What do you think of modern "Street/Punk" Fedoras?

[Neophyte]

I think...to each their own.
I personally wouldn't wear them, but mostly that is because I don't look good in stingy brims. I don't think these fashionable fedoras are going to lead these guys anywhere but the next fashion craze. Therefore, I don't really care about them one way or another.
I prefer felt because I like the thought of adorning my head with the remains of some cute little bunnies, beavers and nutria.
Twisted, I know...lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol :kick:

 

[fenris]

I'm seeing more and more "fauxdora" wearers these days. I like the fact that it's getting them back to wearing fashionable (more so than a ball cap) hats. It may even lead to people eventually graduating to wide-brimmed fedoras.

The only problem I see in my country is there aren't any suppliers of fur-felt fedoras... I have seen one or two being sold before (China-made obviously), but that shop has closed down (if only I had known it would close... I was planning to get the gray outback hat I saw and convert it into a fedora).

Straws will be the only option, but the straw hats being sold locally do not have the same weave quality as authentic Panama hats. Ours is coarser and has bigger "strands" (dunno what to call 'em). I think the finer weaves are reserved for export and not local consumption.

 

[fenris]

I also like knowing that cute fuzzy animals died and what remains of their corpses now adorns the top of my head.

Ha! Here most people think my hat is made of leather or suede! Go figure. lol

When I say it's rabbit fur / hare they say I'm so cruel...

"Rabbits are sooooo cute!!! You're an evil, evil person for wearing something made from a rabbit!" - Exact quote from a friend / ex-officemate of mine. She was just joking, though.

 

[HosManHatter]

My first fedora was one of these "punk/street" fedoras and I bought it for half price on sale($12.50) so I have mixed emotions about these "fashion/trendy" hats. Mine was one of the classier looking retail offerings(IMHO) and was by GUINNESS. Was an excellent starter fedora and I got compliments and questions about that hat everytime I wore it(daily!).

That said...most of these mass marketed "fashion" hats are kind of wimpy and lack character and I see them more as a fad or the fashion trend du jour.

HMH

 

[The Lark]

I like that people are buying those cheap stingy-brims, and meanwhile I wear my wide brim fur-felt. People see the real deal and say "Where the %$#@ did you get THAT?"

 

[Edward]

They're like soft drugs. You get hooked, and work up to stronger stuff. Next thing, these guys'll be wearing waistcoats.

lol, I like that way of putting it. I tend to agree. Myself, the first fedora I wore regularly was a 2" brimmed, black wool hat. Still have it somewhere (eventually I'll pass it on to Nephew). A lot of those kids may well move onto something else eventually, some of them may well upgrade to better hats. Who knows. For now, they're making it less 'odd' to be a hat wearer in general, and while I've never much cared whether I fit in with the herd or not, it is refreshing not to stick out sometimes.

In later decades, the Trilby has been either jazzed up or messed up, depending on your personal feelings, and the patterned fabric, tweed etc types are now (in England at least) often associated with Punk rockers, Mods & dodgy London car dealers.

Seems to me really more that, just as 'fedora' became the catch-all term for any brimmed hat in the dialect of many in the US, 'trilby' is the word that has fallen into use here. I don't think the public understanding of what a trilby is has changed so much as the word has simply become a more generic term for a basic shape of hat.

 

[rlk]

Trendy disposable junk mostly for the young. There are fine quality, stylish "stingy" brims of many shapes and vintages, these are not an example. More a different form of baseball cap than a gateway to more sophisticated headwear.

I don't care what people put on their heads.

 

[Undertow]

I got compliments and questions about that hat everytime I wore it(daily!).

You know, I did too when I used to wear my little black cotton from Wally World. And now, I still have people asking me questions, but I think for the most part, people are intimidated and see my fedora as either a status symbol, or eccentricity.

 

[Mr. John Smith]

I went to a Jason Maraz concert with the fiance last year. Half the guys there were wearing the cloth, pinstriped, short-brimmed...things. I had my FedIV. I got a lot of compliments and inquiries! Hopefully, leading by example helped a few people that night.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

I would bet that if they started selling wider brimmed more 'real' fedoras at Wal-Mart or somewhere of the like, you'd see more people wearing them.

 

[leo]

I have no issue with other people wearing them although not all folks, young or old, can wear them well.

I DO have an issue with me wearing a stingy. I'm tall so I look more like Stan Laurel in one. All I would need is "high water pants" to complete a very silly look.

Bill

 

[AlterEgo]

First off, I think we all need to take care that we do not denigrate others' clothing/hat styles. Such things are largely a matter of personal preference, plus, over time, styles do change. New generations always seek things that are different from their elders in order to establish their own identities. My generation did it with long hair and bell bottoms.

I just got down an old stingy-brim straw hat I have not looked at in years. Something here on FL reminded me of its nice blue and burgundy grosgrain hatband that I thought I'd transfer to my Panama, which has a plain-Jane hatband.

I put this hat away years ago because it developed a tear at the pinch, so it's really not wearable anymore. Nevertheless, I tried it on today; this is the first time I've had it on in over twenty years.

It's a Knox "Pace-Setter," constructed of what I now know to be Toquilla fiber, unlined, with a grosgrain sweat, 4 1/2-inch crown at the highest point, and a 1 7/8-inch brim. It's bashed with a deep C-crown center dent and side dents high up on the crown, making for very sharp creases there--thus the tear.

When I bought it in 1977, the hat was the only straw one in the store. In fact, the salesman had to get it off a manikin in the window display! It was a last-minute accessory to go with my new sky-blue-and-white seersucker suit for my high school graduation. The store was a local high-end men's clothing establishment, now long gone.

Everyone thought that hat looked great back then, and I could not go out anywhere in it without receiving compliment after compliment. Hardly any men wore hats in those days, and the few who did were of my dad and granddad's generations, and virtually all their hats had around two-inch brims. With the exception of a Western here and there spawned by the Urban Cowboy craze, the only people sporting wide brims in my neck of the woods were pimps, farmers who worked in the sun all day, and me, with my Akubra Aussie Slouch.

Interestingly, this 33-year-old hat looks a lot like the stingies young folk have recently taken to. Although I still look very much like I did when the hat was new--tall and thin with thick brown hair (OK, OK, there's some gray in there now!), it now looks totally wrong on me. I even got the old seersucker suit out of Mom's attic to try on with the hat. The suit's a bit tight, but still looks great, yet the hat is totally wrong.

Why?

Because my perception changed.

Do I now associate such stingies with the younger generation, "punks" as some here have called them? No. In fact, I like Justin Timberlake and many of the young-un musicians and actors who sport this kind of hat. I actually associate stingies most with Jazz musicians who were mostly dead and gone before I was even born.

Am I now more knowledgable about what looks good on my head? Could be, but that would not explain why I and so many others thought this straw stingy kicked butt 30 years ago. I had the Aussie Slouch with its 3 1/4-inch brim and totally different proportions back then, too, and got plenty of positive remarks about it, as well.

I think it's because the hat just looks so different from the ones I typically wear these days. It simply seems wrong because of the huge departure from my current headgear norm.

Perhaps I'll get a new stingy brim and give it a go. It'll be a high quality one, and I bet I'd not only get used to it, but learn to really like it. It's my perception that will have to change.

As for the current crop of stingies the younger folk are now wearing, I say "bully for them," for they are hats, which is a good thing. These cheaper ones at Target and the like are gateway drugs. With time, these same folks will migrate to the harder stuff with quality construction and materials. I do no see them moving into wider-brimmed fedoras, however; there will be some exceptions, but this generation has chosen the stingy as its defining look. Like the Jazz musicians of several generations back, what is old is new again.

For the rest of us, the challenge is to adjust our perceptions.

 

[garenb]

I have no problem with them because as was said before, it was my gateway drug.

 

[danofarlington]

What do you think of them? [huh]

I wouldn't wear one, but hey, I'm 57, and that's part of the point. People wearing them want their own generational look. Good. What I like about the hat thing is the very diversity of style choices. If everybody picked the same style, it would be tedious like American hats in the 50s or Mao hats in China.

Once a long time ago walking through Georgetown on Hallowe'en, all the people were wearing masks, but being from Minnesota, I wasn't into all that costumery. I asked my then girlfriend why she liked the masks, and she said "because it's fun." That was sort of a deep thought, I thought, and now it's my answer to why I like to see lots of hats. It's fun, and also it opens up style space to all the timid Walter Mittys out there on the street.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I remember my Dad wearing a hat to work (high school teacher) back in the 1960's and maybe early 1970's. Everyone wore fur felt stingy brims then. When I see a stingy brim, I see 40-60 year old men in cheap suits. I don't see Justin Timberlake or Will Smith. I just don't. When I see a Fedora, I see Cagney, Bogart, and that bunch. Boogie is cool, my high school teachers (in general) weren't. Imagine that.

On the other hand, wearing a stingy brim FEELS like wearing a fedora. Maybe it will catch on.

Dad quit wearing brimmed hats when his mother-in-law made fun of his hat, probably in about 1975 or so. That was my freshman year in HS and I don't remember him wearing a hat to work then.

Dad's 91 and has been wearing a Goodwill tennis hat (brimmed) that looks like crap, but wouldn't go to Levine's to look at a hat. Wasn't going there.


later y'all

 

[ScionPI2005]

"Rabbits are sooooo cute!!! You're an evil, evil person for wearing something made from a rabbit!" - Exact quote from a friend / ex-officemate of mine. She was just joking, though.

Heck, if she wants a rabbit, I could send her one from my neck of the woods. They're a dime a dozen over here! lol :eusa_doh:

 

[obie]

As others have mentioned, to each their own.

While I already started to develop an interest in getting into a nice Fedora, I will admit that seeing them in JCrew may have helped pushed me into the right direction. Being the type of person I am, I knew immediately that I would want my first purchase into a new interest/hobby to be something better than sub-standard, or a lower quality build that I could afford as my first purchase.

If that gets more people into hats nicer than ballcaps that I say go for it...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

It's funny. People wear stingies now, and they hear how hip they look and such. I wear one, and I get told I remind people of Kojak. It's all how the rest of your look flows with it I guess.

 

[Nikx]

I have a feeling that they will be worn for a month and then dropped, like all other modern fashion.

 

[guitarman]

Re;

As long as they wear them CORRECTLY !! None of this backward crap !! Gosh, I HATE that !!