Trilby vs. Fedora

[geo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the difference between the two is that a trilby has a tapered crown, whereas a fedora has an untapered crown, which looks square when viewed from the front. Also, a trilby has a narrower brim. Did I get that right?

 

[Mr. 'H']

Fedora is to US as
Trilby is to UK.

Non?

 

[nightandthecity]

oui!

local names for the same thing.

Though "fedora" seems to be taking over in the UK now.

 

[Mr. 'H']

Yeah,

thetrilbytearooms.co.uk

doesn't quite cut the mustard....



:beer:

 

[geo]

I ask that, because Lock has 2 different categories for their hats, Trilby, Homburg and Porkpie, and Fedora.

 

[nightandthecity]

looking at the big picture - all UK hats and all US hats over the last century - then you can detect national characteristics, or rather tendencies. British hats tend to have narrower brims for example. That doesn't mean ALL British hats have narrower brims, its just an overall tendency. So even a British made hat cloned from an American pattern would have been called a trilby over here until recently. Probably Locke are distinguishing between a more American and a more British look.

 

[vespasian]

Kind of like the sound of "The Trilby Pub" though.

 

[Raindog]

I've always associated the trilby with the narrow brimmed, tapered, probably cloth made hat. The fedora has a wider brim, and is fur felt or wool felt, at least it always has been to me.
The fedora has style, elegance, a macho quality....While the trilby seems to be worn mainly by old guys who drive badly (at least in the UK this is the case generally). Particularly the corduroy trilby.....


Jeff.

 

[Mr. 'H']

Good analysis, Raindog.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Alan Flusser's book, Clothes and the Man, gives a good description of a trilby. If I remember aright, the hat is named after Trilby, the female protagonist of a book published back in 1894. "Trilby" is the story of one Trilby O'Ferrall, a beautiful young woman working as an artists' model in Paris, an occupation which, in those days, was about as risque as you could get. It was also a pretty risky line of work, because in novels like "Trilby" artists' models almost always came to a bad end.

The world is Trilby's oyster for a while. All the nice young artists are in love with her (or at least with her feet, which were supposedly to die for), and if she had a lick of sense she'd marry one of them and starve in a garret the way she's supposed to. Instead, she lets herself fall under the influence of the mysterious and sinister Svengali, a German-Polish musician and hypnotist who promises to make her a famous singer. Lo and behold, Svengali delivers on his promise and Trilby becomes famous, but at the cost of losing her will and soul to Svengali. When he dies, she loses her voice, her career founders, and she eventually dies too. Let that be a lesson to all you artists' models out there.

"Trilby" was a genuine blockbuster in its day, so it's not surprising that the character of Svengali made quite an impression on the public. "Svengali" almost immediately became an eponym (a word drawn from a proper name) for a manipulative, usually sinister, usually older man.

Bestselling books beget plays, and thus was the case with "Trilby." The lead character was most famously interpreted by Sarah Bernhardt; in the play, she wore a hat with a low, tapering, almost conical crown, and with a floppy brim that curved downward on both sides. This androgynous hat was quickly adopted by fashionable men-about-town. Its heyday was the from the 1890s to about 1920.

You don't see many classic trilbys around anymore; I assume that some costume hatters still make them.

 

[Sardou]

I think Geo's got it about right . . .

at least in the US.

My understanding is that among traditional US hatters, a trilby is/was basically a fedora, but with less overall "mass" than the standard version. The crown is typically a little bit lower and more tapered, the brim is slightly narrower (but still a good 2" or more) and the ribbon is almost always a narrow one (under an inch). No one thing makes a hat a trilby versus a fedora; rather, the difference lies in the overall effect -- a trilby is simply less hat. Materials and colors are the same as for standard fedoras (mostly grey, brown or black fur felt with a grosgrain ribbon, leather sweat, silk lining).

It sounds like in the UK "trilby" now refers to any fedor-ette having roughly the dimensions of an Irish walker or a Tirolean, regardless of material. I don't think that's (yet) the accepted meaning here, but I could be wrong (of course).

Sardou

 

[geo]

It seems OK to refer to a Tyrolean hat as a Trilby, but it doesn't sound right to call it a Fedora.

 

[Old Fogey UK]

Trilbies are deadly !
In the Uk, they're usually dark brown wool felt apologies as described above and worn by chinless wonder types at horse racing tracks, usually twinned up with a short camel overcoat - YUK !
Either that or they're the tweed abominations beloved of English used car salesmen of the 1960's.
Sorry to be so extreme, but I loathe 'em !

 

[BellyTank]

It seems OK to refer to a Tyrolean hat as a Trilby, but it doesn't sound right to call it a Fedora.

Some of those Alpine styled hats DO have Fedora dimensions...

B
T

 

[fedoralover]

I can remember an old Star Trek episode where Trilbies multiplied so fast they just about filled up the ship.

fedoralover

 

[BellyTank]

Kert Rats...

I can remember an old Star Trek episode where Trilbies multiplied so fast they just about filled up the ship.

fedoralover

That's the episode entitled "The Treblou with Trilbies", isn't it..?

I thought Nimrod Lemmoy and Wally M. Shitner were great in that episode but
Forested K. Deli's performance was lack-lustre.

T
B

 

[fedoralover]

Yeh that's the one I was thinking about alright. Darn things, I've never liked them since then. I love fedora's though and hope they multiply in my house. Unfortunately they don't breed well in captivity.

fedoralover

 

[Matt Deckard]

Read this thread. On this before we have tread.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=2632&highlight=trilby

 

[John in Covina]

English Used Car Salesmen!

the tweed abominations beloved of English used car salesmen of the 1960's. I loathe 'em !

*****
At the time England was also slipping in quality control when it came to automobile production, paired with the electronics firm of Lucas, the famous marks of racing suffered greatly. As time progressed and the slide became a freefall, to be known as a used car salesman in GB was a shameful title fit only for the most evil, cunning and ruthless people. Much like general contractors and transmission repair men in the States.

During a tour of hell a gentleman spotted Pol Pot, Idi Amin and a whole slue of despotic dead dictators only knee deep in the Lake of Fire. Asked how this could be Idi answers, "I am standing on the shoulders of my transmission repair man!"

A special place is being reserved right now for those used car guys.

 

[Clyde R.]

This is my first post and I thought I would use the opportunity to find out what my old Stetson would be classifed as, trilby or fedora. As it has the narrow band around the crown, I always thought it was a trilby. I picked it up at an antique store almost fifteen years ago for three dollars and it fits perfectly

So what say ye, trilby or fedora??