Fancy dress only attitude gets me down.

charlie farley · May 28, 2008

I was searching for hat shops that might sell Fedoras in my country and kept coming across headings on the search engine that suggested that Fedoras are only ever worn as a fancy dress item mostly listed as "Gangster hats":rage: :rage: I myself got asked why I was dressed up like a gangster (everyone here wears anoraks) and I was only wearing a black overcoat. I'm fed up with the whole attitude to stylish dressing.We are expected to wear baseball caps even if we never play baseball (nobody does in Scotland) or wear trainer shoes when we never train for anything.Camouflage jackets or pants which are ridiculous in the centre of towns or cities. I also came across a posting in a mens health mag. that told someone who wanted to know what people thought of Fedoras and got the reply that every one would think he was a prat unles it was for...a fancy dress party shakeshead. He did however, say that he was just going to get a Fedora anyway. Good luck to him.I am not subscribed to that forum or I would have replied to tell him about the lounge.The posting was some time ago so I wonder how he got on.

RPeers · May 28, 2008

Be a trend setter, wear your fedora confidently and you most certainly won't look like a prat. If anyone says you look like a gangster tell them to watch their backs or they may end up swimming with the fishes.

grey ghost · May 29, 2008

here,,,,here.......

leather goloshes...............

Brian Sheridan · May 29, 2008

I can't stand that either. Gangster hats? Good day, sir. I said Good Day! People too often today need a easy to understand handle so they don't have to think too much.

HDRnR · May 29, 2008

It annoys me when a hat on Ebay is labelled as a gangster or gangsta hat...i won't bid on it.

fatwoul · May 29, 2008

HDRnR said:
It annoys me when a hat on Ebay is labelled as a gangster or gangsta hat...i won't bid on it.

Indeed. Even if it is a "proper" hat, a description like that makes it clear the seller doesn't know what they are selling, so I can't rely on them to give any other accurate details, let alone to check for moth bites or other damage.

Although most of the time, the listings for "gangster" hats prove to be for cheap wool felts, or (sure enough) plastic fancy dress hats.

Nolan · May 29, 2008

HDRnR said:
It annoys me when a hat on Ebay is labelled as a gangster or gangsta hat...i won't bid on it.

That and the description as an "Indiana Jones" style. You would think people never wore any of those styles before the movies were produced.

KY Gentleman · May 29, 2008

charlie farley said:
I myself got asked why I was dressed up like a gangster (everyone here wears anoraks) and I was only wearing a black overcoat. I'm fed up with the whole attitude to stylish dressing.We are expected to wear baseball caps even if we never play baseball (nobody does in Scotland) or wear trainer shoes when we never train for anything.Camouflage jackets or pants which are ridiculous in the centre of towns or cities.

I get amused seeing people with blue-tooth earpieces on apparently talking to themselves in public or the occasional person in form-fitting spandex and fedora hats draw attention!

Brinybay · May 29, 2008

HDRnR said:
It annoys me when a hat on Ebay is labelled as a gangster or gangsta hat...i won't bid on it.

"Gangster" is bad enough, but I really hate it when they say something like "Hey gangsta, wazzup?!" and give me that stupid two fingers gesture, (like a sideways V sign) whatever that's supposed to mean.

The fashion industry doesn't help matters either. I picked up the March 08 GQ issue because an article "Upgrade Your Style, 47 pages" caught my eye. In the entire magazine, (322 pages) only two pics of men in fedoras, both of them black, one with an angry expression on his face and a foxy lady in the background poised seductively, i.e. the "pimp" look.

Selentino · May 29, 2008

As a younger man I was asked to leave a club once because I was wearing a gangster hat. I was dressed in a very nice suit, french cuffs and a very nice Selentino Galaxy fedora, not cheap piece of clothing on my body. I told the doorman I was sorry that no one ever taught him to dress properly or how to distinguish a gentleman from a hood. I then asked to speak to the manager who apolgized and I enjoyed the rest of my eveing out. I've been fighting the good fight ever since. A proper hat can be worn casual or dress and used to be worn instead of baseball caps. It is not our fault that so many have lost their way.

tandmark · May 29, 2008

Hiya Charlie,

Welcome to the Fedora Lounge, by the way!

Wearing a Real Hat doesn't have to mean you're a gangster, or an Indiana Jones wannabe, or heading for a wedding or funeral. Or for that matter a costume fetishist who also wears spats or raccoon coats and always reties their authenticated 1927 or 1952 tie for an hour every day trying for that perfect 1927 or 1952 knot.

(Though for those Loungers who are in one of these categories when they wear their fedoras, hey, whatever floats your boat.

)

Where was I? Oh yeh - - - As recently as the 1950s, fedoras were universal items of working men's everyday clothing. I'll see if I can scrape up some photos for the thread to demonstrate this point.

I'm a blue collar worker myself, yet I rarely show up for work without wearing a fur felt fedora or porkpie. Why? Because I like the hats -- they're more interesting pieces of workmanship in and of themselves than a cheap trucker's cap. And because wearing a Real Hat is one of my ways of showing that we blue collar workers are perfectly capable of thinking for ourselves, even when it comes to clothing choices.

Cheers,
Mark

Phog Allen · May 29, 2008

It is a shame that society has almost completely dumbed itself down to the point of near ridicule of anyone who dares to dress even the slightest bit "upscale" . Even though my grandparents(parents too for that matter) were/are blue collar, they would have considered a suit and hat normal attire for any occasion that would have been out their daily routine, ie; church, attending a movie(yes youngsters even the movies), ANY time you would have went to a restaurant after six o'clock, or any job interview. Even for manual labour jobs. It was just considered polite. Yeah, I know. We all complain about it and it does no good. You just have to do your thing and not worry about it. I am particularly amused by the gangster references since most of them were thugs trying to look like normal society while in the public eye. Now we have people comparing us to the criminal element because we have the audacity to not dress like a slob when we go out at night. Truly ironic.

charlie farley · May 29, 2008

There is one encouraging thing though.I was just looking a few minutes ago at you tube and entered "fedoras" and read the comments to a video called "the story behind the fedora hat." A lot of the people commenting very favourably were youngsters, some only 15yrs old. I posted a reply to tell them about this forum (hope it got through ok).I feel much better about things now.The more youngsters wearing fedoras the better.

Thanks for the welcome, tandmark

"As recently as the 1950s, fedoras were universal items of working men's everyday clothing"

Yes, I'm sure I can remember seeing them when I was little in about 1959-early 1960s.

Big Man · May 29, 2008

Brinybay said:
"... and give me that stupid two fingers gesture, (like a sideways V sign) whatever that's supposed to mean ...

Just give them the "one finger gesture" in return.

Big Man · Jun 4, 2008

This photo should prove that a fedora isn't just for "dress" occasions. This is today's front page news story in our town. I'm the Operations Chief for our Fire/Rescue Department, and am in the center background of the newspaper picture (wearing my Art Fawcett fedora). We had established the command post in a search and recovery operation.

jamespowers · Jun 4, 2008

Big Man said:
This photo should prove that a fedora isn't just for "dress" occasions. This is today's front page news story in our town. I'm the Operations Chief for our Fire/Rescue Department, and am in the center background of the newspaper picture (wearing my Art Fawcett fedora). We had established the command post in a search and recovery operation.

:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap I think I could tell it was you without the arrow though. The best dressed man on the scene.

Jfala · Jun 4, 2008

From all of the stupid comments and strange looks you may get while wearing your hat(s), there will be that compliment that will just make you smile ear to ear. Last Saturday night my wife and I went to dinner and then the theater. I wore slacks, sportscoat, shirt w/French cuffs and my Stetson OR. As we left the restaurant there was a chauffeur waiting for his party who commented on my hat, "That is a very elegant hat!" I smiled and thanked him. Made the rest of my night better.

swisslet · Jun 4, 2008

I've been wearing my fedora around my town in the East Midlands for a little while now, and although one or two people have looked at me like I'm from the moon or something, I have had not one single adverse comment and no one has so much as mentioned Indiana Jones (which with the film out at the minute is probably something of a miracle). As has been said, wear it with confidence and I think that comes across.

Actually, my mum saw me in my hat a couple of weeks ago and was absolutely thrilled. Her father was a hat-wearer too, and I think it's stamped in her (and in my) DNA!

As for where to buy a good fedora.... I looked and looked for a bit, but a combination of a big head and apparently no proper hatters meant I ended up on hatsdirect and shipping in an Akubra FedIV from Australia. It took about a week to get here, but they were incredibly helpful and it was a really painless process.

ST

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