Stratoliner

[PutALidOnIt]

I fully agree with y'all - Not-Bogart, Snrbfshn, and Solid...vintage lids are escalating on eBay, but as George Burns said in Oh, God! Book II , "I could never seem to make anything with only one side".

I too do not have a fat wallet, but with the prices going up (down-side), people seem to be pulling a lot of vintage stuff out of their closets (up-side). IMHO, it gives aficionados a better opportunity to preserve these lids instead of them giving up to the moths or the dustbin. The Borsalino sweepstakes and the Stetson Stratoliner/Whippet/OpenRoad have all taken a swift upturn, and anything that has a brim over 2" seems to get a lot more attention lately.

I believe that anything that carries a tagline of "they don't make 'em like they used to", whether good or bad, will eventually go up in price...wanna buy an Edsel???

I was confused; I thought they said that women liked guys with fat stomachs and flat wallets!

 

[fedoralover]

From the new hats I've seen they usually cost from around $65.00 up to around $125.00, depending on the brand and style. Borsalinos are around $225. to $265. depending on the store and the style. The 100% beaver Borsalinos are from $400 to $455. again depending on the store.

Vintage hats on ebay and in vintage stores have generally been cheaper than that, but not always, aka the 335 dollar borsalino and the 530 dollar stratroliner. While those are exceptions, I'm seeing the gap closing. Also, there is always a risk on ebay. You can't tell how it will look on your head, if the size is accurate, if it's truly in the shape it's supposed to be in etc.

For the first timer, it seems like a new Akubra or a Biltmore would be a safe way to go for the least amount of money and a fairly decent hat.

If you wanted a high quality custom you are best to go with Art or Steve. Excellent materials, workmanship and customer service. Optimo will probably have more options in felt colors, but the price is higher as it costs alot for a hatter to stock all the different colors as the felt companies have minimum orders that they require a hatter to buy and that adds up to 10s of thousands of dollars. Also his higher overhead with his shop in chicago and help. Hence the higher cost of an Optimo.

But the beaver and some of the beaver blends will, with a little bit of care, last the wearer a lifetime. A high quality pair of men's dress shoes will cost about the same as a custom fedora. Why even a cheap suit from Penny's can cost about $300. Will they last a lifetime? I doubt it. So it really isn't a bad investment.

fedoralover

 

[Bud-n-Texas]

Snrbfshn if you are interested

I was interested in the Stetson Melrose when it was auctioned on eBay. I may still be, the band getting cooked is of concern.

 

[Johnnysan]

Thanks, Johnnysan!

Hope you don't mind my mentioning you and some of the other 7 1/4 guys about the eBay stuff

Not at all...in fact, something you said in a previous post bears repeating:

"I prefer to respect our fraternity of the lounge because everybody wins some and loses some!"​

No one could have said it better! I feel exactly the same way...at least when I "lose" an auction to one of you guys, I know that the hat is going to someone who is going to wear it with respect and appreciate what they have. Much better than to lose it to some goof who wants to complete his pimp or gangster costume in time for Halloween! (Just ask me what I think of vendors who list those two terms in their descriptions! :rage: )

I may be a bit less of a competitor on eBay in the coming year though...I gotten a bit gun shy about buying sight unseen after being burnt on my last few auction wins. However, that said, IF a certain chocolate brown Mallory Dallas in 7¼ would happen to show up on eBay...I'd spend enough pennies to make it a good horse race!

 

[PutALidOnIt]

Thanks, Johnnysan! With the rising lid prices on eBay, I probably could make twice as much on eBay now as I did a few months ago on that green Borsalino I originally offered you for your dad! Also, I think that the Mallory is a real keeper, but thanks for the offer; if it ever needs a new home you'll be the second to know!:cheers1:

And, I agree about sellers who use "the G word"; they probably don't know the difference between a "gangsta" and a "gangster"!!! At least calling a fedora a "derby or "top hat" is a bit amusing, and "ska porkpie" gives me a little more info!

I have been "burned" or at least disappointed with a couple of eBay lids, but that's why I usually will limit myself to bids in the $20 - $30 range unless the item has great pics, and appears close to pristine. Early on, I went for a "vintage Dobbs" - "original store tags" - "never worn", but no pics of the inside. All of the description was valid except "vintage" - unless there is such a thing as a "vintage" barcode in the sweatband!:rage:

Didn't mean to draw everyone too far off the thread topic, but if the 2 primary sources for decent lids are custom hatters and eBay, I think those 2 topics kinda fit in anywhere...

 

[Snrbfshn]

What I meant was...

My stack-o-hats has begun to lean, some of its height attained with brims that will rarely see the light of day, or were too big or small. It's not a great number, and actually less now than when I made the soon-to-be-seller comments.

On kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, I gave away four hats for Christmas to friends that had admired my lids, and whose head sizes bracketed mine - either 7 3/8 or 7 1/8. So two Pilgrims, a Champ and an Adam are now gracing other's domes.

 

[PutALidOnIt]

I had a decent modern (Canada) Stetson that was a a bit larger than I could stuff to fit, and a buddy of mine admired it, so it was his - Merry Christmas! I didn't mention that I thought that new ones are !@#^&* compared to vintage! He loved it! I guess I have given away 3 or 4 others this year!

I, too will be thinning the herd starting next week - putting up a couple of 2" brimmed and some that just don't fit comfortably. I don't care if I make a little or lose a little, but I can sure use the space on my hat rack!

I am fascinated by how quickly my desire to "just want some cool hats" evolved to "must be vintage, must fit well, must be color correct in a style I want". What I thought was OK 6 mos. ago is far below the acceptable level today!

Oh, yeah - forgot to mention; I owe my elevated standards to all you cats and kittens here at the lounge! I had no idea what was out there until I came here - many thanks! cheers1:

 

[Bud-n-Texas]

I would like to think, that I am being selective from the onset. I have so many hats and caps now, there is not much room for more. A tan and a grey, with 2 1/2" brims are the objects of my search.

 

[Snrbfshn]

Yeah, hats4me, we know...

That's how it starts. :fedora:

 

[RBH]

Looking for a Stetson Stratoliner

Per my interest in the Stetson Stratoliner, I searched the lounge for info. Hopefully this will help all of us that have an affinity for the Stratoliner; the following is what I came up with. Many, many thanks to all who posted the following info and anyone that has more information please add to this. Maybe we can get it in one place so it will be easier to find.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

** {I} thought I would take this time to remind people that many vintage hats were named after cool things in the old days. The Stetson Stratoliner is just one of these but I thought I would give you just an idea what it was that inspired the hat.
The Stratoliner was an airplane produced in the late 1930s that was very deco and well appointed for the period. WWII came along and ended the production of the Stratoliner.

The Stratoliner is a true fedora -- soft enough to be rolled, with a brim of about 2-5/8". I believe fedoralover found that the Stratoliner has more curl to the back of the brim...I see no discernable difference between an Open Road an a Stratoliner. For all intents and purposes they appear to be the same hat except for the crown treatment. Stratoliner- C crown (teardrop) Open Road-Cattleman's or Alpine crease. Same ribbon and edge treatment also. OK, maybe the sweatband indicates the model and style, but other than that they are the same...right?
The Stratoliner and open road were very similar but the brims were flanged different.. The Stratoliner was generally a Royal Stetson but I have seen a couple that were Royal Deluxe. They were discontinued in the early 60s.

Also about the long oval hat boxes, in the old ads for the hat they actually tout the box as being designed to curl the brim on the sides as you put it in the box. This supposedly helped keep the snap on the front and the curl on the sides which distinguished it from the Open Road.

{ Spoke }to Joe Peters at Peter brothers Hats in Fort Worth. He seems to know his hat history. He said the Stratoliner was made from a much thinner, softer felt than the Open Road, much like a model called the Zephyr. he thinks the Stratoliner and the Zephyr were both meant to be pinch-front fedoras, and were probably shipped with open, unshaped crowns and then hand-shaped in the store. Open Roads were and are made from a heavier-duty felt and shaped in the factory.

Is there anything, other than the name, that absolutely distinguishes a Stratoliner from Open Road? Brim widths and bow styles and wind strings (or lack thereof) vary quite a bit on Open Roads, but so they also do on Stratoliner. That has me thinking that a Stratoliner essentially is an Open Road, and vice-versa. It appears that Stetson made the same hat to market to two audiences: Rural westerners (and wannabes) and dashing air travelers (and wannabes) with a somewhat more "casual" style than their immediate predecessors in the business world. Both models were shipped to the retailers open-crowned (I'm pretty darned confident of that), so the bashes don't tell the story.
However, Stratoliners were commonly available in a wider array of colors.{ My} Stratoliner looks more OR-ish than most of the pics I have seen of Strats. The brim is wide (3") and the crown is relatively tall. . **

 

[Pilgrim]

Very interesting, and encouraging for those here - because Open Roads are readily available at rational prices on our favorite E-auction site, whereas the Stratoliners command much higher prices.

 

[RBH]

The Stratoliner is a way cool hat, but also a very neat plane in its time. Here is a great picture of the cockpit in a Boeing Stratoliner.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Don't forget the fedoras named after birds: "Whippet" and "Bantam", among others.

 

[Andykev]

Now things MUST go to the dogs!

Ehm....excuse me, kind sir. The Whippet was a dog.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Ehm....excuse me, kind sir. The Whippet was a dog.

Oops! :eusa_doh: My mistake. I mean to type "named after dogs and birds". I accidentally left out the "dogs and". Thanks for catching that!

 

[RedPop4]

Nice thread, great history!!!!

 

[EricH]

Andy the whippet is not a dog! It's an excellent hat.....oh, that's what you mean Although I wouldn't say the lines of the hat are very whippetty. And naming a hat after a chicken, albeit a fiesty one, well thats just fowl.

 

[Kaleponi Craig]

Great pictures, thanks, James...KC

 

[Marc Chevalier]

HEY! I have a Stetson Bantam. It's a great fedora -- looks like a cross between a Whippet and an Open Road. Very lightweight, too.

 

[scotrace]

So how does that nice hat fit in the teeny box?