Wolfbrae Custom Hatters

[Rmccamey]

Very nice. I think I have a close cousin.

My latest from Robert with a quick bash, (I added the wind cord).
Winchester Beaver, unlined.
Thanks Robert!

EDIT: Forgot to add, 6" crown, 2 7/8" brim!
View attachment 561318 View attachment 561319

 

[Blare]

My latest from Robert with a quick bash, (I added the wind cord).
Winchester Beaver, unlined.
Thanks Robert!

EDIT: Forgot to add, 6" crown, 2 7/8" brim!
View attachment 561318 View attachment 561319

A beauty

 

[Rmccamey]

Your hat got a grand compliment today, Robert. The clerk running the paint counter at the local hardware store said he often wore bowlers but that my Wolfbrae homburg "was the best non-cowboy western hat I have ever seen". Pretty great, eh? He also liked the liner saying, "Wow, how cool is that".

Guess I'll have to wear my Wolfbrae's more often

 

[Gregory Wilde]

Hello all...I haven't contributed in quite some time (been concentrating on my art business (thegregorywilde.com) but I have been following the Wolfbrae threads...great homburg there Robert..a real gentlemen's fine hat....not a hat that would suit me in my opinion however anyone can tell just by looking at the pictures...the hat shouts "quality" .....bravo Robert! I am sure the owner will be proud to wear and display it as well.

There are so many vendors selling hats but as we all know not all hats are created equal..this why a handful of professional hatters like Robert sell beaver and rabbit hats primarily...knowing that the fur is the key to quality for fine hats.

My Bogart custom Wolfbrae rabbit fur hat and my 1930,s tall beaver hat made by Robert last year are holding up well..and I know they will for as long as I have them I am sure. I have many hats but only two Robert custom hats...I must add a few more in the coming year..I am thinking about a few because I now know that there is nothing like a custom made Wolfbrae hat ..I see many hats out there...and know of many custom hatters but getting in touch with Robert was a real game changer...I have said this before..how many times in your life do you get something custom made that is to your complete satisfaction...a bullseye every time..It's all in the fit and the devil is always in the accurate details..Check out Roberts lining..his leather sweatbands...the binding on outside the hat itself...the fit made just specifically for your head. Robert is an expert communicator asking the pertinent questions so that he gets specific answers and can do a blueprint that will meet..no exceed your expectations.

Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday period...and hopefully the current world situation will change for the better...we all need peace.. The Beatles record Now and Then brought a smile to my face..They didn't need the money...but the world needed the light and again fifty four years later..they provided some..Good for them!

Cheers...Gregory Wilde

 

[Gregory Wilde]

Hello again..Gregory here......Fyi, I have been wearing some sort of hat since I was a child...so I come by my hat wearing because that's how I was often dressed by my parents.. ..My father wore a fedora and so did my stepfather in the fifties..I was born in 1950...One might say that the hat wearing stopped being fashionable at some point in the mid to late sixties. Some said it was because the young president of the US ..JFK didn't wear a hat at his inauguration..but that is just an urban myth..Yes he didn't wear a hat but he wasn't the only man that wasn't wearing a hat any longer....Many men just stopped wearing hats ..I believe that it was due to print advertising..in newspapers and magazines...You just didn't see many ads with men wearing hats..so that influenced fashion in my opinion.

Why did men wear hats in the first place?.....Two reasons...to protect them from the elements such as sun and wind and rain...and to keep their heads warm since most of your body heat is lost in your head and in your feet...

Here are some pics from the glory days..when most all men wore a hat....Those of us who love hats..would love to see the return of hats..maybe someday..you never know..ha ha.


Enjoy....these are random...but the last pic of the guy in the striped shirt is me in the Bogart rabbit fur hat that Robert from Wolfbrae made for me...I wear it alot...I am trying to look like a gangster...there is a bit of gangster in all of us don't you think? Lmao
Cheers! Gregory Wilde (thegregorywilde.com)

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Hello again..Gregory here......Fyi, I have been wearing some sort of hat since I was a child...so I come by my hat wearing because that's how I was often dressed by my parents.. ..My father wore a fedora and so did my stepfather in the fifties..I was born in 1950...One might say that the hat wearing stopped being fashionable at some point in the mid to late sixties. Some said it was because the young president of the US ..JFK didn't wear a hat at his inauguration..but that is just an urban myth..Yes he didn't wear a hat but he wasn't the only man that wasn't wearing a hat any longer....Many men just stopped wearing hats ..I believe that it was due to print advertising..in newspapers and magazines...You just didn't see many ads with men wearing hats..so that influenced fashion in my opinion.

Why did men wear hats in the first place?.....Two reasons...to protect them from the elements such as sun and wind and rain...and to keep their heads warm since most of your body heat is lost in your head and in your feet...

Here are some pics from the glory days..when most all men wore a hat....Those of us who love hats..would love to see the return of hats..maybe someday..you never know..ha ha.


Enjoy....these are random...but the last pic of the guy in the striped shirt is me in the Bogart rabbit fur hat that Robert from Wolfbrae made for me...I wear it alot...I am trying to look like a gangster...there is a bit of gangster in all of us don't you think? Lmao
Cheers! Gregory Wilde (thegregorywilde.com)

There are lots of threads here discussing the decline of hat wearing. The practice was in decline in the 1940s and accelerated in the 1950s. By the end of the 1950s US hat sales were way down and the quality was going down with it.

JFK did wear a hat for his inauguration, but he didn’t wear it for many of the photos. JFK also wore fedoras and trilbies, most Cavanaghs, but more often than not he was hatless.

I believe several things contributed to the decline in hat wearing:

Hair styles with hair products and the expense and hassle of hat checks at restaurants etc.

Men returning from the War who were eschewing hat wear and the strict uniform rules.

Society was becoming less rigorous in following rules of etiquette and tradition for tradition’s sake. Individuality and even rebellion was coming into fashion.

The near universal use of automobiles which made it where a man would wear his hat for 10 seconds from his home to his car and maybe one minute from his car to his office. In total , a might might wear his hat 2-10 minutes a day.

There were other factors that contributed to the decline in hat wearing. He market kept getting smaller and the quality kept going down. By the 1960s a hat was almost a prop rather than a regular part of a man’s attire (speaking generally and acknowledging there were many exceptions).

Western hats stuck around as they still filled a useful purpose. Being outdoors for long hours under the sun meant the shade of a hat served a legitimate purpose. Keeping your head warm and dry in the winter was also a real asset. A fedora in the city in the age of the automobile…what function did it serve? I like hats a lot, but the homburg I wore today didn’t serve a function other than I like how it looks. It is a fashion accessory…nothing wrong with that, but I can see why they fell out of use.

Welcome to the family!

Brent

 

[Gregory Wilde]

Hey Brent..Thanks ...really nice to see the very cool pics of JFK in the topper governor...especially since the 60th anniversary of his assassination just passed ...My father who was an American who worked for Coca Cola in Detroit was so saddened when JFK passed..well the whole world was..All of us remember where we were when we got the news. In my lifetime I have never seen another President who was at JFK's level...a very intelligent caring man...who didn't back down ie Cuban missile crisis etc...so charismatic ..(liked the ladies and r and r....good for him)
Yes he wore fedoras and top hats too...but you didn't see many fedoras on him..see the pic below.,,Imo he suited a top hat more than a fedora.
.. So the hat trend specifically fedoras really started waning much earlier than when I thought..All the dads wore fedoras that I knew in the late fifties and early sixties...All those nice old school Borsalinos and Stetsons etc..Dobbs. and on and on....J.C. Penny (they even had some nice hats there..I see them sometimes on Etsy).....ha ha ha

I have about a dozen hats..I give them away sometimes ..I am not the collector that people like you and of course Robert and others are..however I have enough to be able to change up...Some people can take any hat and make it their own...I take specific hats that I like..prefer the C crowns...don't go too wild...have the brim up mostly in the back..rarely in the front pork pie style) however some hats I do find that you have to put the brim down in both back and front to do the hat justice.. If you look at the guys in old movies..think Robert Mitchum in Farewell my Lovely....Bogie in "Casablanca".....Alan Ladd..in This "Gun for Hire"..Dana Andrews in "Laura"...wore both brims down for the most part but depending on the filming day they sometimes were up in the back..(where is that continuity team when you need them? lo'l)

Take care all....we got some snow flurries today....not so bad here just outside of Toronto in Orangeville On Gregory Wilde (thegregorywilde.com)

 

[belfastboy]

I made this Charcoal Tonak rabbit hat for a client about two years ago.....except the original had a 3" flat brim. Customer wore it, on and off, over the 2 years but not a lot. He just was not comfortable in the wider brim. He emailed saying he wanted a new hat with a narrower brim. I told him to bring in the Charcoal hat and we would fix it up for him. Here is the pic of the 'new' hat with a 2 1/2" brim and medium cupped flange.
I worked my way out of selling him a new hat as he was now thrilled with this one! A great benefit of a custom hat from a local hatter......free alterations!

 

[Darrell2688]

I made this Charcoal Tonak rabbit hat for a client about two years ago.....except the original had a 3" flat brim. Customer wore it, on and off, over the 2 years but not a lot. He just was not comfortable in the wider brim. He emailed saying he wanted a new hat with a narrower brim. I told him to bring in the Charcoal hat and we would fix it up for him. Here is the pic of the 'new' hat with a 2 1/2" brim and medium cupped flange.
I worked my way out of selling him a new hat as he was now thrilled with this one! A great benefit of a custom hat from a local hatter......free alterations! View attachment 564918

I am sure that he will be back to buy another hat, with the service that you offer with your hats, he will want another hat and a different color of course, a steel blue color would look good next to the charcoal color.

 

[belfastboy]

I am sure that he will be back to buy another hat, with the service that you offer with your hats, he will want another hat and a different color of course, a steel blue color would look good next to the charcoal color.

Funny thing is he did now come back and buy a vintage Borsalino I restored. He sent me a picture of a brown hat he wanted. It matched perfectly the one I was just finishing up. And it fits him perfectly.

 

[LinoleumBonypart]

Think these are made by you any idea of the names of the colours

 

[belfastboy]

View attachment 564984 View attachment 564985
Think these are made by you any idea of the names of the colours

The Green on is a FEPSA beaver in Commando green. The second is a Winchester beaver in Bone

 

[Rmccamey]

That's what builds trust, customer loyalty and repeat customers. Great job, Robert, and a great hat, too.

I made this Charcoal Tonak rabbit hat for a client about two years ago.....except the original had a 3" flat brim. Customer wore it, on and off, over the 2 years but not a lot. He just was not comfortable in the wider brim. He emailed saying he wanted a new hat with a narrower brim. I told him to bring in the Charcoal hat and we would fix it up for him. Here is the pic of the 'new' hat with a 2 1/2" brim and medium cupped flange.
I worked my way out of selling him a new hat as he was now thrilled with this one! A great benefit of a custom hat from a local hatter......free alterations! View attachment 564918

 

[belfastboy]

That's what builds trust, customer loyalty and repeat customers. Great job, Robert, and a great hat, too.

Thank you. It is interesting as I learned something from this exchange with the client about what hats look good. I have long been a believer in not restricting the crown height or brim width based on physical stature. This client has a darker complexion, olive I think is an apt descriptor. The 3" brim on the charcoal hat really did hide his face in shadow and almost eliminated his facial features. My petite wife on the other hand....very pale white complexion that reflects light very well can wear wide brimmed hats as her light complexion reflects the light. So my lesson is viewing not as a clear wide brim versus short brim issue but also, what colour the felt, what complexion the wearer?

 

[Rmccamey]

There is definitely an art to the madness of color and dimension, but such a discussion is waaaaay outside of my wheelhouse. In moments of weakness (usually after a few, stiff drinks), I have wondered if we tend to subconsciously select hats based on such criteria.

Thank you. It is interesting as I learned something from this exchange with the client about what hats look good. I have long been a believer in not restricting the crown height or brim width based on physical stature. This client has a darker complexion, olive I think is an apt descriptor. The 3" brim on the charcoal hat really did hide his face in shadow and almost eliminated his facial features. My petite wife on the other hand....very pale white complexion that reflects light very well can wear wide brimmed hats as her light complexion reflects the light. So my lesson is viewing not as a clear wide brim versus short brim issue but also, what colour the felt, what complexion the wearer?

 

[RBH]

I made this Charcoal Tonak rabbit hat for a client about two years ago.....except the original had a 3" flat brim. Customer wore it, on and off, over the 2 years but not a lot. He just was not comfortable in the wider brim. He emailed saying he wanted a new hat with a narrower brim. I told him to bring in the Charcoal hat and we would fix it up for him. Here is the pic of the 'new' hat with a 2 1/2" brim and medium cupped flange.
I worked my way out of selling him a new hat as he was now thrilled with this one! A great benefit of a custom hat from a local hatter......free alterations! View attachment 564918

Great work!!!
I really like the finished fedora!!

 

[LinoleumBonypart]

Thank you. It is interesting as I learned something from this exchange with the client about what hats look good. I have long been a believer in not restricting the crown height or brim width based on physical stature. This client has a darker complexion, olive I think is an apt descriptor. The 3" brim on the charcoal hat really did hide his face in shadow and almost eliminated his facial features. My petite wife on the other hand....very pale white complexion that reflects light very well can wear wide brimmed hats as her light complexion reflects the light. So my lesson is viewing not as a clear wide brim versus short brim issue but also, what colour the felt, what complexion the wearer?

Do you ask the customer physical build etc ..??

 

[belfastboy]

Do you ask the customer physical build etc ..??

Yes, about 50% of my clients live in the area so we get to meet at the shop. For my online customers many of them are hat wearers already and know what they want. If the client has questions we spend as much time as they need in conversation about the hat purchase.

 

[belfastboy]

Great work!!!
I really like the finished fedora!!

I made this hat about 2 years ago and have not worked much with the Tonak rabbit felts much since then. I had forgotten how nice the felts are. They used to be such a bargain price wise but my source has drastically increased the price (who hasn't I guess!)

 

[Rmccamey]

Do you have any heather(ed) felt, Robert?