Vintage Finnish Hats

[Mangrove]

I dug out some photographs of Suomen Lakkitehdas O.Y. (1917-?) hats for your pleasure. Comments are welcome as usual.

1. Children's hats.

2. Men's autumn wool caps. Notice the rack which can hold up to 120 caps!

3. Men's sport linen caps.

4. Women's summer hats.

 

[Mangrove]

Winter hats.

 

[randooch]

Very fun stuff! I started a thread awhile back on a related note. There are some Swedish hats posted there, an interesting comparison.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...eremonial-or-Native-Hats&highlight=indigenous

 

[Wolfwood]

I've seen some old photos of my wife's family with decent brimmed hats - fedoras etc. (I should dig the photos up one of these days and scan them). I am pretty sure those were also made in Finland (though I'm not sure).

 

[Mangrove]

I am pretty sure those were also made in Finland (though I'm not sure).

If there were any brimmed hat manufacturers in Finland during the Golden Era, they were probably very small shops as I have not seen a single advertisement for Finnish brimmed hats in period magazines. Most often you will see ads by British manufacturers John Harrison, Walker, Ashforth & Linney Ltd and German Hückel.

Here are some caps inspired by the 1940 Summer Olympics, planned to be held at Helsinki but cancelled due of the war.

 

[mayserwegener]

Interesting! Do either of you have the 1950s Fritz Hückel Weilheim (Bavaria) imported to Finland? Any pre 1945 Hückel would have come from the original Novy Jicin, Czecho Slovakia (was Neutitschein, Austria prior to WWI) factory (post 1945 nationalized as TONAK). Mayser probably had a presence in Finland too.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Love the early Sloy caps nice fabric texture.

 

[Mangrove]

Interesting! Do either of you have the 1950s Fritz Hückel Weilheim (Bavaria) imported to Finland?

I have not seen any, in real life or in ads! I wonder if the War broke the connections to the German-speaking world as it seems that the "Anglo hats" dominated even more of the markets than before the War.

 

[TomS]

Style 57 looks like it belongs advancing through Poland.

 

[Wolfwood]

Just saw a brimmed hat being sold at one of Finnish eBay competitors. I'll try to link the pics here, but not sure if that will work. In any case, the label says "Mayfair - Suomi", which seems to indicate that either Mayfair was at some time a Finnish company making hats, or this is an import hat to Finland (Suomi) from somewhere else. The seller is saying that it is an "old hat, made in Finland".

 

[danofarlington]

Wow, German and Russian influences on some of those hats. The lady models were pretty good looking.

 

[Mangrove]

I found an interesting interview where a Finnish magazine interviewed the head of the Suomen Lakkitehdas O.Y. The factory employed 150 persons in 1937 and made anything from 200 to 250 pairs of gloves and 960 to 1200 caps each day. The article also remarks how Finns wore different kind of hats than the British people: Finns did not like the cheerful colourful check caps but preferred earth tones in their hats. They also preferred heavy and sturdy caps over light.

 

[Wolfwood]

Well, as far as I've seen, earth tones are still big here. Every other grown man wears a brown coat etc.