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Stranger Things - that sherif hat

guillaumeb

One of the Regulars
Messages
172
Location
France
Hi

I discovered yesterday the tv show Strangers Things and btw if you used to be a fan of ET or the Goonies then you'll love it

The Sherif in this show wears a hat that is growing on me and which is actually getting popular

The actor actually talked about it in an interview

http://goseetalk.com/interview-davi...s-and-jim-hopper-in-netflixs-stranger-things/


b6b219d3eb9751841c2bbd0fb8e38d5d.png


Do you like it ?


Envoyé de mon iPad en utilisant Tapatalk
 

William G.

One of the Regulars
Messages
158
I've wondered what the story was with that hat. It definitely stood out during the show.
 

safetyfast

One of the Regulars
Messages
228
Cool find. Love the show and the hat. The article says the Worth and Worth plans to start selling the hat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Michael R.

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,889
Location
West Tennessee USA
Yeah the write up said it was a 3" Brim Open Road type Style , made to be his Dad's Old Hat he (the character) hides behind . It looks like dark moss to me , but I'm color blind .
 

Doctor Jones

Familiar Face
Messages
96
Location
Orange County California
Hi, I'm new to this forum, and new to fedoras.

I came across the Fedora Lounge in doing research on the Chief Hopper hat. You all have been incredibly informative and helpful! A week ago I had never heard of Akubra or Open Crown or Stratoliner or Open Road or any other hat terminology or maker or style.

Yes I want that hat! The first question is, what exactly is it like?

I have heard it said that the screen hat is based on the actor's father's vintage Stetson Open Road, that it has 2 3/4" brim. David Harbour has stated that the costume designer took the original hat and re-shaped it to create the screen hat.

Whatever the story, to re-create the hat all we have to go on is the way it looks on TV.

The main difficulty I'm having is that its colour looks quite different in different scenes, from a pale grey to a deep brown and everything in between. In the main my gestalt is that it's taupe, a colour midway between grey and brown, and with a very subtle greenish tinge. It's about as close to "neutral" as one can come, which explains why it looks so different in different lighting conditions.

Here it is looking like what the US military calls Olive Drab, and the British military calls Khaki

0zpiKbd.jpg


I6bTcOx.jpg


On the other hand, in some scenes it looks like a rather pale taupe, not all that much darker than his shirt:

HHX4yY5.jpg


Nvr7YWR.jpg


So... what hat that is currently available is closest to that?

That's the quest that had me, again and again, pouring over threads on The Fedora Lounge, as people discussed various Stetson and Akubra hats.

It seems to me that the starting point would probably be an Open Crown hat with a bound brim which is turned up all around, in an appropriate colour.

I found this photo on one of those Fedora Lounge threads, an Akubra Campdraft before and after bashing. It's brim appears perfect as it comes; all that remains is to bash the crown to match the screen hat.

ox7HuOJ.jpg
 
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Doctor Jones

Familiar Face
Messages
96
Location
Orange County California
The thing about the Akubra Campdraft is that it doesn't seem to be available in a good colour.

All I see are Bluegrass Green, Fawn, and a very light colour (Silverbelly?) none of which appear to be close to the screen hat colour.

Now it's far from clear, to me, just what colour the Akubra Fawn is. If I Google "akubra heritage fawn" I'm presented with 30 images of hats in 30 different colours! Who can say, from internet photos, what Heritage Fawn actually is. Add to that the fact that various vendors appear to use their own names for the various Akubra colours.

Based on my limitations, which are that I neither have the screen hat nor any of the currently available hats in front of me to compare, the closest colour (as best I can tell) is the Nullarbor Tan of the Akubra Bushman sold by David Morgan:

NHHnRMg.jpg

Above as it comes, below bashed. For the Chief Hopper hat I would leave the brim as it comes, I think, and bash the crown.

IcbGm5C.jpg


BTW Jim Hopper is the Chief of the Hawkins Police Department, though his costume indeed looks rather Sheriff-like to me.
 

Michael R.

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,889
Location
West Tennessee USA
The thing about the Akubra Campdraft is that it doesn't seem to be available in a good colour.

All I see are Bluegrass Green, Fawn, and a very light colour (Silverbelly?) none of which appear to be close to the screen hat colour.

Now it's far from clear, to me, just what colour the Akubra Fawn is. If I Google "akubra heritage fawn" I'm presented with 30 images of hats in 30 different colours! Who can say, from internet photos, what Heritage Fawn actually is. Add to that the fact that various vendors appear to use their own names for the various Akubra colours.

Based on my limitations, which are that I neither have the screen hat nor any of the currently available hats in front of me to compare, the closest colour (as best I can tell) is the Nullarbor Tan of the Akubra Bushman sold by David Morgan:

NHHnRMg.jpg

Above as it comes, below bashed. For the Chief Hopper hat I would leave the brim as it comes, I think, and bash the crown.

IcbGm5C.jpg


BTW Jim Hopper is the Chief of the Hawkins Police Department, though his costume indeed looks rather Sheriff-like to me.

This is an Akubra Bushman , and its the wrong dimensions . The Hat more closely resembles an Akubra Campdraft which is the one in the previous post in Bluegrass Green .
 

Doctor Jones

Familiar Face
Messages
96
Location
Orange County California
Thanks for the replies!

Yes I have seen that page with the replica hat. I wonder how exactly it follows the hat as seen on screen- for one thing (and I know camera angles can deceive the eye) the crown doesn't look quite the same. But then again, the crown as seen on the show looks different in different scenes, so who can say. (Note the various screen shots I posted above.)

This sort of thing is common. There's a guy named Terry English in Cornwall who made the original armour for the movie Excalibur but I know someone who did a load of screen-shot research and owns and has examined various Terry English-made reproductions, and they don't follow the specs of the armour he made for the film. In this case it's due to him not having patterns. (I can't recall whether he used patterns, or not, when he created the original screen armour.)

About the Akubra colour they call Bluegrass Green, it's one of those things where I've seen dozens, maybe hundreds, of photos and videos of various Akubra hats in that colour, and some do indeed look similar to certain screen shots of the screen hat. But the majority of the photos I've seen of Akubra hats in Bluegrass Green look different from the majority of the screen shots of the hat I've seen. Once again, without a screen hat and a Bluegrass Green hat laid out on a table, who can say.

There's a Stetson colour called Caribou (which is one of the few I've seen in person) which appears to be a dead-ringer for the way the screen hat looks in a number of shots.

It's impossible to know without having at least one example of the screen hat and a number of Stetson and Akubra hats laid out on a table. I've seen photos of Akubra hats in colours variously called Heritage Fawn, Mid Brown, Bluegrass Green, Taupe, Taupe Fawn, Nullarbor Tan, Loden, and probably a few more, which look like a near-perfect match to the way the screen hat looks in some shots. However I have seen more photos of each of those colours which do not resemble the screen hat as it appears in the majority of shots.

Here's a video where David Harbour discusses the creation of the screen hat. Nothing to do with a hat of his father so it seems, just something created for the show


Of course one can't really speak of THE screen hat, because for filming they always make a number of identical items, say 15 or 20 or so, to have to hand on set. It's been discussed on Indiana Jones forums, how the hat shape changes from scene to scene and sometimes shot to shot in the same film. The only way to know exactly what all the hats look like would be to be present on set during the shoot and see the table off to the side with the 15 or so hats laid out, ready to go, for the shoot that day.

I know I can't expect to have that degree of accuracy. All I'm trying to do is to get a hat that's near as I can get to the overall impression of the hat one gets by watching the show.

About the brim size, the screen hat is said to be 2 3/4 inch. Hats like the Stetson Stratoliner and Akubra Stylemaster, with 2 1/2 inch brims, look pretty good, but a bit too skimpy, to my eye.

The brim of the Campdraft is just a hair wide (2 7/8" according to what I've seen) and on the head looks great.

The brim on the Bushman is too wide (3 1/4" according to what I've seen) and yes it looks it, when compared to the screen hat.

Thanks! Richard
 
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