Recent content by jlee562

Yeah, that's the deal with Akubras, they shrink. Personally, I don't bother with them anymore. Not worth the (literal) headache. I don't see how cutting the reed is going to change the tightness of the hat, the reed ideally is supposed to bell out from the opening of the hat. Nor does the...

Well you know me, always the contrarian... I just finished making this hat from a new FEPSA rabbit felt (no vintage hats were harmed in this handicraft experiment). Instead of a traditional ribbon and bow, I added stitching in the style of Japanese sashiko embroidery, using the traditional wave...

Go 2 3/4". You get a teeny tiny bit more sun protection.

Fairly modern Stetson Temple. I think I also have a Hatco hat inspected by Mr. Moore. But Sovereign grade was replaced by Royal Deluxe during the 150th year, so earlier than 2015.

Don't take anything Kevin says as gospel. Looks like you are a relatively new member. Some folks think the Lounge is the clearinghouse for all hat related information. It is not. It was originally meant to focus on documenting vintage hats. If you deep dive into the threads here, you'll quickly...

Possibly....I'll need to dig around for an old Kindle tablet. It sure looks like it has the made in Ecuador stamp on the inside of the crown. "Panama hat" typically refers to a natural straw hat woven in one of two specific ways. There are however, Shantung straw hats, which is a synthetic...

I don't think it's particularly old either, but I think it might be slightly more than 10 years. They haven't made a real straw Panama OR in a while, when I got mine at Meyer The Hatter in 2018, it was NOS and they said Stetson wasn't making the natural straw anymore. Mine does not have the...

Don't buy a wool hat. Assuming that your ideal fit is NOT in between sizes, you should go true to size. The thing about going a size up is mostly an Akubra thing because they continue to use a cheaper grade of leather. If you get your hat soaked, A band block or stretcher is a good investment...

IMHO it's more trouble than it's worth to reshape a hat with a pressed in crease. You are going to have that crease around the crown from the telescope.

That's a bit later on the timeline than the focus of most of the catalogs here, but some 70's stuff shows up in the Western Ranch Outfitters thread: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/western-ranch-outfitters-stockmens-catalogs.51482/

So.... Hats of that era were sold open crown, i.e., un-creased, then creased to the wearer's preference. You can do it yourself, no shop required. Most typically, the Homburg has a center crease and no dents. I have one with just a center dent, and another with an added pinch.

Been watching the 2nd season of 1923, Alexandra has just arrived in New York, she hops in a cab and they cut to this shot (pardon the pic of my TV): Well I know that sign, and that is San Antonio. Pretty neat to see the period cars out front of Paris Hatters though.

Why is my explanation less logical than yours? Please, detail the evidence as to why it is more likely that the whole hat was manufactured rather than just the sweatband. If you can't show that your claim is more likely than mine, we should not consider it as such. Both are possible explanations...

Not really, no. As long as we are wildly theorizing, it's equally possible Stetson sold components. Add me to the skeptics list. There certainly are things accepted as general wisdom without 100% verifiable proof, but there's not enough here for me to say that this is one of them. More...

Still contemplating what the finished product will be, but I am a sucker for a sale, so I grabbed a FEPSA 100x rabbit felt in black cherry from Pure Beaver. I missed out on ebony, which would have been my first choice, but also had never picked up the 'new' black cherry (although that was really...