The Fedora style

[GentlemanFarmer]

Not vintage

I also don't do vintage. I have chosen to now wear Open Roads as the current style of western hats don't do it for me. As with a classic cut suit, some things never go out of style. As I've grown up I can't tell you how many times western hat styles have changed. Now they look like "taco shells". I'm getting to old to keep changing, so I'm going with an old classic, whether it's vintage or new. I can wear an OR with my Wranglers or with a an overcoat over a suit. I think the "vintage" look is great and with "Cowboy Cool" a new style, folks are discovering the old "vintage style" cowboy shirts matched up with a pair of radical cowboy boots is pretty cool now.

My 15 year old was amazed that my age group was wearing bell-bottoms and had long hair 40 years ago. I find it funny that they think they discovered this new look. Ha!!!

 

[rockyj]

Vintage or old school?

Words tend to be misconceived.When I was a kid an old crabby guy was just that. "AN OLD CRABBY GUY" Now the word is " curmudggin"(I think thats how you spell it) Like it makes it okay to be crabbylol The word vintage went with wine and cars and stamps. I guess in a few years when I'm walking down the street some of these kids will nudge each other and say "Hey! Get a load of the Vintage guy with the funny lid!"

 

[Roaring Days]

I think its wonderful the devotion we all have to our hats, the inpression from all of the feedback is that we love owning and wearing our hats and sometimes as a result of this, some people may look into a more 'vintage' look than others. I tend to wear my hat when dressed in my work suit and have a flat cap for more casual dressing, but I do think hat it is an accessory that you can dress to, i.e. what goes well with your Fedora/s or flat caps etc

Style is the main thing and that you do it with confidence..agree

 

[FedoraGent]

Not necessarily.

I don't think that you have to necessarily love vintage to wear the style of hat. My thoughts are that if you're a well dressed man and you want to put that final touch of elegance and class, well then you have the general idea. Sometimes you foster an admiration for vintage, but not always. The two do not always go hand in hand.

FG.

 

[Pat_H]

Avoiding some items of style.

Turning the question on its head, I wonder if any of us avoid wearing certain items with our hats, or vice versa, so as to avoid comments?

I'll confess to doing that with once such item. I have a nice, horsehide A2 jacket that I frequently wear, but I generally avoid wearing it with my Fedora, as I don't want the "Indiana Jones" comments. I like those films, but I don't want the "hi Indy!" comment.

That's about it for me, but I'd guess others do similar things.

 

[deanglen]

Turning the question on its head, I wonder if any of us avoid wearing certain items with our hats, or vice versa, so as to avoid comments?

I'll confess to doing that with once such item. I have a nice, horsehide A2 jacket that I frequently wear, but I generally avoid wearing it with my Fedora, as I don't want the "Indiana Jones" comments. I like those films, but I don't want the "hi Indy!" comment.

That's about it for me, but I'd guess others do similar things.

Me, too. Nothing against Indy, it just bugs me to get those comments...actually any comment that doesn't fall within the semantic field of "Nice hat" bugs me. I need to grow a thicker skin, I know.

dean

 

[Pat_H]

Me, too. Nothing against Indy, it just bugs me to get those comments...actually any comment that doesn't fall within the semantic field of "Nice hat" bugs me. I need to grow a thicker skin, I know.

dean

Hat comments that aren't like that generally bug me too.

The odd thing, since I'm doubly employed, is that I'll occasionally get a hat comment if people run into me doing my "other" (cowpunching) job who know me only from my "town" job. As I usually don't come to my town job wearing my messed up cowboy hat, when I see such folks, I'll get the "wow, that's a big hat (it isn't any bigger than most cowboy hats) and be treated somewhat like I'm in costume, which I'm not. Given as I'm usually dressed in true manual labor clothes at the time, it always strikes me as odd, and a little insulting.

In comparison, I often feel like I really am in costume when I'm dressed formally for my town job, which I often am. I'll be in suit and tie, and feel rather odd (a byproduct of my upbringing) and get a compliment, which tends to make me feel a bit self conscious.

However, as I get older, I find that these comments bother me less and less. And of course people tend to figure out that you're 1: doubly employed, and; 2. eccentric.

 

[Pat_H]

To add to this, I've been pondering buying a hat for a silverbelly Fedora, just because I could wear it with my A2, and only an idiot would associate it with Indiana Jones.

Or at least that's the excuse I'm pondering using.

 

[deanglen]

To add to this, I've been pondering buying a hat for a silverbelly Fedora, just because I could wear it with my A2, and only an idiot would associate it with Indiana Jones.

Or at least that's the excuse I'm pondering using.

Many of us could attest to this: PRACTICALLY ANY HAT THAT EVEN SLIGHTLY RESEMBLES A FEDORA, meaning if it has a crown of five inches or less, or brim less than three inches IS CONSIDERED FAIR GAME FOR COMMENTARY. My straw Borsalino garnered "Indy" comparisons. :eusa_doh:

dean

 

[Zig2k143]

I didn't realize how much I enjoy the Golden Era until I started to do searchs for Hats online.

My father was always into the Big Band and Jazz which is where I got my love for the music... But it really didn't dawn on me until I found this forum.

 

[Undertow]

I rarely buy vintage items, if at all. I try to stick with a certain well-groomed appearance that happens to coincide with the Golden Era, Victorian days, the 50's, etc. I just like to look good.

And I really like hats too.

 

[Pat_H]

Many of us could attest to this: PRACTICALLY ANY HAT THAT EVEN SLIGHTLY RESEMBLES A FEDORA, meaning if it has a crown of five inches or less, or brim less than three inches IS CONSIDERED FAIR GAME FOR COMMENTARY. My straw Borsalino garnered "Indy" comparisons. :eusa_doh:

dean

True. I've gotten that comment with a silverbelly Open Road with the cattleman bash. While it would make a nice Fedora, if reshaped, it isn't one.

 

[Undertow]

Well, you know, now that you mention asinine comments, I can't tell you how often I have people mistake plain-toed oxfords for wingtips, spectators for oxfords and plain leathers for patents.

I've been called Inspector Gadget in the winter when I'm wearing my London Fog overcoat (as well as Insp. Clouseau) and Indy in the summer with a black-band panama.

I understand some people may just be relating through association but fer gad sake people...:eusa_doh:

 

[Zig2k143]

I was called Inspector Gadjet in HighSchool

 

[deanglen]

True. I've gotten that comment with a silverbelly Open Road with the cattleman bash. While it would make a nice Fedora, if reshaped, it isn't one.

In a similar vein, my campaign hats get called "cowboy" hats, if they have the "fore and aft" or "Smokey" if they are "montana peaked". Hats seem to bring the best or worst in others who do not wear them and have to comment. Yet, I don't call people in baseball caps Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth, or Ty Cobb. I'll bet if you looked at someone in a baseball cap and yelled out "Batter up!", they'd be mystified as to why you did that.

dean

 

[Twitch]

The fedora can be worn with anything vintage or not just as it was for several decades as fashions changed. I will wear one with jeans and a sweatshirt or a suit and look fine either way just as bankers and truckdrivers wore them with their particular clothes long ago.:fedora:

 

[deanglen]

The fedora can be worn with anything vintage or not just as it was for several decades as fashions changed. I will wear one with jeans and a sweatshirt or a suit and look fine either way just as bankers and truckdrivers wore them with their particular clothes long ago.:fedora:

I'm glad you posted that. I happen to agree. Nice to see you feel that way. When I wear one of my fedoras with a casual shirt and jeans, I sometimes had the feeling I wasn't doing justice to the "vintage" ethos.

dean

 

[RedPop4]

My quirk is that I'm uncomfortable in a fedora and a short sleeved dress shirt. I'm ok in a tee, ok in a polo/golf shirt, ok with a guayabera, and certain informal shirts. But a full button, short-sleeved shirt? and I feel funny.

 

[Pat_H]

In a similar vein, my campaign hats get called "cowboy" hats, if they have the "fore and aft" or "Smokey" if they are "montana peaked". Hats seem to bring the best or worst in others who do not wear them and have to comment. Yet, I don't call people in baseball caps Barry Bonds or Babe Ruth, or Ty Cobb. I'll bet if you looked at someone in a baseball cap and yelled out "Batter up!", they'd be mystified as to why you did that.

dean

LOL!

I may try that batter up comment. . .picking my victim carefully, of course.

 

[Pat_H]

In a similar vein, my campaign hats get called "cowboy" hats, if they have the "fore and aft" or "Smokey" if they are "montana peaked".
dean

I've been glad to see a minor revival in the Montana Peak style of hat around here recently. I've even seen somebody regularly wearing what is obviously a reshaped M1911 campaign hat. Perhaps people will quit thinking of them as "Mountie Hats", which even some store clerks used to refer to them as being.

I'm not sure what has sparked this, but some cowboy hats are being shaped this way locally once again.