Just bought a new Borsalino and have a question.

[tracyam]

Hi all,
I was in the Cincinnati area recently and bought a Borsalino fedora from Batsakes. If I'd been in town longer I would've ordered a Gus Miller hat but being the impatient one I wanted a hat rightaway. It was my first time being in a real hat shop so I was pretty excited.

Anyway, I think this Borsalino is great but I did have some reservations before buying it simply because of all the talk here about them being of poorer quality than the vintage ones. What should I expect from this hat? It is raining out now. What should I expect if I wear this hat out in the rain? Will it hold up at all? I certainly hope that the color doesn't run.

Thanks

 

[duggap]

I have two new Borsalinos and like them both very much. I will say, however, that I seldom get my hats real wet. I have been caught out in the rain with my brown Como and it did fine with no color running. If you got it real soaked I don't know what would happen. I think most of the hats that were supposed to run when wet were the modern Stetsons. I have one of those and it does run.

 

[tracyam]

Thanks for the reply. Should I expect the crown to taper if it gets wet? I'm not talking about wearing it in a deluge, just a moderate rain. Shouldn't all hats be expected to taper over time?
I just want to keep this thing looking as good as possible for as long as possible.

 

[duggap]

Mine have some taper that came with the hat. I have not had any changes since I bought the hats. I prefer my Art Fawcett hats and they do not have taper to them, but a hat with some taper is not always bad. Makes for a nice change. But it seems to me that newer hats have the taper while most of the older hats didn't. Maybe you need to check in on the Johnnyphi auction going on in the Merchants section of the Lounge. He is not posting anything this week but will again next week.