Semi-Homburgs?

[Snrbfshn]

In my Aug. '43 Hat Life, there is a picture of the display window at Wallach's New York.

The caption reads "Lightweight hat season was ushered in...with enlarged calendar idea to remind men that the Fall months are 'changeover' months. Note that many styles of lightweights are shown, including the semi-Homburg."
The semi-Homburgs (apparently "Homburg" is properly upper-cased) are the two hats sitting over Aug. 6 and Aug 14 on the calender. I've never heard of semi-Homburgs before. Anybody know anything about them, or have one? (The picture's not real good. I'll shoot a better one tonight and substitute it.)

 

[jamespowers]

Looks like two fedoras with a center dent and an upturned brim to me. I think that is what they are calling a semi Homburg. It can be versatile and maybe substitued for a real Homburg but I don't think I would.

Regards to all,

J

 

[feltfan]

I would be very curious to see a better picture.

I think this is a category of hat I have been wondering
about for a while. For example, I have one (the
Quality Hat Works pinched one in the photographs here:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=3787 )
that seems to be a Homburg, but with no sewn edge and
a more casual look. I have seen older Borsalinos that seem
to be light Homburgs with no edge treatment. Finally, I have
a very old (30s?) Cavanagh (made, incidentally, with a fur
finish Crofut & Knapp felt, not a Cavanagh felt!) whose
style I have been unable to determine. Could be a sort
of Semi-Homburg.

Please do post better photos. Thanks.

 

[Snrbfshn]

Here's better pictures...

Here's a better shot, along with the rest of the copy on this page of the magazine.

I've got a hi-res shot of the display window if you want me to email it to you. Send me a PM with your email adress and I'll attach it.

 

[feltfan]

I've got a hi-res shot of the display window if you want me to email it to you. Send me a PM with your email adress and I'll attach it.

No, that's great, thanks. Putting aside the fashion of the time
(that I also like) of light felts, I guess a semi-Homburg is one without
a sewn edge, with less roll and perhaps a more fedora-like, possibly
reverse-tapered crown? I guess it's all in the blocking.

The text is very interesting, too. I hadn't thought that part
of the reason the 1940s yielded so many fine fashions was
because people had war pay to burn.

 

[jamespowers]

Reading the text, it seems to me that they probably also had a limited amount of materials to use in the production of hats. Hats likely didn't have liners because the material was used for parachutes and other uses involved with the war effort. Perhaps they also did not have a good supply of shellac flakes to produce stiffener for the hats produced either. I think they obtained the shellac from South America at that time. During the war it was probably not likely that they were getting a lot of the stuff shipped into the country.
The lack of Bowlers or true Homburgs pictured in that ad leads me to believe that it was more to do with this lack than a new style that they created. You have to hand it to them. They were still producing with limited raw materials. As far as I am concerned, they did better then with limited materials than the off the shelf producers do today.

Regards to all,

J