The 'loose' look.

[The Lark]

Hi all,

So I'm debating whether to get a hat in a size too big deliberately, perhaps to evoke a sort of goofy, vagabond look. I've tried on a few hats at my local hatter in a size too big just to see how it felt, and it wasn't bad (although it varied from hat to hat).

Do any of you do this? Does the extra size actually get annoying after a while? Got any pics to show?

 

[Feraud]

Start with a badly fitted hat and soon you will be wearing drippy, droopy loose jeans..

 

[daizawaguy]

Problem here is that this will flop down to your ears, and wobble as you walk...not sure this will bring you much...

 

[Tomasso]

 

[handlebar bart]

Start with a badly fitted hat and soon you will be wearing drippy, droopy loose jeans..

If it's alittle oversized it's alot easier to wear it turned sideways with the bow to the front.[huh]

 

[kaosharper1]

Look at Johnny Depp. It looks like that's what he does. If you think you can pull the look off, good luck. BTW, it doesn't take much of a breeze to blow your hat off if you wear it too big.

 

[Lefty]

It's all in how you wear it, if it's only one size up. More than that, and you've got to stuff a little something behind the sweat. I'm a 7 1/2, this hat is a 7 3/4 extra long oval.

 

[CRH]

Hi all,

So I'm debating whether to get a hat in a size too big deliberately, perhaps to evoke a sort of goofy, vagabond look. ...

Stupid idea.

I could, however, support a "serious philosopher vagabond" look.

 

[Feraud]

Look at Johnny Depp. It looks like that's what he does. If you think you can pull the look off, good luck. BTW, it doesn't take much of a breeze to blow your hat off if you wear it too big.

Depp certainly has sprezzatura then there are the rest of us..
Besides, Lark mentioned going for a deliberatly silly look..

So I'm debating whether to get a hat in a size too big deliberately, perhaps to evoke a sort of goofy, vagabond look.

 

[Mr E Train]

Kid Rock does it, and he looks goofy, all right.

 

[Jeff M]

To me, most folks who wear hats that are too large look like they are a child wearing their dad's hats. Or they have a pin head.
I understand Depp likes to wear hats sized one size up. They don't look like they are too large for him.

One thing I've tended to notice is that people seem to be gravitating towards larger crown sizes/brim sizes without regard for their head shape/size.
The hat may look nice...but it does not look good on the person.
As with men's suits and shirts, the style of the hat is going to be dictated by a persons body habitus. Go against body type and style/balance are lost.
Not everybody is Humphrey Bogart...or Robert Mitchum. Or Johnny Depp.

 

[navarre]

I agree with Jeff here. Proportions are everything. Just because someone else can pull off a style doesn't mean we all can. You have to dress to your shape.
That being said, remember that our opinions don't mean much. If you feel good walking around in a loose hat, more power to you.

 

[Jeff M]

Great "sticky" post in the "Outerwear" section, reference books about "dressing with style";
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=20977
I purchased some of the books by Alan Flusser. Great reading.
In particular found his discussion of proper fit and proportion based on body type to be very informative.
Clothes function stylistically best when they act as a frame for the face.
You don't want to draw attention away from the face.
Look at people who know/knew how to wear hats. Jimmy Stewart. Bogart. Mitchum. Sinatra, Depp.
Their hats make them look sharp, not like a buffoon like Kid Rock.

 

[Mav]

Hi all,

So I'm debating whether to get a hat in a size too big deliberately, perhaps to evoke a sort of goofy, vagabond look. I've tried on a few hats at my local hatter in a size too big just to see how it felt, and it wasn't bad (although it varied from hat to hat).

Do any of you do this? Does the extra size actually get annoying after a while? Got any pics to show?

If you do this, I will be forced to mock you.

 

[Dewhurst]

Oh... you should do whatever makes you feel happy. As long as you aren't hurting anyone (which is hard to know, with the goofy vagabond look!!!).

 

[danofarlington]

Hi all,

So I'm debating whether to get a hat in a size too big deliberately, perhaps to evoke a sort of goofy, vagabond look. I've tried on a few hats at my local hatter in a size too big just to see how it felt, and it wasn't bad (although it varied from hat to hat).

Do any of you do this? Does the extra size actually get annoying after a while? Got any pics to show?

Learn by doing, I always say. The only problem I see in your plan is that if it turns out you don't like it, now or later, then you would have spent money on a too-large hat you don't plan to wear. If that doesn't bother you, then go for it. You could view it as the cost of an experiment.

 

[Hereward]

I think what Johnny the Depp can get away with and what Joe Shmo can may be two different things. However, attitude is what is needed and some can pull it off without being flashbulb faces.

 

[Richard Warren]

Do what you want, you goofy vagabond.

 

[AlterEgo]

Lark,

I think the best way to achieve the goofy, vagabond look is not by upsizing. A hat too big for your head requires near constant adjustment and becomes a perpetual annoyance, and, in itself, does not impart the look you seek.

Instead, try a hat that's a reasonably good fit but that has visible wear and/or an intentionally off-kilter bash in the crown or assymetrical flange in the brim. Perhaps the late, great comic actor Red Skelton's character hats would be a bit much, as well as Boxcar Willy's lid, but you get the idea. Willie Nelson can wear a beat-up hat as well as any, but in his case, I believe it's the man that makes the hat rather than the other way around.

I like your attitude of non-conformity and doing something different for the sake of being different. Please post some pics of what you come up with.

 

[Jack Scorpion]

I have a different take.

While I'm sure most gents here have found a certain hair style that they like, my restless distaste for my hair has led me to try all kinds of cuts and lengths. Because of this, my hats, which range from 7 1/4 to 7 3/8, fluctuate between fitting perfectly, being too big or being too small, depending on the size of my do.

Because a hat that is a size too small is useless, I prefer my hats that are 1/8 "too big" for me, for reasons due to comfort more than style. I believe, however, that when one has an above average amount of hair (like Depp, to use your examples), that 1/8 increase in size looks better. The hats rest on your hair instead of pressing your hair into your scalp, and your hair forms itself so the hat doesn't look stupid.

I tend to push my hats farther back on my head than most folks, which is also a factor in hat size, and that look kind of has a "vagabond" look, or at least a less formal look, which I like. There's too much formality to wearing hats as it is, and I rarely have the occasion.

If I had very short hair, though, I only wear the hats that fit me perfectly.