I was shown to this thread by its originator ... my man Alan ... who suggested I put a few Stratoliner pics here ... gladly
These range from early '40s to mid '50s.... I have two more Strats that are not pictured
one is being borrowed by a friend for a band photo shoot in Los Angeles and the other is one that belonged to my grandfather and is in climate controlled storage ... that is the one with the 50 dollar bill in the sweat that has been there since the 1940's ... I'll get a pic of that one day ... it is gorgeous
as for these ... there really is not much difference in quality throughout ... all just beautiful
the brims vary in size slightly from hat to hat as Strats do
one thing I've noticed is ... at least with mine... the older they are the lighter and softer the felt is ... but they are all very soft
the dark brown Strat that you see unlined is probably the earliest and is a Vita-Felt ... suuuuuper soft
the top left , bottom left, and bottom right in the first pic are also 40's and very very soft ... but the robin egg blue from the very early 50's is also among the softest and lightest of the bunch.
the top left 40's Strat has a really nice burgundy tip to the liner.... really nice touch
the others are all early to mid 50s and just a touch heavier ... but equally beautiful ...
sweat bands are extremely important to me when buying and all of these have nearly perfect sweats... a couple of them have absolutely mint sweats
all are extremely pliable and hold a dry crease with the greatest of ease ... you bash it ... it stays ... great great hand on every one
as a matter of fact every bash you see in these pics are dry
Beautiful collection of Strats there Moon! I too enjoy the thin ribbon and wide brim look. Have several Strats but not nearly as many as you! Excellent.
A vintage Stetson Playboy is an intriguing fedora. In the beginning the Playboy fedora sold for a modest price. In a 1940 Advertisement Stetson touted that over 2,000,000 men had paid over $10,000,000 for Playboys. It is "Extra Light" and comes in "30 attractive shades." Imagine that Stetson advertised that over 2,000,000 of the hats sold. Amazing.
I have been fortunate to gather 4 of the vintage hats. I would like to share them on this thread. As usual Stetson had oodles of variants on the model. I present 2 of each with 2.5" brim and 2 3/4" brim. The brims of 3 have a single row of stitch and 1 no stitch. The leather sweatbands, certainly showing their age, are of different qualities. Three of the hats are vintage felt and 1 is Vita Felt. The Vits Felt I have been curious about since watching the forum postings of other Vita fedoras. This felt is extraordinary thin and maleable. It has a very soft feel to the touch.
The ribbons have aged differently than the hat bodies or leather. The gray felts have ribbons that vary significantly in color. When turning the ribbons over, as much as they allow, the ribbons have obviously faded.
Super post, ERic, thank you! If over 2M were made, certainly there's one out there in my size!
Without going through a bunch of threads, I need to ask, does the Playboy ever have a bound brim? Most seem to be raw edged or stitched, like Eric's above.
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