The Cap Faction

[Razzman]

Have you used the adjustment built into the rear of the cap. If you look you will see a safety pin in you will find the adjustment.

Yes, I adjusted it with the built-in safety pin. Thanks Ed, I just want to try to eliminate some of the drape. Probably should have opted for a different cut?

 

[Razzman]

This is the Wigens patchwork cap. It's well made, and has the three button snaps on the brim. I like it but it's a tad too big. I don't like the way it sits on my head.

[/IMG]

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Yes, I adjusted it with the built-in safety pin. Thanks Ed, I just want to try to eliminate some of the drape. Probably should have opted for a different cut?

Right drape is an issue of the cut of the fabric. Not of the fit on your head.

 

[Woodfluter]

Flat vs eight-gore caps

I really like the Retro-Sport cap (casquette) I received from Mamie Blue!
So much that I've ordered two more. Save on shipping that way.

Anyway, their website references this kind as worn by Jean Gabin in "La belle equipe".
I've looked at that and several others. There's 8-piece caps in there, but not worn by Gabin.
His seems to be a large flat cap with side pieces separate from the oval top.

Film “La belle equipe” (1936), avec Jean Gabin; song “Quand on se promene au bord de l’eau”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi-WY_1zf-8
[Memo to self...don't dance on roofs when intoxicated.]

…Open to interpretation, but I think it’s similar to the cap he wore in “L’air de Paris (1954)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icQvbogPvN4&feature=related
…In other words not an 8-gore but rather a flat cap variety. Peut être, la même casquette?

FYI, here's excerpt from “Zou Zou” (1934) avec Jean Gabin, Josephine Baker - song “Viens Fifine”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB_mWtIFsUc
...Early in clip, Jean Gabin’s cap from various angles (more like flat cap I think)
...Others are 8/4 or otherwise not certainly identifiable.
...At 2:45-2:48, the "heavy" in apparent 8-dart
...At 2:52-2:55 bartender in 8-dart

Also, from “La môme caoutchouc” (1932) avec Jean Gabin & Fréhel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p-ONIKaOYA
This is a veritable feast of caps.
Jean Gabin wears a hat, but the rest are in a mix of 8-dart and flat caps I think.
Exactly at 1:51…clear 8-dart with very prominent visor
Stop at 1:53 exactly…notice extremely wide and long visor, single snap.

The Mamie Blue website also mentions "mauvais garçon à la James Cagney".
Anybody have any stills showing what that bad boy Jimmy wore?

Also, anybody making large-diameter flat caps these days? Like Gabin's?
Seems like a missing niche market.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Cagney wears a cap in the early scenes of "Public Enemy". The clothes in this movies are really great.

He wears a great 8 panel in "Taxi" too

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Just Retro Sport and Mr. Freedom make the caps and Retro Sport is the only one making them full time. The flat cap was really popular in the 20's and 30's and but today the 8 pannel newsboy is the most produced cap. An people THINK it is the same cap worn in the 30's and 30's. There are so many ways to make a cap and now days the industry is dwindled down to so few fine cap makers than in the Golden Era companies stick to what they do best and what they have patterns for. The average user would not know the difference. Here we have learned the difference and seek out those who make the cap we are looking for.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

That is a cracker jack cap and outfit. +1

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

1938

Unknown, 1930s

Unknown

From Sous les toits de Paris (René Clair, 1930)

 

[Mario]

I like this a lot. Heck, I'd even wear the suit, nay, the whole combo myself.

 

[Two Types]

anybody making large-diameter flat caps these days? Like Gabin's?
Seems like a missing niche market.

Maybe not exactly the same as Gabin's, but definitely a much more generous flat cap than most available in this day and age, this is a link to the 'Oliver Brown' website:
http://www.oliverbrown.org.uk/media...8d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/e/mens-caps-oversized.jpg

Their 'oversize' cap is the only large-diameter flat cap that I know of as available here in the UK. It can be ordered in a nice variety of tweeds:
http://www.oliverbrown.org.uk/media...525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/s/w/swatch_copy_17.jpg

I have two of them and they are undoubtedly the best caps I have ever owned. The overhang is very generous.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Not a fan of the seam line on that one. Sort of a bigger of current cap designs of today.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Maybe it is a british style? I wonder if the US the 8panel and in france the dart type where the most common.

The cap in this picture seems to have the seam too.

 

[Kodawolf]

These are some of the nicest repro caps I've seen!

Who makes these?

 

[Two Types]

Maybe it is a british style?

I also have an old Russian cap that is a very similar style - same seam etc. I have a vague memory of other Eastern European caps I have seen being roughly the same construction (might be wrong though).

 

[Woodfluter]

Ed, the cap you show is similar to those worn by Jean Gabin in the 1930s and 1950s movie clips I referenced (and others). Where did you see this one? I like it and don't mind that seam a bit.

Maybe it is a british style? I wonder if the US the 8panel and in france the dart type where the most common.
The cap in this picture seems to have the seam too.

Hmmm, don't think it's that simple.
I've been looking at hats and caps in the book "Century", a hundred years of photos compiled by Bruce Bernard (Phaedon Press). There are cap trends visible, but they're more subtle than you'd guess from advertising - which is aimed at selling something they want you to wear, vs what folks are actually wearing. A few interesting and random examples:

- 1906 France with bulbous but smaller-diameter 8/4 cap (kind of like Hat People and turn-of-century golf caps I posted) & wide flat caps plus a medium sized 8/4
- Dublin rally in 1921 with numerous large, flat caps that don't look gored (no angles anywhere)
- Russians in 1923 wearing larger 8/4 caps
- 1934 bread line in US with two large 8-gore caps seen from behind.

I don't have time to scan these (and some from other books) right now but will try later on.

It seems (so far) that the smaller, fuller 8/4 type became gradually less seen during the 1910s-1920s, giving way to larger diameter caps with varied construction, but some of the latter were seen earlier too. Also, snaps on the front are evident in some, but the complete absence of any fastening at the visor with large gaps often visible seems to be much more common than I'd have guessed. I'd estimate more common, although my sampling is too small to draw firm conclusions and many views are ambiguous.

There were some larger caps (including 8/4) that appeared to be stiched down to the visor, what's now called "Ivy style" when applied to a flat cap - and that seems to occur randomly from the teens through the 30s. Interesting stuff.

 

[DanielJones]

My latest purchase from Hat People. It is a tan houndstooth in their extra full cut.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[Razzman]

Nice looking cap! I like the houndstooth pattern.

 

[Adnamira]

Looks very good on you, Dan. May I ask what hat size you are?

 

[resortes805]

Vintage cap I bought off of Ardis at Viva Las Vegas....

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Looks good. I havea similar one. The Barrymore Cap; "Canada's Best Cap"

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