The 1919 Win the War hat - war conservation effort

[buler]

Found this interesting article in the September 1918 American Hatter. I wonder if some of these changes were done for the war effort and never reversed.

B

 

[LocktownDog]

This is fantastic.

 

[buler]

Knox jumps on board.

B

 

[hatophile]

Very cool, B-
Thanks!

 

[zetwal]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting, buler.

 

[RBH]

Neat.

 

[alanfgag]

Fascinating. Certainly does seem to foretell the shape of things to come.

 

[mayserwegener]

At the time of WWI (also into the 20s) the Fedora was similar to the Homburg. It was a soft felt hat with curled brim, center crease (called Fedora or Alpine crease in America) and tapered (varied) crown. I don't believe the term Fedora or Homburg were used in Continental Europe at the time of WWI.

It doesn't appear any of these restrictions (how strong were they enforced?) were kept in place so I see little / no impact on the hat styles of the 20s.

Buler, By the way thanks for posting the article! Very interesting!

 

[Joshbru3]

Bill, this is an incredible article!! Thanks so much for posting it. I hadn't come across it yet in the American Hatter.

 

[gtdean48]

Neat.

Interesting that the WAR situation encouraged mid to thin ribbons in a way....

 

[VetPsychWars]

The question that comes to mind for me is that the war was over in November of 1918... how long did rationing continue? I could see it going on into spring of 1919.

Tom

 

[Dinerman]

Actually the term fedora comes from the play of the same name introduced in 1882. Princess Fedora wore a hat that is similar in style to the fedora we have today. The play was French so europe well knew what a fedora was rather long ago. Interestingly, the fedora went from women's fashion into mens fashion. There is a long thread here somewhere that goes into much further detail. I don't remember all of it off the top of my head.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?48956-Fedoras-in-the-19th-Century./page2
Here's the thread. The term "fedora" had come to mean a men's soft felt hat with a center crease and a curled brim by 1883. At the time the term wasn't used very much on women's hats. The distinction between what we now think of as fedoras an homburgs didn't come about until much later.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Actually the term fedora comes from the play of the same name introduced in 1882. Princess Fedora wore a hat that is similar in style to the fedora we have today. The play was French so Europe well knew what a fedora was rather long ago. Interestingly, the fedora went from women's fashion into mens fashion.

And Oscar Wilde was, perhaps, an early adopter. Here he is on an American tour in 1882. Is this one of the first fedoras, or is it an American "slouch hat" descended from the Civil War-era ones? I'd say the latter. For all we know, Wilde saw a slouch hat for sale in an American store and bought it.

.......

 

[Aureliano]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting, buler.

+1

 

[mayserwegener]

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?48956-Fedoras-in-the-19th-Century./page2
Here's the thread. The term "fedora" had come to mean a men's soft felt hat with a center crease and a curled brim by 1883. At the time the term wasn't used very much on women's hats. The distinction between what we now think of as fedoras an homburgs didn't come about until much later.

Thanks for posting the thread link. If you asked for a Fedora (in the USA) around the time of WWI that is type of hat you would most likely be given. This is based on what was identified (US newspaper hat ads and maker catalogs) as a Fedora at that time period.

I have gone through German and Austrian hat trade papers (similar to The American Hatter) up to 1938 and I have never seen Homburg or Fedora mentioned. I haven't checked French and Italian hat trade papers but I have a feeling it would be a similar result. Those terms as far as I know were Anglo - American.

 

[mayserwegener]

If you have not gotten a chance to handle a homburg made before the turn of the century, It is definitely different than what we have today. They were stiffer hats that had a tight brim curl like their bowler bretheren.

The Homburg was a soft felt hat, with German brim curl + binding with taller tapered crown. Here is late 1800s Homburg from the Novy Jicin, Czech Republic (was Austria before WWI) hat museum although they wouldn't have called it a Homburg.

 

[Joshbru3]

Did you touch it? They aren't that soft.

I have a late 1880's/early 1890's soft hat. The felt is "soft" but there is a substantial amount of shellac in the felt. It almost has a crispness to it, kind of like if you took a very thin bowler and tried to crease it with steam. My theory is that the first soft hats were nothing more than bowlers with less shellac in the crown. The brim on my soft hat is just as stiff as any one of the bowlers that I own.

 

[rlk]

Did you touch it? They aren't that soft.

There is NO DIFFERENCE in felt consistency or stiffening on these early hats only the brim curl differs from some later "Fedora" concepts. Soft hats are a broad but distinct category. Early 1920's trade and ads show far more curled up-brims than flat or snap-brims. A tensioned full bound curl will give added firmness to the brim edge but does not change the rest of the hat.

Buler thanks for the post and lets get back to the original wartime focus and possible qualitative change.

Hat variety and quality certainly was at a higher level again in the 20's and to some extent in the 30's despite poor economic times. The drop is much more noticeable during and after WW2 and was generally permanent.
WW2 era Hat Life has very similar suggestions for simplification and economy and how to explain the much reduced offerings to frustrated customers.

 

[rlk]

I have a late 1880's/early 1890's soft hat. The felt is "soft" but there is a substantial amount of shellac in the felt. It almost has a crispness to it, kind of like if you took a very thin bowler and tried to crease it with steam. My theory is that the first soft hats were nothing more than bowlers with less shellac in the crown. The brim on my soft hat is just as stiff as any one of the bowlers that I own.

This is only true for a limited period as these were from manufacturers(USA) of stiff hats trying to capitalize on style trends. Soft hat manufacturing facilities expanded rapidly before the end of the 19th century. The European antecedents{sometimes termed "Alpine") of these hats were always soft--not derived from the English Bowler. The same is also true of American Western and Military hats that already existed. Also the category sometimes called "Tourist Hats"(soft/casual) was around earlier and grew in sales although the name eventually faded away.

 

[mayserwegener]

Did you touch it? They aren't that soft.

No I didn't touch this hat but I have soft felt hats from a similar time period.