French Hats and makers.

[Steve1857]

Sools Fifth Avenue fedora in a grey colour called Flandres. Size 56 with the raw edge brim at 6,5cm and the crown at 10cm at the center dent. Not sure who made this one. The size label is Flëchet, but the label under the sweatband is Sools. Nice hand to the felt and good proportions with a nice squarish crown on this one. Weighs 117 grams. Couldn't leave it for the price. I've got one of these in black as well.

Nice Sools / Fléchet find, Stefan.

You can never walk away from that combination, almost no matter the price.

 

[steur]

Nice Sools / Fléchet find, Stefan.

You can never walk away from that combination, almost no matter the price.

My thoughts exactly. Thank you, Steve,

 

[batankyu]

On Sun 13 Jul 2025, I purchased 2 vintage hats: a bowler and a damaged silk top hat at a garage sale in Périers, Normandie, for 18 euros each. Here is the bowler...

Outside, top view:

Outside, front view:

Outside, rear view:

Outside, left side view:

Outside, right side view:

Inside, general view with brim:

The hat got more than 1 owner and the last one had a head smaller than the size of the hat. He stuffed folded paper and newspaper behind the sweatband. I found nothing else behind this sweatband.

Inside, front view, where the sweatband got stains from what I assume to be dried sweat:

Inside, rear view, with knot and and size label "5 1/2 - 58"

Inside, left side view:

Inside, right side view, with owner's initials "VG" and acronym "DGC" embossed on sweatband:

Inside, right side view, zoom on owner initial "VG" and embossed acronym "DGC":

Inside, inner lining:

Inside, inner lining, zoom on logo showing lion with scepter and 4 medals, with inscriptions: "QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE", "CES PLUS HAUTES RÉCOMPENSES", "1887 TOULOUSE", "1894 LYON", intertwined letters "GF" or "FG", "MARQUE DÉPOSÉE", "PARIS".

On me, left side view:

On me, 3/4 left side view:

On me, face view:

On me, 3/4 right side view:

On me, right side view:

Part of the filler behind the sweatband was made of two shredded fragments of the same newspaper page.

The two fragments of newspaper, side by side, recto and verso:

In order to discover the identity and date of the newspaper, we first notice that an article on the recto mentions that the french philosopher Alain just got his literary prize "Grand Prix National des Lettres" on May 10th 1951. Since Alain died 3 weeks later on June 2nd 1951 and there's no mention of this event, this gives a narrow range for the date of publication. Just above, the signature of Maurice Brillant allows ChatGPT to list a handful candidates for newspapers titles including the catholic daily "La Croix". The name of "Luc Estang" shows in the body of the column framed in gray on the verso: the guy was the literary director of "La Croix" from 1940 to 1955, which leads to this title. Manually browsing all the scanned pages of all the editions of this title between May 10th and June 2nd 1951 on BNF Galica finally points to pages 3 and 4 of "La Croix" of Sunday May 13th 1951:

BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 3
BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 4

Assuming the hat is older the newspaper used as filler by the last owner of the hat, I conclude that May 1951 is an upper bound for the date of the hat.

 

[Steve1857]

On Sun 13 Jul 2025, I purchased 2 vintage hats: a bowler and a damaged silk top hat at a garage sale in Périers, Normandie, for 18 euros each. Here is the bowler...

Outside, top view:

Outside, front view:

Outside, rear view:

Outside, left side view:

Outside, right side view:

Inside, general view with brim:

The hat got more than 1 owner and the last one had a head smaller than the size of the hat. He stuffed folded paper and newspaper behind the sweatband. I found nothing else behind this sweatband.

Inside, front view, where the sweatband got stains from what I assume to be dried sweat:

Inside, rear view, with knot and and size label "5 1/2 - 58"

Inside, left side view:

Inside, right side view, with owner's initials "VG" and acronym "DGC" embossed on sweatband:

Inside, right side view, zoom on owner initial "VG" and embossed acronym "DGC":

Inside, inner lining:

Inside, inner lining, zoom on logo showing lion with scepter and 4 medals, with inscriptions: "QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE", "CES PLUS HAUTES RÉCOMPENSES", "1887 TOULOUSE", "1894 LYON", intertwined letters "GF" or "FG", "MARQUE DÉPOSÉE", "PARIS".

On me, left side view:

On me, 3/4 left side view:

On me, face view:

On me, 3/4 right side view:

On me, right side view:

Part of the filler behind the sweatband was made of two shredded fragments of the same newspaper page.

The two fragments of newspaper, side by side, recto and verso:

In order to discover the identity and date of the newspaper, we first notice that an article on the recto mentions that the french philosopher Alain just got his literary prize "Grand Prix National des Lettres" on May 10th 1951. Since Alain died 3 weeks later on June 2nd 1951 and there's no mention of this event, this gives a narrow range for the date of publication. Just above, the signature of Maurice Brillant allows ChatGPT to list a handful candidates for newspapers titles including the catholic daily "La Croix". The name of "Luc Estang" shows in the body of the column framed in gray on the verso: the guy was the literary director of "La Croix" from 1940 to 1955, which leads to this title. Manually browsing all the scanned pages of all the editions of this title between May 10th and June 2nd 1951 on BNF Galica finally points to pages 3 and 4 of "La Croix" of Sunday May 13th 1951:

BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 3
BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 4

Assuming the hat is older the newspaper used as filler by the last owner of the hat, I conclude that May 1951 is an upper bound for the date of the hat.

That's a really nice find, and a bargain at €18. Congrats!

Can we see the damaged Topper?

 

[batankyu]

That's a really nice find, and a bargain at €18. Congrats!

Can we see the damaged Topper?

It's a black silk top hat with a cracks mid-height inside the cylinder, which are visible outside.
The plush is worn on the brim and there are moth holes beneath.
The sweatband is disconnected from the brim at two points on front left on about 2 cm and 4 cm near moth holes.

The only inscription is the hat shop and its location: "Erbs, 5 & 10 R. du Commerce, Cherbourg".
It's the same shop location as for the Priola Homburg I posted in "Homburg Nation" last year:
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/homburg-nation.35848/page-193#post-3115685

Dimensions:
- Cylinder height: 13.50 cm
- Ribbon height: 3.50 cm
- Crown top diameters: 19.5 cm long, 16.5 cm large
- Head opening diameters: 19 cm long, 16 cm large
- Brim width: 4 cm for sides, 4.75 cm for rear and front
- Brim height difference: side is about about 2.75 cm above rear and front
- Brim binding width: 1.25 cm on top of curly sides, 1.50 cm below flat rear and front
- Sweatband height: 6 cm

Outside front view, with plush worn on brim.

Outside rear view, with plush worn on brim.

Outside left side view.

Outside right side view.

Outside top view.

Inside general view, showing bottom of brim with moth holes, and disconnection of sweatband from brim on 4cm and 2cm at front left.

Inside, front view, with little ribbon loop (purpose unknown to me).

Inside, rear view with ribbon knot.

Inside, left side showing most of structural damage on cylinder and brown stain.

Inside, right side view, part of sweatband is unglued on both sides at top.

Inside view, owner initials "CP" and shop logo.

Inside view, focus on shop logo: : "Erbs", "5 & 10 R. du Commerce", "CHERBOURG".

On owner, left side view.

On owner, 3/4 left side view.

On owner, face view.

On owner, 3/4 right side view.

On owner, right side view.

 

[batankyu]

I purchased this Fléchet "Pilote impérméable" greenish felt fedora for 2 euros at a garage sale in Montmartin-sur-mer, Normandie, on Sun 10 Aug 2025. There's no inner lining. The brown sweatband indicates on the right side that the hat shop was "Chapellerie Dubois" in Caen. The back of the sweatband has numbers "59360" or "5936C" stamped 3 times on the left side, as well as a rectangular tag with inscriptions: "FLÉCHET", "Ordre n° 3805.02", "Réf 2.0883", "Qté PILOTE UD", "Nce BUGEY". No clue what "UD" and "BUGEY mean. The size tag at the back near the white knot indicates "56 - 4 1/2", which is a bit narrow for my head.

Outside front view.

Outside front left view.

Outside left side view.

Outside 3/4 rear left view.

Outside rear view.

Outside 3/4 rear right view.

Outside right side view.

Outside 3/4 front right view.

Outside, top view.

Inside, general view.

Inside, front view.

Inside, left side view.

Inside, right side view.

Inside, rear view.

Inside, logo with a gold crown, a laurel with 2 wheat stalks, a red blazon split in 3 with maybe 3 hats inside.
Text says: "FLÉCHET", "QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE", "Fabriquée en France", "depuis 1859".

Sweatband front with text "PILOTE IMPERMÉABLE".

Sweatband left side with text "FLÉCHET", "MADE IN FRANCE".

Sweatband right side with text: "Chapellerie DUBOIS", "CAEN".

White knot at the back, with size tag "56", "4 1/2".

 

[batankyu]

(Tag and hat on owner in this post because of the 20 pictures limit per post.)

Sweatband turned inside out reveals command tag and stamped numbers on the right side.

Stamped numbers repeated 3 times at the back of sweatband right side.

Stamped numbers are all "59360" (or maybe "5936C" ?).

Command tag at the back of sweatband left side says: "FLÉCHET", "Ordre n° 3805.02", "Réf 2.0883", "Qté PILOTE UD", "Nce BUGEY".

On owner, left side view:

On owner, 3/4 front left side view:

On owner, front view:

On owner, 3/4 front right side view:

On owner, right side view:

 

[Steve1857]

I purchased this Fléchet "Pilote impérméable" greenish felt fedora for 2 euros at a garage sale in Montmartin-sur-mer, Normandie, on Sun 10 Aug 2025. There's no inner lining. The brown sweatband indicates on the right side that the hat shop was "Chapellerie Dubois" in Caen. The back of the sweatband has numbers "59360" or "5936C" stamped 3 times on the left side, as well as a rectangular tag with inscriptions: "FLÉCHET", "Ordre n° 3805.02", "Réf 2.0883", "Qté PILOTE UD", "Nce BUGEY". No clue what "UD" and "BUGEY mean. The size tag at the back near the white knot indicates "56 - 4 1/2", which is a bit narrow for my head.

Outside front view.

Outside front left view.

Outside left side view.

Outside 3/4 rear left view.

Outside rear view.

Outside 3/4 rear right view.
[

https://imgur.com/Zn4QPj0

]

Outside right side view.

https://imgur.com/gmTNjMD

Outside 3/4 front right view.
[URL]https://i.imgur.com/wcXhNkV.jpeg[/URL]

Outside, top view.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/J4rVv43.jpeg

Inside, general view.

Inside, front view.

Inside, left side view.

Inside, right side view.

Inside, rear view.

Inside, logo with a gold crown, a laurel with 2 wheat stalks, a red blazon split in 3 with maybe 3 hats inside.
Text says: "FLÉCHET", "QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE", "Fabriquée en France", "depuis 1859".

Sweatband front with text "PILOTE IMPERMÉABLE".

Sweatband left side with text "FLÉCHET", "MADE IN FRANCE".

Sweatband right side with text: "Chapellerie DUBOIS", "CAEN".

White knot at the back, with size tag "56", "4 1/2".

Nice find at such a cheap price. It is quite a small one.

 

[Evgenii]

Hi, Loungers
It is honoured for me to start my decent post with this lovely french hat, Tirard!
I bought it from french seller in Ebay and I tell you, it is absolutely worth to have it.

Even I like the detail how they bond the ribbon
It gives a hat cool vibe and somewhat casual as it is thin compare to other formal hat.

First time I got it, originally it was way more lower than now and for my shape type, it fits not very well. So I reshaped it as high pinched teardrop.

Furthermore, there is a significant thing why I love this hat, is because it is made out of nutria fur. As many of members in the lounge had pointed out, a word Ragondia is came from a french word ragondin, which means nutria in english. Our dear friend Stephen has taught me that it was top of the top of Tirard during the past.
And so it is! I like how it feels and it holds its shape against the rain surprisingly!

For a word P.A.M Paris, I have no idea whether it's deparment store or a hat shop as I couldn't find its information but it adds an originality for this hat

Here in South Korea, getting a proper vintage hat is quite hard compare to Europe or to U.S. Despite the fact that weather changing is quite extreme, it seems most people does not paying attention into hat that much. From my personal point of vue, it is indispensable

That's all for today! If there's a thing that I'd like to post, I would in near future.

Cheers!
LEE

 

[Pellie]

View attachment 724416

Hi, Loungers
It is honoured for me to start my decent post with this lovely french hat, Tirard!
I bought it from french seller in Ebay and I tell you, it is absolutely worth to have it.

View attachment 724417

Even I like the detail how they bond the ribbon
It gives a hat cool vibe and somewhat casual as it is thin compare to other formal hat.

View attachment 724418

First time I got it, originally it was way more lower than now and for my shape type, it fits not very well. So I reshaped it as high pinched teardrop.

View attachment 724419 View attachment 724420 View attachment 724421 View attachment 724422

Furthermore, there is a significant thing why I love this hat, is because it is made out of nutria fur. As many of members in the lounge had pointed out, a word Ragondia is came from a french word ragondin, which means nutria in english. Our dear friend Stephen has taught me that it was top of the top of Tirard during the past.
And so it is! I like how it feels and it holds its shape against the rain surprisingly!

For a word P.A.M Paris, I have no idea whether it's deparment store or a hat shop as I couldn't find its information but it adds an originality for this hat

Here in South Korea, getting a proper vintage hat is quite hard compare to Europe or to U.S. Despite the fact that weather changing is quite extreme, it seems most people does not paying attention into hat that much. From my personal point of vue, it is indispensable

That's all for today! If there's a thing that I'd like to post, I would in near future.

Cheers!
LEE

Nice, nothing beats a good french hat. Congrats!

 

[batankyu]

For a word P.A.M Paris, I have no idea whether it's deparment store or a hat shop as I couldn't find its information but it adds an originality for this hat

I think the first initial is a cursive calligraphic uppercase "S", not a "P".
Hence the word would be "S.A.M", not "P.A.M".
In comparison, we can see the cursive "P" in the word "Paris".

 

[Evgenii]

Nice, nothing beats a good french hat. Congrats!

Sure they are!
They are not widely known as another hat maker but always surprising quality indeed!

 

[Evgenii]

I think the first initial is a cursive calligraphic uppercase "S", not a "P".
Hence the word would be "S.A.M", not "P.A.M".
In comparison, we can see the cursive "P" in the word "Paris".

Thank you for your correction! I'm not familiar with calligraphic letter in french, so I must've mistook
Although, it is still mystery to me it stands for which magasin

 

[steur]

View attachment 724416

Hi, Loungers
It is honoured for me to start my decent post with this lovely french hat, Tirard!
I bought it from french seller in Ebay and I tell you, it is absolutely worth to have it.

View attachment 724417

Even I like the detail how they bond the ribbon
It gives a hat cool vibe and somewhat casual as it is thin compare to other formal hat.

View attachment 724418

First time I got it, originally it was way more lower than now and for my shape type, it fits not very well. So I reshaped it as high pinched teardrop.

View attachment 724419 View attachment 724420 View attachment 724421 View attachment 724422

Furthermore, there is a significant thing why I love this hat, is because it is made out of nutria fur. As many of members in the lounge had pointed out, a word Ragondia is came from a french word ragondin, which means nutria in english. Our dear friend Stephen has taught me that it was top of the top of Tirard during the past.
And so it is! I like how it feels and it holds its shape against the rain surprisingly!

For a word P.A.M Paris, I have no idea whether it's deparment store or a hat shop as I couldn't find its information but it adds an originality for this hat

Here in South Korea, getting a proper vintage hat is quite hard compare to Europe or to U.S. Despite the fact that weather changing is quite extreme, it seems most people does not paying attention into hat that much. From my personal point of vue, it is indispensable

That's all for today! If there's a thing that I'd like to post, I would in near future.

Cheers!
LEE

Cool find. Especially tough at such a large size. Tirard certainly knew how to make a hat.

 

[Pellie]

Morreton Prélude homburg black.
100% mint condition.

 

[Evgenii]

Morreton Prélude homburg black.
100% mint condition.
View attachment 725411 View attachment 725412 View attachment 725413 View attachment 725414 View attachment 725415 View attachment 725416 View attachment 725417 View attachment 725418 View attachment 725419 View attachment 725420

Outstanding! Especially I love the curl of classic homburg look
Wondering does Prelude grade of Morreton refers to which quality? Obviously, there would be a rabbit fur in it but any other ingridents could be into it?

 

[Pellie]

Outstanding! Especially I love the curl of classic homburg look
Wondering does Prelude grade of Morreton refers to which quality? Obviously, there would be a rabbit fur in it but any other ingridents could be into it?

Thanks. I'm not sure where Prélude stands for, but i think it's a grade of quality. Not sure if this one is rabbit or beaver or a blend.

 

[jeffgarf]

Mid-to-late 1960s (?) Fléchet for Pierre Cardin. The brim is 2-1/2” at the back and 3-5/8” at the front with a 5-1/4” open crown. 1-1/4” felt ribbon and 5/8” grosgrain binding.

Very nice felt, but I want to push the crown to the center of the brim for some reason.

View attachment 597264

View attachment 597265

View attachment 597266

View attachment 597267

View attachment 597268

View attachment 597269

View attachment 597270

View attachment 597271

View attachment 597272

Photo from 1966. Pierre Cardin is seated second from right. At a size 7-1/8 you 7-1/4 guys might want to take that into account if you want to wear this “properly “.

View attachment 597273

Strangely enough, once the Pierre Cardin name was sold, like all of the other designers of that and earlier eras, his name began to appear all over the place, including in black fedoras, marketed, at least, to the Orthodox Jewish community. I have friends with them and even sold off one I was given recently. Probably made in Hungary.

I have a rule, however, when you have a chance to own "Toots" Fierstein's hat, you jump at the chance. Turns out, its an original like @BobHufford 's and the one shown above. It had been beaten within an inch of its life, but here it is now.



P.S. "Toots" was apparently an Insurance guy from Jersey. No info on any relation to Harvey.

 

[Rmccamey]

A very nice, old bowler with an exceptional liner - good catch! It's a bit hard to tell from the camera angles but it does not look like it has the deep flange, or cup, on the side brims associated with most bowlers. Based on the style of the size tag, and the drawstring and ****-joint sweatband, I'd say that is possibly a pre-WW II hat, maybe even into the 30's.

On Sun 13 Jul 2025, I purchased 2 vintage hats: a bowler and a damaged silk top hat at a garage sale in Périers, Normandie, for 18 euros each. Here is the bowler...

Outside, top view:

Outside, front view:

Outside, rear view:

Outside, left side view:

Outside, right side view:

Inside, general view with brim:

The hat got more than 1 owner and the last one had a head smaller than the size of the hat. He stuffed folded paper and newspaper behind the sweatband. I found nothing else behind this sweatband.

Inside, front view, where the sweatband got stains from what I assume to be dried sweat:

Inside, rear view, with knot and and size label "5 1/2 - 58"

Inside, left side view:

Inside, right side view, with owner's initials "VG" and acronym "DGC" embossed on sweatband:

Inside, right side view, zoom on owner initial "VG" and embossed acronym "DGC":

Inside, inner lining:

Inside, inner lining, zoom on logo showing lion with scepter and 4 medals, with inscriptions: "QUALITÉ SUPÉRIEURE", "CES PLUS HAUTES RÉCOMPENSES", "1887 TOULOUSE", "1894 LYON", intertwined letters "GF" or "FG", "MARQUE DÉPOSÉE", "PARIS".

On me, left side view:

On me, 3/4 left side view:

On me, face view:

On me, 3/4 right side view:

On me, right side view:

Part of the filler behind the sweatband was made of two shredded fragments of the same newspaper page.

The two fragments of newspaper, side by side, recto and verso:

In order to discover the identity and date of the newspaper, we first notice that an article on the recto mentions that the french philosopher Alain just got his literary prize "Grand Prix National des Lettres" on May 10th 1951. Since Alain died 3 weeks later on June 2nd 1951 and there's no mention of this event, this gives a narrow range for the date of publication. Just above, the signature of Maurice Brillant allows ChatGPT to list a handful candidates for newspapers titles including the catholic daily "La Croix". The name of "Luc Estang" shows in the body of the column framed in gray on the verso: the guy was the literary director of "La Croix" from 1940 to 1955, which leads to this title. Manually browsing all the scanned pages of all the editions of this title between May 10th and June 2nd 1951 on BNF Galica finally points to pages 3 and 4 of "La Croix" of Sunday May 13th 1951:

BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 3
BNF Gallica: La Croix, Dimanche 13 Mai 1951, page 4

Assuming the hat is older the newspaper used as filler by the last owner of the hat, I conclude that May 1951 is an upper bound for the date of the hat.

 

[steur]

Morreton Prélude homburg black.
100% mint condition.
View attachment 725411 View attachment 725412 View attachment 725413 View attachment 725414 View attachment 725415 View attachment 725416 View attachment 725417 View attachment 725418 View attachment 725419 View attachment 725420

Very nice find, Marcel. Don't think I've seen a homburg by Morreton before.