My Western hatmaker makes a lot of cowboy hats. He makes fedoras too, and they look great, but they are stiffer than what I see at my hat maker here in Chicago.
When I first went to my Chicago hat maker, I noted that his hats were not nearly as soft as what I'm used to seeing in old movies. Those hats looked much more personal, and less like they were stamped out of a machine. But overall his hats are fairly soft.
My western hat maker can make a hat that looks the way I want it to look, but it will still be stiff even if the pinch isn't symmetrical and even if it has the look of a softer hat.
I could say "hey, don't put much shellac in my hat" but what would be the consequences of that? If less shellac means I just have to fiddle with it a bit to get it back into shape, then that's fine. But if less shellac means this hat maker won't be able to achieve the hat I want him to make, then that is a problem.
I guess my question comes down to this: Should I tell my Western hat maker to use very little shellac, or should I just let him make hats the way he's used to making hats?
My Plainview hat from Watson's has finally arrived. The styling is just as we discussed. The crown is lower than Daniel Day Lewis' hat (again, as we discussed in the store), and the granite color is my selection. I specifically told Eric to make the indents asymmetrical, and he did an excellent job matching my expectations there.
The hat IS stiff, and while I was hoping for a soft hat I wasn't really expecting one because none of his dress fedoras in the store are soft. For whatever reason, he just doesn't make a soft hat. The hat looks soft, and I like how it looks very much, but it isn't soft.