Short men CAN pull off big hats!

[region4]

Hi all, my first post! I thought I'd share a few photos of my grandparents and their friends, taken around 1926 in England and France, as they're all wearing or carrying what look to be some rather nice BIG lids. The first shot was taken somewhere on the grounds of Hampton Court, and I'm guessing the tallest member of the group wouldn't have been much more than 5' 3" or 4" (for reference, my grandfather is the one on the far right and he was about 5' 2"). No stingy brims here!

Here's another:

And this one is of them on the pier at Hastings, with my grandfather doing his best Tintin look, but with hat.

Too bad for me his hats have all long since vanished.

 

[randooch]

Welcome, region4! Thanks for sharing those stylish pictures, too.

 

[delectans]

Welcome to the lounge, region4! What an incredible treasure, to have such wonderful photos of your Grandfather. He and his companions were definitely dapper and chic.

 

[AntonAAK]

They certainly are! I love the trousers on the gentleman in the middle of the top photo.

 

[Duper]

Welcome region4. Musketeers in fedoras. Nice souvenirs of a time long passed.. I think the lids are very nice proportions.

 

[alanfgag]

Welcome!... here is a good thread for these fantastic photos.

 

[dhermann1]

Hey, check my avatar. That's my granddad. He was a jockey, only about 5 ' 5" tall. Never weighed 100 pounds. He wore big hats all his life.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

Boy, I hope that last picture includes Grandma too, cause she seems pretty taken by Grandpa.

Later

 

[LocktownDog]

Great pics!

 

[DesertDan]

Great pics indeed, I especially like that outfit on the gentleman on the far left in the first photo! He was definitely stylin'!

 

[zetwal]

Cool photos. Welcome aboard ... :yo:

 

[region4]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

I guess these and other photos from the 1920s and 1930s do help reassure shorter guys like myself that fedoras which current fashion sense might regard as being simply too large for our height/frames, were in fact the norm back when lots of people were short by today's standards. Well, at least that's what I'm telling myself to justify having a Fed IV atop my towering 5' 1" frame.

Thanks alanfgag for the heads up on the ancestor hat pics thread -- I might post a few more items there as I go through more of my grandad's old photos.

And another reassuring thing for all us shorties out there -- yes, you can pull off double-breasteds if you're short, the trick is in the cut and fit of the suit.

 

[region4]

Also, any guesses anyone as to what sort of fedoras might be represented in these photos? In the musketeers photo, for example, could the middle hat be a homburg??

 

[thespoiler]

Seems to work OK here.......

 

[gtdean48]

... (for reference, my grandfather is the one on the far right and he was about 5' 2")....

How tall would the woman next to him be? She's wearing heals it appears....

 

[daizawaguy]

What a very interesting family history - I wonder what they were doing in Europe at that époque and what brought them there? You must have a very interesting family background.

 

[region4]

How tall would the woman next to him be? She's wearing heals it appears....

Oh that's grandma. She was rather short ... I can't recall her height but it was somewhere south of 5', maybe 4' 10" or 11".

 

[Mr Vim]

I'm five five and I and I reign in my hats to no more than 2 1/2 inch brims, but folks at stores said when I first started wearing fedoras that I should wear stingy brim only, and I promptly didn't follow that advice.

 

[region4]

What a very interesting family history - I wonder what they were doing in Europe at that époque and what brought them there? You must have a very interesting family background.

Granddad was sent over to England in the early 1920s for his university education, and his fedora-toting companions from the first two photos (I think they may be one and the same) were over there for the same purpose. After he graduated, grandma went over to join him (the two of them then having only recently married) and I think they stayed until 1929 or 1930. Around the time these photos were taken they made the trip over to France and Italy for a bit of sightseeing.

 

[ShrunkinCowboy]

I'm 5'5" also.
I can pull off wearing a Fedora fine, even a western Open Road-style doesn't look too bad.
But wearing a regular-style western hat with a normal 4" brim?

I look like Yosemite Sam.

Steve