Recent content by collarmelton

No black in summer One orthodox Jewish gent in my building always wears a black felt fedora, except in summer, when he switches to a dark blue, very fine-weave panama. He looks quite debonair and I have to resist the temptation to ask him where he got it.

Bespoke hats in NYC After looking around at some length, I found that the best bespoke hat deal in in New York City is to pick up the phone and call Art.

The last automat in NYC The last Horn & Hardart holdout was the one at the corner of 42nd and 3rd, and closed in 1991. I hadn't gone to the automat much past the 1970's but I do recall that it was something of a pain to have to feed lots of nickels into the slots to get lunch. To be frank...

Akubra Fed fit Deb, at Hats Direct, was most emphatic about erring on the larger side with respect to my black Federation, which I bought several months ago. In fact, she insisted that I confirm my head size (57) before she would ship the hat. While my measurement still worked out to a 57 in...

Thanks for the recommendations, gentlemen. Thanks to Sharpetoys for recommending Hatsdirect. I ordered a Federation model, which arrived today. Although I am a 57 in crappy Borsalinos and followed Akubra's measuring instructions to the letter, the hat is still a bit big, though it fits after...

I recently joined this forum and in attempting to master the search function have learned enough to wish I’d joined a year ago, before purchasing an expensive Borsalino Como, which now seems permanently limp and has the beginnings of a hole worn into the underside of the front brim, where I...