Recent content by Michael Mallory

When I was a kid in the late 50s and early 60s, I don't recall anyone other than me really interested in hats. In addition to John Kennedy, who eschewed hats, what really drove the stake through the haberdashery heart were the longer hairstyles of the 1960s. After the Beatles came in and young...

Deerstalkers (or, as they were more commonly known at the time, "fore-and-afts") are country wear, not city wear. A Londoner would no more wear one than he would don an Inverness cape. The famous Paget illustration showing Holmes on the train with his deerstalker and Inverness was depicting a...

I've come to like Milan straw a lot. I have a vintage Cavanagh, which I found almost by accident (and which is REALLY heavy), a Dobbs homburg, which is really great but not that versatile (but I got a fantastic deal on it), and my favorite of all, a Miller (Biltmore) fedora that is not A-list...

I never, ever leave home without a hat and for a very good reason: I am, alas, seriously folically challenged. In fact, I'm starting to make Bruce Willis look like Fabio. So I don't consider hats an affectation or a statement, I consider them a necessity. Some of my in-laws, who are all...

I can't speak to vintage, and I can't speak to Borsalino, but I have a recent (less than ten years old) Barbisio which is vastly superior than the majority of American hats of a similar age. Barbisios and Cervos are as good or better than Borsalinos (though I do believe there is some cross...

Stetson straws seem to be better than their felts these days -- and even the straws are iffy. I have one Stetson felt that I like, but I've also seen some that aren't worth dragging home. I think they're concentrating on cowboy hats these days, to the exclusion of all other styles.

I have a black fedora, but I don't think I will seek out any more, simply because they are so hard to keep clean.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale... I got an incredible, and incredibly unexpected deal today in the most unusual of places. There's a venerable toy store in Hollywood called the Hollywood Toy Store (boy, are the owners clever or what!) that has a large costume trade, including a...

I recommend the Village Hat Shop coconut porkpie. Definitely under $100, very smart looking, very Sam Snead. The only caveat is, if you order online, you don't have a choice in the band pattern (if you get it in person, you can choose). The bands are all plaid, but different sorts of plaids...

High grade Panamas are their own reward, though once they hit a certain price level -- generally in the four figures -- I'd be afraid to wear one outside. If I had a $1,500 hat (or higher) and the wind blew it off, I'd probably have a heart attack. In answer to your question, however, I...

Are you only interested in felt? If not, try to find a Scala Panama fedora. Scala these days is owned by Dorfman so their quality has slipped a bit, but if you can get an old one, you have a choice between a nice warm tan or natural, which is roughly khaki.

Mysterygal: I write murder mysteries, but rarely in the hardboiled genre. I do historicals set in Edwardian England. I am, however, coming out with an anthology this summer called "LAndmarked for Murder," which I co-edited (with Harley Jane Kozak and Nathan Walpow). I also write non-fiction...

For my sixth birthday I got a complete set of "Disneykins"...very small plastic figures of all the Disney characters, and also a set of plastic Presidents. Later I got a set of Hanna-Barbera figures, made (as were the Disneykins) by Marx Toys. I'm now in my fifties and all these tiny figures...

I'm Mike Mallory, and I'm one of the few people who didn't get the memo that you were supposed to conceal your identity here under a fake moniker. I'm a writer whose 13th book is coming out this October, and I've lived in greater Los Angeles for a quarter century. I'm a former newscaster and...

Wow, what a loaded question! I guess if I had to pinpoint the things I'm passionate about (meaning, the things that causes mass eye-rolling whenever I start to discourse, because people know what's coming), they would be a) words, and b) film. Words are my life and my livelihood -- I'm a...