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  1. M

    When did young people stop wearing hats?

    When I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s, I don't recall anyone other than me really interested in hats. In addition to John Kennedy, who eschewed hats, what really drove the stake through the haberdashery heart were the longer hairstyles of the 1960s. After the Beatles came in and young...
  2. M

    More Fedora TV--Hercule Poirot

    Deerstalkers (or, as they were more commonly known at the time, "fore-and-afts") are country wear, not city wear. A Londoner would no more wear one than he would don an Inverness cape. The famous Paget illustration showing Holmes on the train with his deerstalker and Inverness was depicting a...
  3. M

    Milan Mania

    I've come to like Milan straw a lot. I have a vintage Cavanagh, which I found almost by accident (and which is REALLY heavy), a Dobbs homburg, which is really great but not that versatile (but I got a fantastic deal on it), and my favorite of all, a Miller (Biltmore) fedora that is not A-list...
  4. M

    Attention Hat Wearers

    I never, ever leave home without a hat and for a very good reason: I am, alas, seriously folically challenged. In fact, I'm starting to make Bruce Willis look like Fabio. So I don't consider hats an affectation or a statement, I consider them a necessity. Some of my in-laws, who are all...
  5. M

    ITALIAN VS. AMERICAN VINTAGE HATS

    I can't speak to vintage, and I can't speak to Borsalino, but I have a recent (less than ten years old) Barbisio which is vastly superior than the majority of American hats of a similar age. Barbisios and Cervos are as good or better than Borsalinos (though I do believe there is some cross...
  7. M

    Disappointed with Stetson

    Stetson straws seem to be better than their felts these days -- and even the straws are iffy. I have one Stetson felt that I like, but I've also seen some that aren't worth dragging home. I think they're concentrating on cowboy hats these days, to the exclusion of all other styles.
  8. M

    The Black Hat Brigade

    I have a black fedora, but I don't think I will seek out any more, simply because they are so hard to keep clean.
  9. M

    The right hat in the strangest place

    Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale... I got an incredible, and incredibly unexpected deal today in the most unusual of places. There's a venerable toy store in Hollywood called the Hollywood Toy Store (boy, are the owners clever or what!) that has a large costume trade, including a...
  10. M

    porkpie straws

    I recommend the Village Hat Shop coconut porkpie. Definitely under $100, very smart looking, very Sam Snead. The only caveat is, if you order online, you don't have a choice in the band pattern (if you get it in person, you can choose). The bands are all plaid, but different sorts of plaids...
  11. M

    Panamas: What are the benefits of quality?

    High grade Panamas are their own reward, though once they hit a certain price level -- generally in the four figures -- I'd be afraid to wear one outside. If I had a $1,500 hat (or higher) and the wind blew it off, I'd probably have a heart attack. In answer to your question, however, I...
  13. M

    Please suggest a light tan/khaki fedora

    Are you only interested in felt? If not, try to find a Scala Panama fedora. Scala these days is owned by Dorfman so their quality has slipped a bit, but if you can get an old one, you have a choice between a nice warm tan or natural, which is roughly khaki.
  14. M

    Where do you come from???

    Mysterygal: I write murder mysteries, but rarely in the hardboiled genre. I do historicals set in Edwardian England. I am, however, coming out with an anthology this summer called "LAndmarked for Murder," which I co-edited (with Harley Jane Kozak and Nathan Walpow). I also write non-fiction...
  15. M

    Your favorite toys as a kid?

    For my sixth birthday I got a complete set of "Disneykins"...very small plastic figures of all the Disney characters, and also a set of plastic Presidents. Later I got a set of Hanna-Barbera figures, made (as were the Disneykins) by Marx Toys. I'm now in my fifties and all these tiny figures...
  16. M

    Where do you come from???

    I'm Mike Mallory, and I'm one of the few people who didn't get the memo that you were supposed to conceal your identity here under a fake moniker. I'm a writer whose 13th book is coming out this October, and I've lived in greater Los Angeles for a quarter century. I'm a former newscaster and...
  17. M

    What is your passion?

    Wow, what a loaded question! I guess if I had to pinpoint the things I'm passionate about (meaning, the things that causes mass eye-rolling whenever I start to discourse, because people know what's coming), they would be a) words, and b) film. Words are my life and my livelihood -- I'm a...
  19. M

    My head is burnt...red !!!

    I used to live in Missouri, so I'm hip on the weather. As they say, if you don't like the weather in MO, just hang around five minutes...it'll change. I still have a lot of family back there, and some are now being diagnosed with skin cancer, so Shoeshine, my man, and anybody else in the...
  20. M

    A Homburg? Me? In a Homburg?

    I have two homburgs, but I reserve them for more formal occasions. I have a black felt number that I wear with a tux, and a Dobbs grey Milan straw homburg, which is really beautiful, that I wear with suits. That last time I appeared in my straw homberg, I was innundated with compliments...
  21. M

    Weird and Forgotten Movies

    For me, the most delightfully demented, bizarre film of the 70s is "Horror Hospital," a pretty obscure British horror film from 1973 starring the wonderful Michael Gough, who in later, better times was "Alfred" the butler in the first several "Batman" movies, but in the 60s and 70s was the...
  22. M

    Remove your hat?

    Unofficially, if you're at a table in a restaurant, pop the lid. If you're at a counter, then it's okay to leave it on.
  23. M

    Bash or Block

    Hats are blocked on, well, blocks, which are carved wooden shapes that the crown of the hat absorbs. Bashes are what you put in on your own. Most hats from the 40s were hand-bashed. As for sweatbands, I recently bought a hat with a suede sweatband, and I'm a convert! It's comfy as heck.

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