Which ribbon treatment do you like better on this hat?

[HosManHatter]

Killer Stetson,AXL. I`m not a thin ribbon fan but I would not modify the Stratoliner...rare or not.

HMH

 

[tonyb]

It's common but certainly not necessary that the main band ribbon and the edge binding match. There are numerous examples (Whippet, anyone?), including some of Mr. Fawcett's design, with non-matching binding and band colors.

Most of those styles, however, feature edge binding considerably wider than what we have in this case. I'm in general agreement that the colors and proportions don't work so well with that wider ribbon. If that hat were mine, I'd either leave it as is or really get carried away with it. If I went with a wider ribbon, I'd give the crown a tad more height and verticality. This would require blocking, of course. I'd go with either a wider edge binding (at least 6 ligne, maybe 9) or -- get this -- no binding at all.

Maybe it's just the photos, but it looks to me like that binding is showing its age. It looks discolored. The risk in removing it is that the body may be faded, which may not be apparent until you expose that bit of it under that binding.

Sound like a can of worms? Maybe it is. Could be fun, though.