Whats the tallest you can go on the crown for a fedora?

[Johnny J]

Hello guys. I am having Art make me my first VS fedora and I wanted to know what is the tallest you can go on the crown for a vintage style fedora? I have a 40's Stetson Stetsonian and it looks like 6in. crown. Is there any higher than that? Appreciate your input.

 

[danofarlington]

Hello guys. I am having Art make me my first VS fedora and I wanted to know what is the tallest you can go on the crown for a vintage style fedora? I have a 40's Stetson Stetsonian and it looks like 6in. crown. Is there any higher than that? Appreciate your input.

I'm not aware of crowns higher than that. You may have reached the top of the heap with that measurement. Any higher and you get into the realm of a dunce cap, witch's hat, or scarecrow hat.

 

[Hercule]

Suppose you could go higher with a cowboy conversion

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I'd have to say that the crown height for a fedora style is dependent on the hat size. A 6 7/8 with a 6 inch crown would look like Hercule's avatar, but a 6 inch crown on an 8 1/2 (if it exists) might well look kind of short.

Just my $0.02

 

[tonyb]

Crown height is limited by 1.) the height of the block, 2.) the size of the hat body (the amount of material the hatmaker has to work with) and, 3.) one's particular sense of style.

Proportions come into play on that last item. As 1961MJS observed, one measurement will affect the others.

The tallest fedora-style blocks on my shelves are 6 1/2 inches tall. I'm guessing those blocks are at least 70 years old. That's about the limit of what you'd typically find in "town" (as opposed to Western) styles. However, if you wished to go higher, an extra inch or so could be attained by attaching a band block to the bottom of a crown block of the same size (such a band block could be fashioned easily enough). You could go even higher than that, of course, if you made a thicker band block.

Still, I'd be reluctant to go much higher than 6 inches. That's still a whole lot of crown for a "dress" hat. Anything much taller than that starts looking like it's happy to see you. Even 5 1/2 to 5 3/4 inches is on the tallish side. But, you know, I'd never impose an absolute rule. A longtime friend who doesn't wear "proper" hats commented recently that the hats I make seem exceptionally tall. I said yup, that's by design. They are indeed markedly taller than most of what you'd find on the shelves at Bynie Utz, the legendary local men's hat store. But, I added, once you get used to wearing a hat with a 6 inch (open) crown, anything more than half an inch (if even that much) shorter looks small. And such crown heights were common back in the 1930s. Or so photos and motion pictures from that era would indicate.

 

[rlk]

Seems like only the conspicuously stylish didn't stuff them down even with the extra felt. Other issues would be that you would need either a thicker, stiffer felt and/or tapering to prevent bulging--or flying buttresses.

 

[tonyb]

Keep in mind that we're talking (I presume) the height of the OPEN crown, which will be taken down (again, I presume) quite a bit by the creasing, as rlk noted. A 6-inch open crown typically measures something well under 5 inches (more like 4 1/4 to 4 1/2) front and back and about 5 inches at the sides (with a center dent) once it has been shaped (or, if one prefers, creased, bashed, whatever).

 

[Johnny J]

I'm asking cause in the old movies from the 1940s it seems like some of the hats were pretty tall, cause sometimes you see them stuffed in deeper than what you usually see, I mean thats what it looks like to me. So, I like that look and wanted to know if I could get it higher and stuff it in a little more if it would look like that. But if I'm wrong than I will just go with a 6 inch open crown.
Does anyone have a vintage fedora with an open crown higher than 6 inches? Oh yeah, I am a size 7 3/8; if that helps any.

 

[Johnny J]

Keep in mind that we're talking (I presume) the height of the OPEN crown, which will be taken down (again, I presume) quite a bit by the creasing, as rlk noted. A 6-inch open crown typically measures something well under 5 inches (more like 4 1/4 to 4 1/2) front and back and about 5 inches at the sides (with a center dent) once it has been shaped (or, if one prefers, creased, bashed, whatever).

Thanks tonyb. Than I think I will go with a 6 inch open crown. Also, thanks to everyone else for their input.
Johnny