen are stingy brims and it's from that perspective that they measure all other hats. It also seems they did not do a lot of research, they really did not touch on what we might consider the golden age of fedoras much while they propegated the same old myths and urban legends. As a hat article it is the equivalent to writing a short college paper using the internet the night before it is due.

 

[FedoraFan112390]

So I don't get it...Are Fedoras ''out'' again?

 

[John in Covina]

So I don't get it...Are Fedoras ''out'' again?

Fedoras haven't really been "in" since the late 1950's. The current stingy brim thing is a fad for a small amount of tragically hip seeking young people.

While people can give definitions that will say a Stingy Brim is a Fedora, I simply don't believe that.

The fact that is as it has hit the extreme side of brim size makes it FINO as in Fedora In Name Only.

It's like an experiment that went wrong in a horror movie but the creature created from that bad experiment keeps coming back from the dead.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

[Old Rogue]

Fedoras haven't really been "in" since the late 1950's. The current stingy brim thing is a fad for a small amount of tragically hip seeking young people.

While people can give definitions that will say a Stingy Brim is a Fedora, I simply don't believe that.

The fact that is as it has hit the extreme side of brim size makes it FINO as in Fedora In Name Only.

It's like an experiment that went wrong in a horror movie but the creature created from that bad experiment keeps coming back from the dead.

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

FINO....I'd have to agree with you on that. In my humble opinion a true Fedora cannot be stingy.

 

[FedoraFan112390]

I have to disagree....
I think stingy brims are just as Fedoras as big brimmed hats are.
Personally I find Fedoras and trilbys and stingy brims all varieties of the same hat.
By stingy brims I mean the sort of hat Sinatra wore, the same kind of hat JFK wore when he wore a hat on a rare occasion.

 

[W4ASZ]

This unproductive road has been traveled before.

 

[Chinaski]

Maybe unproductive or maybe uninformed. This site is quite educational and with that in mind, anyone who has seen Daizawaguy or GWD (and others I may be missing) wear a narrow-brimmed hat with great elegance knows stingies hold their own in the world of fedoras.

Back on topic, the additional media coverage of wide-brimmed hats may indicate a trend or it may not. How will you measure it if it's legitimately a trend?

 

[Hamletsghost]

2 1/2 is a wide brim? - Yeah Right

NOW DIZ BE De WIIIIIDE BRIM

 

[W4ASZ]

Maybe unproductive or maybe uninformed. This site is quite educational and with that in mind, anyone who has seen Daizawaguy or GWD (and others I may be missing) wear a narrow-brimmed hat with great elegance knows stingies hold their own in the world of fedoras.

Back on topic, the additional media coverage of wide-brimmed hats may indicate a trend or it may not. How will you measure it if it's legitimately a trend?

I wore a stingy to work today, though I generally prefer brims of 2 1/2 " and out. I would hate to see the business of "define fedora" to come back into play on FL. Wear what you like !

By the way, the stingy drew an entirely positive reaction.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I think a stingy fedora is as much a fedora as a broad-brimmed fedora. Stingies just don't look good on me. Some folks can really pull them off, though.

 

[FedoraFan112390]

I think stingy vs. wide brim depends a lot on your face shape/size. I've noticed people with thinner, more angular faces pull off broad brims better than stingies.
Whereas broader faced folk pull off stingies better.

 

[scottyrocks]

Basically, it seems that a fedora is a hat with a full brim, and a crown that can be pinched. Details such as materials and dimensions can be used to specify what type fedora a particular one is, as in, say, a classic forties (or decade of choice) -style fedora which would have a brim in the 2 1/2 inch range. A 'sixties-style might have a 2 inch brim and a smaller crown. A major difference in one of the fedoras of today that are associated with the 'hip' crowd is the material of choice which is cloth, as opposed to felt.

 

[Rodkins]

Basically, it seems that a fedora is a hat with a full brim, and a crown that can be pinched. Details such as materials and dimensions can be used to specify what type fedora a particular one is, as in, say, a classic forties (or decade of choice) -style fedora which would have a brim in the 2 1/2 inch range. A 'sixties-style might have a 2 inch brim and a smaller crown. A major difference in one of the fedoras of today that are associated with the 'hip' crowd is the material of choice which is cloth, as opposed to felt.

I have to agree with you, Scottyrocks. I think by the definitions I have read that the cloth stingies that took over the US I noticed in NYC about 5 years ago and in Florida last year (it takes about that long to get down here) are considered fedoras - just not fedoras I would want to wear. I respect anyones elses right to wear them and respect that they at least have to guts to try - but I don't give them the fedora "fist pump" or "nod of approval" I often give or receive when I pass another true Fedora wearer.

 

[fmw]

I'd rather see people wearing plaid stingy brim fedoras from Walmart than baseball caps. I hope it catches on. I reverse that opinion, though, if they start putting logos on the front of the stingy brims.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I wore a stingy to work today, though I generally prefer brims of 2 1/2 " and out. I would hate to see the business of "define fedora" to come back into play on FL. Wear what you like !

By the way, the stingy drew an entirely positive reaction.

Today I'm wearing my dusky green Crofut & Knapp, which I've had for about 15 years and which was probably vintage even then. Its brim is about 2.25" -- which seems odd to me, after a couple of years now with brims like those of the Akubra Federation and the Resistol Open Road clones in the 2.75" range. A sharp hat it is; that hasn't changed. But my tastes have shifted, and I wonder if the brim is too short.

I wouldn't call it a broad-brimmed hat in any case.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I'd rather see people wearing plaid stingy brim fedoras from Walmart than baseball caps. I hope it catches on. I reverse that opinion, though, if they start putting logos on the front of the stingy brims.

You will see more grafic designs on the sides of the hats a swirl.

I look as these types of hats as starter hats. I have a few made by Daniel Cremieux I wear them to work alot as it is pretty dirty at work and they are nice hats. The Daniel Cremieux driver caps are one of my favorite wear to work hats. My fur felts other than an old Open Road I had rebuilt never get near work on a daily basis.

The average guy will see more of this type of hat available to him to wear than a Fur felt hat. Winning an auction on eBay is not a way to start wearing hats. An like it or not the cloth stingy brim Fedora is the way people get started in wearing better hats than a ballcap.