Best of Moderns that might compare to vintage

[mayserwegener]

http://www.polkap.pl/index-a.htm

I have stumbled by their website in the past. They are located about 80km east of TONAK (Nový Jičín, Czech Republic formally Hückel Neutitschein, Austria-Hungary).

 

[danofarlington]

The only two variables that matter to me are,

Durability: how long it takes for the felt to develope holes, ect.

and

Denseness: how much water can the hat take before it starts losing shape.

If the hat lasts a long time, and I can go out in the rain I'm happy.

After seeing men in hats standing in the heavy rain in the movies of the 40s and 50s, I used a vintage hat I had, rather thicker felt, in the rain. Once I purposely went into a downpour that lasted an hour or more with the hat on.

No problem with any part of the hat. Eventually a hole somewhere in the crown leaked water on my head, but it wasn't earlier than 30 minutes into the downpour. Afterward I put the hat upside down on a newspaper, let it dry, and it was the same as before.

With other hats I had a waving of the brim happen--for example to my Open Road and a Borsalino--but pressing the brim seemed easily done by my local hatter. No problem. Brims are easy to fix, apparently. I wouldn't go out in a downpour with my best hats, but it would probably be OK if you put them upside down and nothing touches them while they dry.

A problem you might get is shrinkage of the leather sweat band while the hat dries, which would be unfortunate, but that might be the extent of the real damage.