Christy's of London

[M Hatman]

View attachment 164732 View attachment 164733 View attachment 164734 View attachment 164735 View attachment 164736 View attachment 164737 View attachment 164738 View attachment 164739 View attachment 164740 View attachment 164741

I agree with those above!! Simply wonderful find!!!

 

[ItsKarl]

A recent arrival: Christys’ black trilby. The crown is approximately 5 1/8” open and it has considerable taper. The brim is 2 3/8” but the whole vibe of the hat is more of a stingy brim. The brim has lots of cupping and obviously came off an aggressive flange. The felt is average; not terrible, but nothing special. The crown shape has been pressed in and it would take some effort to remove the factory crease. The felt is reasonably dense and not the spongy stuff I dislike so much. The sweat appears to be full-grain leather and while not particularly supple, it looks to be aging well. It’s also brown and lacks the gold stripe both of which I like. The liner is glued in via a continuous glue bead around the entire inside perimeter. The ribbon work is about what you’d expect of an entry level fur felt hat: not great, but mostly functional. There aren’t any labels or markings behind the sweat. While not a feather fan, the one they chose is small and dark and matches the vibe of the hat.

My biggest complaint is the sizing. It’s a 61 cm, 7 1/2 UK, 7 5/8 US. Sounds great for my 7 5/8 US head, but it fits me more like a 7 1/2 US, and not a generous 7 1/2 either. The ribbon doesn’t show any signs that the hat has shrunk and I’m assuming that the blocking was just on the small side.

As it doesn’t fit me, I’ll be looking to move this on to a new home. If you’re a 7 1/2 or a big 7 3/8 send me a PM.

What year is this hat from? I ask because the plastic top in the liner does not suggests vintage, but the faded writing on the sweatband suggests a little bit of use. And I also ask because I now have three Christys, all ordered directly from them this year, and none of them have plastic in the liner. I have a bowler, a homburg and a fedora, and they all have the same red liner.

Actually, the fedora was listed as a trilby (the County Down Brim Trilby), but with a 6,5 cm brim I say it's a fedora.
The felt in the homburg is very soft; the felt in the County feels about the same as that of the Akubra Stylemaster I just acquired - though the brim of the County is remarkably stiff. So stiff that I didn't dare snap it at first (it arrived with the brim down all around). I can snap the back, and it'll look good. If I try to snap the front, however, it'll just snap right back down.

.

I'm new in hats, so I ordered four hats (almost) in one go. I don't know how to distinguish good quality from bad yet, so I can't say that the ribbon work on my Christys (a common complaint against new hats of this brand, from what I can tell on these boards) are appreciably better or worse than that of my Stylemaster. The main complaint I have is all my Christys have synthetic leather sweatbands, which again suggests that your fedora is perhaps not among their most recent models.

I haven't had the chance to test my hats in anything more than a drizzle and tiny bits of snow, and so far it's nothing that has had any effect. I'm mostly curious how my County will stand up. I did see the pictures off E-bay of a County being sold, and it had a horrendously warped brim and battered crown (did not appear to have shrunk, though). It looked like the owner had purposefully tried to make it look like Greengrass's hat in Heartbeat, and I hope that's the explanation - and not that rain alone made it like that.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

What year is this hat from? I ask because the plastic top in the liner does not suggests vintage, but the faded writing on the sweatband suggests a little bit of use. And I also ask because I now have three Christys, all ordered directly from them this year, and none of them have plastic in the liner. I have a bowler, a homburg and a fedora, and they all have the same red liner.

Actually, the fedora was listed as a trilby (the County Down Brim Trilby), but with a 6,5 cm brim I say it's a fedora.
The felt in the homburg is very soft; the felt in the County feels about the same as that of the Akubra Stylemaster I just acquired - though the brim of the County is remarkably stiff. So stiff that I didn't dare snap it at first (it arrived with the brim down all around). I can snap the back, and it'll look good. If I try to snap the front, however, it'll just snap right back down.

.

I'm new in hats, so I ordered four hats (almost) in one go. I don't know how to distinguish good quality from bad yet, so I can't say that the ribbon work on my Christys (a common complaint against new hats of this brand, from what I can tell on these boards) are appreciably better or worse than that of my Stylemaster. The main complaint I have is all my Christys have synthetic leather sweatbands, which again suggests that your fedora is perhaps not among their most recent models.

I haven't had the chance to test my hats in anything more than a drizzle and tiny bits of snow, and so far it's nothing that has had any effect. I'm mostly curious how my County will stand up. I did see the pictures off E-bay of a County being sold, and it had a horrendously warped brim and battered crown (did not appear to have shrunk, though). It looked like the owner had purposefully tried to make it look like Greengrass's hat in Heartbeat, and I hope that's the explanation - and not that rain alone made it like that.

Hello Karl. This was only my second Christys’ so I don’t claim any expertise in them. I’d guess this hat was a modern product made within the last decade or two.

The UK uses the word “trilby” the same as we use the word “fedora.” In The US a trilby is most often a stingy brim and usually a hat of all around smaller dimensions. Not so in the UK; although, they are using the word fedora more over there now than in past decades.

Christys’ has been around a long time and the have sold hats in many price points and quality levels. My foldaway by Christys’ is a nice hat for what it is. My preference for taller crowns with minimal taper, wider (6.5cm at a minimum) brims, and better build quality means I’m looking for older (1900-1960s...preferably 1950s) hats. If I was going to buy a new factory made fedora I don’t think I’d consider Christys’, but that’s just me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Zoukatron]

Karl, the brim of the County is not actually supposed to be snappable. It is supposed to be stiff like a Western or country hat, but Christy's do not otherwise have a suitable section on their website for it. The trilby designation is really not accurate for it.

 

[M Hatman]

Circa 1910 23 pages

More Here: https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/hatters-cleaners-and-dyers.99090/post-3009358

 

[Rmccamey]

Oh look, I knew we all had one hat of that same model

I suppose the term Mashie is just a little more refined than Beater!

 

[M Hatman]

Oh look, I knew we all had one hat of that same model

I suppose the term Mashie is just a little more refined than Beater!

View attachment 518437

Yes just like the torn jeans still sold today, "we beat up your hat so you don't have to".