Vintage finds: update and wear them or leave them be?

[Jerry Probst]

Hi, I have recently come across some nice vintage fedoras.

I’m a newbie here so I’d like to get a feel for where people stand.

I want to enjoy my hats and not keep them as museum pieces.

In doing so it might mean replacing the original sweatband or hatband and possibly reblocking.

Good idea or sacrilege?

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Unless you’re talking about some extraordinary hats of great historical significance, I say wear them. If the sweatbands are not wearable then have them replaced and then keep the originals. Reblocking and shaping shouldn’t impact the value or cause them any damage.

There are a few regulars here who wear 100+ year old hats. If you want to collect then that’s fine, but if you want to wear them I say make the modifications needed for them to be usable.

Brent


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Hi, I have recently come across some nice vintage fedoras.

I’m a newbie here so I’d like to get a feel for where people stand.

I want to enjoy my hats and not keep them as museum pieces.

In doing so it might mean replacing the original sweatband or hatband and possibly reblocking.

Good idea or sacrilege?

If any of them are 7 5/8 or bigger....

 

[facade]

Hi, I have recently come across some nice vintage fedoras.

I’m a newbie here so I’d like to get a feel for where people stand.

I want to enjoy my hats and not keep them as museum pieces.

In doing so it might mean replacing the original sweatband or hatband and possibly reblocking.

Good idea or sacrilege?

If the hats are the kind that are prized as collectibles, then any noticible changes/fixes will generally degrade the value. Other than that, do what you want to make them wearable/enjoyable.

 

[splintercellsz]

What are they?

i wear mine daily, and all i own are examples from 1900s - 1940s

 

[Short Balding Guy]

Hi, I have recently come across some nice vintage fedoras.
I’m a newbie here so I’d like to get a feel for where people stand.I want to enjoy my hats and not keep them as museum pieces.In doing so it might mean replacing the original sweatband or hatband and possibly reblocking.Good idea or sacrilege?

Jerry; All of my hats get head time. The forum thread What Hat Are You Wearing showcases vintage and modern hats being worn about. I believe that the pics speak volumes for wearing. Wearing is not wearing as you can offer gentle wearing to a hat that is showing some age. I, like many others on the forum, advocate wearing your hats.

This all becomes a non-issue if you get a 100+ or so hats and start cycling thru wearing different ones. The accumulated wear is dramatically reduced. This is an argument for more hats.

Best wishes in your hat wearing sir. Eric -

 

[humanshoes]

As for me, I don't make a practice of buying things that aren't useful to me. This applies to antique and vintage sewing machines, hat making equipment, and hats. If I buy those things and they are not useful then I modify them to become so. No doubt that resale value will be negatively impacted by these modifications, but I don't buy with investment in mind. Who's really going to know or care (aside from purists, collectors, or resellers) if your beautiful fedora from the 1930's has it's original sweatband or liner. I have never had a person walk up to me on the street and say "That's a beautiful hat. Can I have a look at the inside?"

 

[Redfokker]

Jerry; All of my hats get head time. The forum thread What Hat Are You Wearing showcases vintage and modern hats being worn about. I believe that the pics speak volumes for wearing. Wearing is not wearing as you can offer gentle wearing to a hat that is showing some age. I, like many others on the forum, advocate wearing your hats.

This all becomes a non-issue if you get a 100+ or so hats and start cycling thru wearing different ones. The accumulated wear is dramatically reduced. This is an argument for more hats.

Best wishes in your hat wearing sir. Eric -

+1 Hear hear!

 

[Redfokker]

Unless you’re talking about some extraordinary hats of great historical significance, I say wear them. If the sweatbands are not wearable then have them replaced and then keep the originals. Reblocking and shaping shouldn’t impact the value or cause them any damage.

There are a few regulars here who wear 100+ year old hats. If you want to collect then that’s fine, but if you want to wear them I say make the modifications needed for them to be usable.

Brent


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1 You are wise beyond your years Brent.

 

[Jerry Probst]

Case in point: this is a 50+ yo Neiman Marcus 2X Beaver with a Cavanagh Edge. The liner just shows a NM logo. No hatmaker is listed. I suspect it was sourced directly from Hatco but could be a Resistol or Churchill.

It’s soft, luxurious and, apart from a slight separation of the stitches on the sweatband, pristine.

The only thing I would change is the band. The wide 2 1/4” band is too fancy and formal for my style. I would prefer a narrower 1 1/2” black on black look to update the style and give it a little more versatility.

 

[suitedcboy]

I doubt many, or maybe any, of us has a storage room with preservation standards met. I'm not even sure what those standards would be or if they exist. I know that I have some vintage 50's to 60"s hats that were in great shape when I got them that have had the ferrule at back of sweat corrode and break out. The leather sweats have cracked. Some sweat stitching holding leather to sewn attachment strip has broken. Some have had that attachment strip deteriorate. My point is that not wearing them or wearing them very little is no assurance of preservation. At this point I think any hats of significance are selling for enough $$$ that you wouldn't buy one of those and cut the brim or harm it in some way.
I have to cop to fedorafying a few Homburgs. I did not do it to any significant special Homburgs.

 

[Jerry Probst]

I doubt many, or maybe any, of us has a storage room with preservation standards met. I'm not even sure what those standards would be or if they exist.

True, I come from a museum background. I guess that’s what is gnawing in the back of my mind.

What amazes me is how these hats are able to survive all these years and hardly show any wear.

Sadly, that won’t always be the case. The golden age of felt hats is behind us.

I suppose I am split between my sense of myself as a caretaker and wanting to rock these cool things.

Two years ago I found myself in New Orleans for the two weeks heading into Mardy Gras.

I made it a point to stop in some of the best restaurants and bars in town and order some amazing old school cocktails by some really knowledgeable and talented bartenders. Often I would pour the cocktail in a plastic to go cup and strole out into the crowd. The experience of drinking a finely crafted drink while everyone around me was mindlessly getting bombed on green toxic swill made me feel like I was ten feet tall.

The same can be said about wearing a fifty year old fedora.

As much as I love to wear mine it’s important to remember they might just outlast us all. If we care of them.

Now there’s a thought.

Cheers!

 

[LuvMyMan]

True, I come from a museum background. I guess that’s what is gnawing in the back of my mind.

What amazes me is how these hats are able to survive all these years and hardly show any wear.

Sadly, that won’t always be the case. The golden age of felt hats is behind us.

I suppose I am split between my sense of myself as a caretaker and wanting to rock these cool things.

Two years ago I found myself in New Orleans for the two weeks heading into Mardy Gras.

I made it a point to stop in some of the best restaurants and bars in town and order some amazing old school cocktails by some really knowledgeable and talented bartenders. Often I would pour the cocktail in a plastic to go cup and strole out into the crowd. The experience of drinking a finely crafted drink while everyone around me was mindlessly getting bombed on green toxic swill made me feel like I was ten feet tall.

The same can be said about wearing a fifty year old fedora.

As much as I love to wear mine it’s important to remember they might just outlast us all. If we care of them.

Now there’s a thought.

Cheers!

I will agree with all the statements made so far here, yet I have to add that the "hat wearing" fashion of some sort of a fedora one way or another, is on the rise. More movie stars and popular artist wearing them on televised broadcast, and wearing hats out and about in public, seems to have given the "hat bug" a new push to bring new life to an old dying trend.

This is in part proven by the number of new people that come here to the Lounge, as well as what articles and sharing of information is done here. Going back in a short history we had the "Indy" phase hit the hat lovers eyes and desires, and since then movies and movie stars and of course, those that are in the music business, have added much more to the scene then just cowboy hats, for sure. It seems no matter who is on stage performing today, we see someone wearing a hat or two that is not a "ball cap" and a keen eye spots some really nice vintage and then customs and of course, some of the cheaper mass made low budget hats worn with some folks sporting them as their budget is not as much as some in the music industry or the individual whom just is too novice to know there is a entire world of hats they have been clueless about...until now!

 

[LuvMyMan]

Hi, I have recently come across some nice vintage fedoras.

I’m a newbie here so I’d like to get a feel for where people stand.

I want to enjoy my hats and not keep them as museum pieces.

In doing so it might mean replacing the original sweatband or hatband and possibly reblocking.

Good idea or sacrilege?

Some folks spend a lot of money to park a nice red Ferrari in the Garage...they buy it with little mileage on the spedometer and sell it with only a hundred or so miles added during their ownership. Sad. In our household, that Ferrari was on the road and being driven like we stole it! Enjoyed it and sold it when the time came for the need of the cash from it being sold to pay big financial needs. Wear your hats, enjoy them, rotate what ones you wear from one day or week to the next, and love how you do it!

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I’ll add that while I wear all my hat I do limit my better vintage hat use to ideal circumstances and wear my modern hats when there is a chance of rain etc. modern Akubras, Stetsons, Borsalino, and others can be mixed in so you’re not wearing the same vintage hat day after day. Same for adding in custom hats to your rotation.

 

[hatsRme]

I’ll add that while I wear all my hat I do limit my better vintage hat use to ideal circumstances and wear my modern hats when there is a chance of rain etc. modern Akubras, Stetsons, Borsalino, and others can be mixed in so you’re not wearing the same vintage hat day after day. Same for adding in custom hats to your rotation.

Exactly my approach, Brent.

The first factor I consider is always the replace-ability of a hat. You and I especially appreciate that aspect in our vintage pieces. To what store are you going to go to replace a rare-sized decades-old hat, or anything else of old age, for that matter?!

It may hurt, but we can always just plop down another few hundred $$$ for a new custom, or ready-made hat.

 

[Florida_Marlin]

if I were an old hat, sitting on a shelf or tucked away in an attic, all I would wish is to be placed upon a head. There’s no greater place of honor for an old hat than to be worn.

 

[RJR]

if I were an old hat, sitting on a shelf or tucked away in an attic, all I would wish is to be placed upon a head. There’s no greater place of honor for an old hat than to be worn.

+1