Was wool felt even used...?

[Jerekson]

Easily answered question, I'm sure;

Was wool felt used to make hats during the 40's?

For some reason I had always assosciated wool felt hats with being a modern thing.

The reason I ask is because I was talking to a guy selling a vintage fedora (40's) and he claims that is wool felt. I didn't think this was right...

I wrote him back and asked him about it, but in the meantime I figured I would get some more input. Thanks in advance, for any clarification-

-J

 

[Brad Bowers]

Montgomery Wards offered wool hats in the '30s as their lowest-priced hat.

Brad

 

[Matt Deckard]

Yes they were used. College crowd were the primamry wearers from my knowledge. Most woolys were marketed to the collegiates. Marc has a very nice one that I started a thread about. He woere it to the Oviatt.

 

[besdor]

I was suprised myself to find out that wool was used as far back as 1900 in mens hats . I have old catalogs from companies that showed styles being sold then for 1.00 in wiil. A fur felt hat was 2.95 and up. I'm sure that even a wool hat back then was better than the junk made today.



Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[GentlemanFarmer]

I have a very nice wool Resistol I bought back around 1975 while living out in West Texas. It's my beater now down at the family place in Virginia. Changed the old pinch bash into an Alpine (Cattleman) bash and had the 4" brim cut down to 3". Use it when it's to cold for my straw.

 

[RedPop4]

Why WOULDN'T they have wool hats back then? Humankind has been breeding sheep for wool for millennia. Remember, as well, that the "Golden Era" as it's so lovingly referred to, was not an easy time for most people. The entire world was in economic depression for nearly ten years, then a war for six more. What people could not get because of financial harship during the Depression, much was rationed during the war.

It's suprising that so many here are so dismissive of wool hats, and full of contempt and condescension as well, that it actually suprises so many that they *GASP* made wool hats. The fur felt was just as expensive then as it is today, so it'd make sense that people of limited means would opt for a hat at a lower price point. This is quite likely, in my uneducated opinion, since the hat was well nigh required in those days.

 

[Fletch]

In the deep south, "wool-hat" used to be a synonym for "cracker": too poor to have a rabbit or beaver hat, and too proud to wear a straw even in the heat of summer.

 

[RedPop4]

Where in the "deep south?" That's new to me.

 

[J.S.Udontknowme]

Where in the "deep south?" That's new to me.

New to me too, RedPop4. Must have been deeper than NC.

 

[RedPop4]

But not as deep as Noo Awlins. Of course, we consider ourselves more Caribbean than Deep South. The Deep South is across the lake, or over in Mississippi from heeyah.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Marc has a very nice [wool fedora] that I started a thread about. He wore it to the Oviatt.

And here it is, as woolly as can be: a 1940s teal blue “College Club Hats” wool felt fedora.

 

[RedPop4]

That actually looks good, Marc!!!!

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Thanks!

.

 

[warbird]

That actually looks good, Marc!!!!

Yes it certainly does. How can that be? It's wool.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

lol lol

 

[warbird]

All i can say is we had sheep while i was growing up and they all got rained on and every last one of them kept their shape and none of them died from the water.

And they seemed to live just as long as the rabbits, badgers and beavers with fur. Hmmmm.

 

[Michaelson]

And they seemed to live just as long as the rabbits, badgers and beavers with fur. Hmmmm.

Actually longer. You don't SHEAR rabbits, badgers and beavers for their fur.lol

Regards! Michaelson

 

[jamespowers]

I am sure they have been making wool fedoras for a long time. The Bollman Hat Company made it its mainstay for quite a long time and still does today.
I am pretty sure that wool was the material first felted as well.

Regards,

J

 

[tonyb]

So where are all those vintage wool hats, then? Is it that they were produced in relatively small numbers? Or is it that they were likelier than the more costly fur felt hats to be worn out and tossed in the trash? Or is it that they just didn't last as long? You know, might they have gotten crummy looking a lot quicker than the fur felts did?

 

[jamespowers]

So where are all those vintage wool hats, then? Is it that they were produced in relatively small numbers? Or is it that they were likelier than the more costly fur felt hats to be worn out and tossed in the trash? Or is it that they just didn't last as long? You know, might they have gotten crummy looking a lot quicker than the fur felts did?

They were used up and trashed as far as I can tell. Rarely do I see a vintage wool fedora.
Perhaps they traded up and got a fur felt when funds allowed and tossed the wool. People in the golden era had different ideas about looking poor than we do now. When my grandfather bought a new house with hardwood floors throughout, he promptly covered them with carpet because wood reminded him of being poor then. [huh]

Regards,

J