What is your favorite hat crease?

[Marshall]

I prefer the tight front pinch and center dent. The source for this is easy, Indiana Jones. I fell in love with the hats I saw in those movies (those movies also started my interest in the golden era), the style has remained my favorite. Though from watching old movies, I don't mind a diamond dent, but a tight front pinch is still mandatory for me.

 

[kaosharper1]

Depends on the brim size, crown height and crown taper. Bashes look different depending upon the hat itself.

 

[Rodkins]

I dry bash creases on a hat while trying it on until I get close to where I want it and then steam or distilled water spritz it in. Usually the hat shape (height, taper, old creases, etc.) narrows it down from the start.

 

[Benzadmiral]

As far as pinch and dents, yes, the Indy films have a lot to do with how I like a hat to look. Also the brim swoop, though I may have been influenced by images from a lot of Bogart's roles: I like a good swoop to shade my eyes.

 

[Jim2903]

I prefer C-crowns, diamonds or teardrops because I think they look best with my size and shape. These are bashes that, IMO, add more substance and depth to a fedora.

 

[Wildblue]

For me, I guess it's purely the aesthetics of what I think works for my own head. I'm a big guy, with a big head, and self-conscious of hats that on me look like either a flat book, or a tall stovepipe, perched on top of a oversized vertical watermelon. One of the biggest things I like about the teardrop, is that it's shaped nicely so the top of my head goes as far as possible up into the hat crown. That way the hat comes down as low as fashionably possible, without sitting too high on my noggin. Then the center pinch just feels nice and tight, going for a sharp appearance.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I only wear Open Road like hats because the folks I like to emulate wore Open Road like hats. Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman, Secretary of Agriculture Jim Graham and Governor Bob Scott were heroes from my childhood and they often wore Open Roadish hats. Fortunately for me, a center creased Open Road tends to give me my best look....or so I'm told. So that is what I wear. One thing is for sure, when I wear other styles, people often ask where my “good hat” is.

So I guess my choice in hats (and creases) found me rather than vice versa.

AF

 

[Edward]

I like to vary the creases and bashes as to what suits the hat. Nice to have a bit of variety, also helps to justify owning more hats if there are those differences between them...

 

[David Conwill]

It seems like whenever I'm admiring a hat in a movie or an old photograph, it invariably has a diamond bash. Thus, I try to get that when I can.

-Dave

 

[bowlerman]

So far it seems that more of us favor creases that we admired on others, rather than trying to decipher what sort of pinch or lack thereof makes our crooked noses (at least in my case!) less noticeable, etc.?

 

[plain old dave]

OR, snap brim, cattleman bash. Countrypolitan.

 

[Pompidou]

I wanted something different for its own sake - Art made me some sort of stovepipe porkpie, I believe it was described.

 

[The Good]

Just my opinion, but while I like the tighter front pinch on Indiana Jones style fedoras, I otherwise prefer a wider, un-pinched look with dents to the sides of this gap. On the top, I prefer a lower crowned teardrop crease, anywhere between 4 to 4 1/2 inches in height, no more though, as the hat will look too tall on me. My grey Stetson fedora seems to satisfy my preferences, as it is right now, and it has a 2 1/8 inch brim. As for the Open Road style hats, I prefer the cattleman's crease, of course. My re-order should be coming in a few days, or up to a week...

As for how I settled upon these preferences, for the Indy hats, it would obviously be how Harrison Ford's fedoras are shaped. For what I may consider for myself at least, more dress hats, would be in would be mainly my actual preferences with regard to a standard fedora look, with proportions that look convincing on me. The Open Road look that I prefer, the cattleman's crease, is basically inspired by the traditional western heritage of this style.

 

[bradbraden]

I really wanted to put a center dent to my Christy's because I wanted to get screen accuracy in an Indy hat. However for whatever reason I just could not get it too look right (probably my own doing, I never bashed a hat before) I found it to be too high and it look too tapered to me too. So I put in a teardrop which actually became more of a diamond bash. It staightened the sides lowered the crown and it gives me the Indy look that I think works for me.

 

[Raider]

I'm easy....

 

[Swamp_Fox]

My fedoras have teardrop or diamond crowns, and my western hat has a pinched telescope. I never feel like center dent / creased crowns or cattleman crowns look right on me.

For me, it's a combination of what I admire other people wearing and what fits me personally. For the fedoras, I feel like that crease just looks right on that style of hat and compliments the shape of my face. For the western, I was thinking about some of the styles I'd seen in spaghetti westerns when I shaped it (it ended up with kind of an outback look--wasn't the intention, but it works).

 

[Neophyte]

For me, it takes several hours in front of a mirror...not all at once, though .

 

[Chascomm]

A well-defined pinch and a decent swoop are the only constants for me over the last 20 years. I blame those old RKO B-Studio movies.

Early on I favoured the brim down at the back which seemed to harmonise well with my long ponytail, but since I did the big shave, I prefer it turned up. A couple of hats did not convert well.

I used to lean towards a centre dent, but these days, my hair is so thin on top that if it gets longer than a couple of centimetres, I get 'hat hair' (i.e. a wierd-looking dent) from a centre dent. So it's teardrop and diamond from now on. But who knows what the future will bring?

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I just take my hat and mess with it until I like it. I do not have one particular crease for my hats. Some more formation may take place from the way I handle it (how I pull the brim down to cock it to one side).

 

[RioGrandeHatters]

I like to steam up my crown and grab it. Usually pinch front with a small front center dent. What it is is what it is.