Trilby/Fedora?

[MikeBravo]

I'd agree... on my monitor the crease isn't visible.

Still looks like something a dodgy used car salesman in suede brothel creepers and a sheepskin coat would wear would wear...

Brothel creepers. Remind me of a Kenny Everett character Sidney Aloysius Snot

"People tell me these soles are crepe. But I think they're pretty good"

 

[Kirk H.]

Thank you all so much. I, too, have been wondering what the difference between the two styles is and given my size I now know to avoid Trilby's. Any brim less than 2 1/4" would look like a pencil eraser on me.

Me too. Or it looks like I should be in the Alps yodeling :O

Kirk H.

 

[MikeBravo]

Is there a difference in the brim edging? Is one finished and the other not? Any differences we don't see?

 

[Woodfluter]

I researched this a while back. What's fascinating is that these terms both originated in the 1890s from very independent female characters in different plays that wore items of men's clothing, including similar hats. But the plays enjoyed varied popularity on opposite sides of our mutual pond leading to different currency. If I'm not mistaken, both were soft hats characterized by upturned brims all around...at that point. Things changed.

I suspected that this kind of hat was becoming increasingly popular around that time, but there wasn't a convenient term to describe it. So the plays were something of a flashpoint, a way for advertisers to capitalize on something that had made a recent impression.

I don't think there was any appreciable difference in the hats described as Fedora and Trilby initially. In the US imagination at least I think "Trilby" did acquire a certain set of attributes based on current fashion, namely that of the 1950s, and associated with movies.

Listen, I love Wikipedia and think the model is brilliant. Britannica it ain't. Technical and scientific articles get intense scrutiny from geeks like me and errors have a short shelf life. Pop culture etc. is a different story. Regular encyclopedias don't cover that sort of thing with detail that satisfies my curiosity, but I do take everything in those categories with many grains of coarse salt. The Trilby article isn't authoritative.

- Bill

 

[rlk]

Trilby 1894

1895 First Ed. with actress Virginia Harned image

 

[Woodfluter]

Oh man RLK, what a great illustration! Thank you.

I love the street musicians. Looks like a couple of the bands I'm in.

I think the hat in question appeared in the stage production, so more at the whim of the costume director.

 

[rlk]

1895 Trilby Play in NYC

Original poster and program:

Photos of the original actress of that production as Trilbyhttp://historicalziegfeld.multiply.com/photos/album/501#

As with the first production of Fedora in NYC(1883) I again find NO evidence of a hat worn by the heroine related to the style trend. Both were Alpine style mens hats popular in Europe at the time almost certainly worn by the male leads.

 

[achi11es]

Let me add some more confusion. I asked Lock & Co for their ledger history as I was interested in the last hats that Oscar Wilde had bought. During the mid 1890's, whilst his play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' was debuting, he had bought the following from Lock's:

1 x Black Silk Opera Hat (collapsible)
1 x Coke Hat
1 x Wide Brimmed Vlevet textured 'Fedora'.

All for £3 and some change.

 

[rlk]

20th Century Productions

1922 London Apollo Theater Play "Trilby"

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=16564

Svengali 1931 Warner Bros. Movie

 

[rlk]

Let me add some more confusion. I asked Lock & Co for their ledger history as I was interested in the last hats that Oscar Wilde had bought. During the mid 1890's, whilst his play 'The Importance of Being Earnest' was debuting, he had bought the following from Lock's:

1 x Black Silk Opera Hat (collapsible)
1 x Coke Hat
1 x Wide Brimmed Vlevet textured 'Fedora'.

All for £3 and some change.

 

[rlk]

Last years version of this thread

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?45121-Trilby-Vs.-Fedora...what-s-the-difference

2006 version http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?6837-Trilby-vs.-Fedora

 

[adouglasmhor]

Blackadder: Yes, well, look at Oscar Wilde.
Perkins: Oh yes, butch ol' Oscar.
Blackadder: Big, bearded, bonking, butch Oscar. The terror of the ladies. 114 illegitimate children, world heavyweight boxing champion and author of the best-selling pamphlet "Why I Like To Do It With Girls." And Massingbird had him sent down for being a woopsie.

 

[rlk]

Dorothea Baird in 1895 London Trilby shortly after US production