Who wears/wore porkpies?

[deadlyhandsome]

I cant find a thread about this kind of hat. I have this porkpie flat brim from my favorite hatmaker Maidana. Not wearing only the hat but a poncho. I understand that with flat brim porkpie you can wear flat or curled. Im wrong? If this is dicused elsewhere in this forum erase this thread with my apoligies.

This is not a style that I’ve warmed up to. The closest I’ve come is a small western with a telescope crease. Porkpies work great for some people, but I think I’d need to slim down quite a bit to get the look to work for me.

 

[belfastboy]

I echo Brent's comments above. I love pork pie hats.....unfortunately they do not like me and I would need shed more than a few pounds first and even then I think it would still look bad. I think the ONLY person that looks good in a pork pie is Van Morrison and he used to wear them regularly but now seems to have transitioned to a more Trilby look Also Brian Cranston character in Breaking Bad more recently popularized the look. I think his black pork pie is a near perfect rendition of the look. Short telescope crown bash with a slightly curled or cupped stingy brim. In my definition which is likely not definitive a true pork pie has both the telescoped bash and the stingy brim. When the brim widens much past 2" it then becomes a western style that strays from a true Pork Pie.

 

[Edward]

They're a hat I rather like. I have one, the Akubra Rap , in black felt, and a couple of Straws. I liked them for a casual, fifties sort of look, a la Sinatra:

I particularly like mine with a sort of slacks / tie / Harrington type look. The one mistake I made was with the Akubra in the early days I got funny about no pinch and put one in, which I now regret. I might try and steam it out, though it's fairly sharp.... Quality felt, though. Got trampled to nothing at a Pogues gig one night; ten minutes with the kettle when I got home popped it right back to normal. Seriously considering picking up a couple of nice wool ones this Winter. The Cotswold Company in the UK do a nice looking wool one, properly lined and all, for about GBP35. I believe that such a narrow (just under 2") brim can be snapped down at the front to give the look I prefer. Much cheaper than the furfelts I normally pick up, though as much as anything it's that these (quality) wool ones can be picked up readily in colours it's near impossible to find in furfelt... This midnight blue especially appeals: https://www.cotswoldcountryhats.com/lined-navy-pork-pie-hat----premium-wool-11701-p.asp

 

[belfastboy]

They're a hat I rather like. I have one, the Akubra Rap , in black felt, and a couple of Straws. I liked them for a casual, fifties sort of look, a la Sinatra:

I particularly like mine with a sort of slacks / tie / Harrington type look. The one mistake I made was with the Akubra in the early days I got funny about no pinch and put one in, which I now regret. I might try and steam it out, though it's fairly sharp.... Quality felt, though. Got trampled to nothing at a Pogues gig one night; ten minutes with the kettle when I got home popped it right back to normal. Seriously considering picking up a couple of nice wool ones this Winter. The Cotswold Company in the UK do a nice looking wool one, properly lined and all, for about GBP35. I believe that such a narrow (just under 2") brim can be snapped down at the front to give the look I prefer. Much cheaper than the furfelts I normally pick up, though as much as anything it's that these (quality) wool ones can be picked up readily in colours it's near impossible to find in furfelt... This midnight blue especially appeals: https://www.cotswoldcountryhats.com/lined-navy-pork-pie-hat----premium-wool-11701-p.asp

My intention is not to start an argument but to continue discussion. I would say the pic above of Sinatra's hat is not a pork pie but with the turned down brim and the slight Optimo crease in the crown & the puggaree it more closely fits that of a Trilby. Pork Pies are usually defined as a narrow brim turned up all the way round, with a short crown/telescoping crease.

 

[ChicagoWayVito]

Also Brian Cranston character in Breaking Bad more recently popularized the look. I think his black pork pie is a near perfect rendition of the look. Short telescope crown bash with a slightly curled or cupped stingy brim.

+1 to Walter White (aka Heisenberg). Loved the show, and the pork pie really fit the character.

 

[hatsRme]

My intention is not to start an argument but to continue discussion. I would say the pic above of Sinatra's hat is not a pork pie but with the turned down brim and the slight Optimo crease in the crown & the puggaree it more closely fits that of a Trilby. Pork Pies are usually defined as a narrow brim turned up all the way round, with a short crown/telescoping crease.

The porker has been a favorite style of mine for a long time. They may be thought of as only a “brim up” style these days, but have not always been so. As a matter of fact, I have always preferred the snapped down version.

 

[belfastboy]

View attachment 353395 View attachment 353396

The porker has been a favorite style of mine for a long time. They may be thought of as only a “brim up” style these days, but have not always been so. As a matter of fact, I have always preferred the snapped down version. View attachment 353395 View attachment 353396

Thanks, I have long thought of these as Trilby stylings and not Pork Pies.

 

[Zombie_61]

The closest I can get to a Pork Pie hat is the few stingy brim fedoras I have that I wear with the brims up all the way 'round. My first was a Winston fedora that I got from fellow lounger Historyteach24, who had converted the crown from a Center Dent to a Telescope crease before he listed it in the classifieds:

I then re-creased it into a Teardrop, and that was that.

More recently I've taken a liking to Akubra's "Hampton", also a stingy brim shipped with a Center Dent that I've easily converted to a Teardrop crease as well on the three I have (Cedar Brown, Black, and Carbon Grey). Here's the most recent:

I'm not even sure they qualify as Pork Pies without a Telescope crease, but I don't look right in a Telescope so...

 

[johnnycanuck]

This thread may help.
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/show-off-your-porkpies.28705/page-18
I will post mine up tomorrow
Johnny

 

[GHT]

No self-respecting Mod in the 60's could be seen without his pork pie hat.

 

[Edward]

My intention is not to start an argument but to continue discussion. I would say the pic above of Sinatra's hat is not a pork pie but with the turned down brim and the slight Optimo crease in the crown & the puggaree it more closely fits that of a Trilby. Pork Pies are usually defined as a narrow brim turned up all the way round, with a short crown/telescoping crease.

It's an interesting hat, this one. I did a little digging. Here's a better shot:

Definitely a line on the front there. But here's a thing, this is the Miller recreation of that hat:

https://www.millerhats.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=696

To be clear, in the absence of being able to find a photo of Sinatra from the top, I'm making a reasoned assumption this is accurate on the basis that it would seem odd to go to the effort to get that line on the front right and then slack off with the top... Depending on how strict you want to be, it's not the full telescopic crease at the top, but still well within the ballpark. It looks to me like some sort of hybrid of a PP with a touch of an Optimo crease. Interestingly, this one looks very similar, but to my eye appears to be a felt:

It seems to be a look he liked. I wonder if this at least started with a narrow-brimmed fedora / trilby that he reshaped or had someone else reshaped?

Of course, I've also seen him wearing other hats that appear to be more conventional pps...

That's a really interesting little detail! Do we have a Sinatra expert on TFL might know more?

As to the brim, a lot of porkpie wearers do indeed seem to wear the brim up all round, though personally I wouldn't consider that a characteristic of the hat itself any more than I would regard a fedora as not a fedora if worn with the brim snapped upwards, but of course there's bound to be a level of subjectivity with these things (c/f the fedora or trilby debate).

Mow I really want one of those Miller hats for Summer 2022....

 

[johnnycanuck]

View attachment 353406
No self-respecting Mod in the 60's could be seen without his pork pie hat.

Seriously fantastic look
Johnny

 

[johnnycanuck]

Here is my modest collection of Porkpie hats. They got their name from the crown shape not the hat band or brim size or shape. Paul Hogan wore it famously in Crocodile Dundee then used the same style in Lightning Jack a few years later.

Johnny

 

[BobHufford]

Resistol:

 

[belfastboy]

Resistol:

Now that is a stellar Pork Pie

 

[deadlyhandsome]

There seems to be a wide and non/uniform way to define what a porkpie hat is. To me, it’s a stingy brim with a telescope crown (circular, oval, diamond etc.). To others the “brim up” nature is required. Then we see the inclusion of wider brim hats with a western/outdoorsy feel included if they have a telescope crown. I’m fine with the ambiguity, but it does make it hard to be on the same page.

Would have been helpful if old John Stetson would have come down from Mt. Sinai with a couple of stone tablets. Or maybe what we need a Rosetta Stone?

 

[quikrick]

I'm wearing this one today (sorry no headshot). I like that this one has a slight egg shape looking down at it, and of course that cool back bow.

 

[ChicagoWayVito]

Resistol:

This is what I think of when pork pie comes to mind. I can only imagine this had a special block made in order to get that shape in the crown with the tight "channel". My hand attempts from open crown do not get that tight. Love the look of this hat.

 

[glider]

Here is my modest collection of Porkpie hats. They got their name from the crown shape not the hat band or brim size or shape. Paul Hogan wore it famously in Crocodile Dundee then used the same style in Lightning Jack a few years later.
View attachment 353578 The hats That have a porkpie crown with a western brim that I have seen have been called a gambler by the manufactures. I think about 2 1/2 inch brim is as big as you can go and still say it's a porkpie and that's pushing it. A porkpie is on my short list along with a bowler, I guess there will always be a list.
View attachment 353579
Johnny

 

[deadlyhandsome]

This is what I think of when pork pie comes to mind. I can only imagine this had a special block made in order to get that shape in the crown with the tight "channel". My hand attempts from open crown do not get that tight. Love the look of this hat.

Did you see the video that Jared @jlee562 posted…quite a while ago? It made the telescope crease look easy, but I don’t think the gap always as small on Bob’s hat.