The Wearable Hat Collection: Style and Color

[VetPsychWars]

My hat "collection" is a series of hats I wear every day. I don't have any just because they're cool. As I was putting together storage for my hats (see this thread) it occurred to me that I didn't want to just accumulate hats and have a bunch sit while I wear the same few I always wear.

I had already settled on the style: bound edge, thin ribbon. Like Stetson Stratoliner. Like Borsalino Alessandria. Which means, of course, that I have a bunch of Stetson Stratoliners and Borsalino Alessanrias!

Then I had decided that my theme is going to be color. Bold color. Bright color. Stand out color.

That makes life easier, I think. There are only so many sand-color hats a person needs. I realized that I have perhaps six hats with small variations in that beige-tan family! Embarrassingly, two of them were duplicates: I have two vintage Borsalino that are exactly the same.

I couldn't let go of the grey hats, so what the heck, grey is a color! A dove-grey vintage Borsalino. A light grey Beaver Brand. A medium grey vintage Stratoliner. A dark grey vintage Borsalino.

After I receive back a rust-colored prewar Stratoliner from cleaning and renovation, I'll pull out the daily wear hats and line them up. It'll make for a fun picture, I hope.

How about you? How do you decide what is in your daily wear rotation?

Tom

 

[gtdean48]

I have a couple of hats I wear every day to go to the barn & feed + clean stalls. The reason for a couple is I sweat in them cleaning stalls & one needs to dry, so the other gets a turn.
As far as what gets worn out of the house & to work, that depends on time of year. Early Fall & late Spring, I wear the lightweights, custom & vintage. As weather cools, I wear the dress weights. Those are divided into browns & greys & I pick the color that goes best with my boots & jacket that I plan to wear.
Come Summer, only the ArtLites & the straws get much noggin time.
I do have some special hats that come out for special events, like office/holiday parties = Stetson 100, VS Legacy, Royal Deluxe Strat...

I also have some examples by key vintage makers = Pilgrim, Marathon, Knox, Disney, Adam

 

[hatophile]

I give you credit for thinning the herd.
I have hats in all different styles and colors. I'll pick a few out for the week and then the next week rotate a few more. I usually keep a couple of thin ribbons out for the casual weekend wear.

 

[barrowjh]

My fedoras are all in use right now (winter) and I switch to straws for summer, fall and spring are for the western thin-ribbon style fur felts. I ususally keep a few thin-ribbons available all summer since the panamas do not like rain, so on rainy summer days I wear a thin-ribbon western.

Colors are important and I am not missing any particular color. I WANT a light olive but I already have a regular olive green fedora and a stratoliner plus half a dozen other green hats, so I really don't have to have a light olive. My hair is gray or salt/pepper at best and I find that deeply saturated colors just do not look right on me, but I have not parted with them yet. Dark brown, navy blue do not get much wear. I can change the color of my straws (ok, just the ribbon) with my small collection of pugarees. I have a medium brown thin-ribbon and the olive green stratoliner, but these do not get worn nearly as much as the more traditional lighter colors in the silver belly and sand type colors for thin-ribbon western hats.

A current (winter) example - I have a grey with wine ribbon Dobbs fur felt fedora that will match up ok with anything I wear in the red spectrum, and I have a silver belly fedora also that will go with reds; just an example of matching a hat up with what I wear. Typically any shirt or tie combo in the red spectrum would go with black shoes. So, greys, blues, wine ribbons etc go with black shoes. Greens and browns go with brown shoes.

I do not really have any hats that I keep just because they are 'cool' - but in the course of figuring out what works for me and what does not work for me I collected several hats that I am no longer wearing and I probably should sell them off, such as bowlers and hombergs. I keep finding other things to do