Hat Bashing/Creasing Variety

rlk · Mar 16, 2009

This is not a criticism but simply an observation, please do not take it as such. To each his own style and if you're happy with your hat that's great. I see a lot of hats of assorted styles and vintages from Stingy Brim to Western being
refashioned to resemble the Raiders of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones Hat. If you are content no problem, but perhaps one should consider one of the numerous other ways the hat can be shaped and discover it may suit you or the hat even better and result in a more personal style.

Dewhurst · Mar 16, 2009

You have to remember that a lot of people on these boards and other hat forums got in to hats directly as a result of Indiana Jones and his hat.

I think it is unfortunate, but it is the truth.

MattJH · Mar 16, 2009

rlk said:
This is not a criticism but simply an observation, please do not take it as such. To each his own style and if you're happy with your hat that's great. I see a lot of hats of assorted styles and vintages from Stingy Brim to Western being refashioned to resemble the Raiders of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones Hat. If you are content no problem, but perhaps one should consider one of the numerous other ways the hat can be shaped and discover it may suit you or the hat even better and result in a more personal style.

You do realize that there is a stickied thread illustrating all different types of creases and that the folks who choose, intentionally, to emulate the look of Indiana Jones are well aware that it exists, right?

rlk · Mar 16, 2009

Dewhurst said:
You have to remember that a lot of people on these boards and other hat forums got in to hats directly as a result of Indiana Jones and his hat.

I think it is unfortunate, but it is the truth.

You are certainly correct and Indiana Jones has been great for hats. However, we don't all look like Harrison Ford and most hats aren't Outback-type Fedoras(chose your own descriptive term).

HarpPlayerGene · Mar 16, 2009

Keep comin' around, rlk. And reading, and viewing,... and learning.

jpbales · Mar 16, 2009

Indiana Jones' hat isn't really even an outback type, it's just a typical fedora for the time period, but beat up a little.

rlk · Mar 16, 2009

MattJH said:
You do realize that there is a stickied thread illustrating all different types of creases and that the folks who choose, intentionally, to emulate the look of Indiana Jones are well aware that it exists, right?

You are free to do whatever makes you happy. The point is about openness and individuality. Indiana Jones is a great starting point, or only point. I'm not sure people look at that thread or actually give the other options a try. They may place the alternatives on their head and be happily surprised.

xigxag · Mar 16, 2009

rlk said:
You are free to do whatever makes you happy. The point is about openness and individuality. Indiana Jones is a great starting point, or only point. I'm not sure people look at that thread or actually give the other options a try. They may place the alternatives on their head and be happily surprised.

Here is a thread dedicated to non Indy Federation
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=36593&highlight=non+indy+federation

rlk · Mar 16, 2009

jpbales said:
Indiana Jones' hat isn't really even an outback type, it's just a typical fedora for the time period, but beat up a little.

Now this may bother some. First, its the costume designers idea of a period hat and has no obligation to look like anything in particular. In Movies and Plays some exaggeration may play better than subtlety. Its a wonderful iconic hat. Even Indiana Jones hats vary considerably from Movie to Movie and even scene to scene. The ultra high tight pinch only seen in Raiders... is certainly not typical(not extraordinarily rare either)of any period. Your own personal hat also has no obligation to be historically correct to its original period if vintage and you can do with it what you will. I'm just saying maybe try something else and see if you like it.

Lefty · Mar 16, 2009

This topic is beyond played out. We've had quite a few threads on the pervasiveness, accuracy of style, and everything else Indy-hat related.

Run a search. None of this is new.

rlk · Mar 16, 2009

xigxag said:
Here is a thread dedicated to non Indy Federation
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=36593&highlight=non+indy+federation

Thats great stuff, but I'm also speaking of hats whose body proportions,ribbons
etc. don't always look their best with a Raiders bash. And now I'll be quiet.

kiltie · Mar 16, 2009

Woodfluter · Mar 16, 2009

Oh Kiltie, you can't fool me...you just took your Indy hats and dyed them different colors, put different ribbons on them, creased them differently...I bet they're all made of felt! Not like those genuine oiled canvas Indy hats I've seen online.

Seriously, I think RLK's point is that folks should have an open mind. Possibly prompted by observation that a lot of us (me included) prefer (not exclusively) straight-sided, high-crowned hats with a center crease. Whether that makes them "Indy" seems to lie in the eye of the beholder.

I like variety too, and if you look around the lounge RLK, you'll find a lot of good pics of folks wearing porkpies, diamonds, c-crowns...not to mention cowboy styles and derbys and homburgs. And looking very sharp on their distinctively different noggins. I think there's quite a range of viewpoints, actually...keep looking...

- Bill

Daoud · Mar 17, 2009

`If everybody minded their own business,' the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, `the world would go round a deal faster than it does.'

-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Pilgrim · Mar 17, 2009

I must disagree with the basic premise of this thread.

Just because a hat has a brim snapped down in front, a sharp pinch and something vaguely resembling a C-crown, that does NOT make it an "indiana Jones hat." What it makes it is nothing more nor less than a conventional fedora hat with a bash typical of those work for 30+ years by males all over the world. And that hat style (the fedora) was named for a character in a play staged in the late 1800's - and a female character at that.

Calling such a generic style an Indiana Jones hat reflects more on limitations in the commentator's viewpoint than any fact which is conveyed. If that's Rik's primary context for a hat work in that style, perhaps more perusal of old movies would help broaden said viewpoint. It's probably most accurately called a fedora, and that's the generic name for the style worn by the movie character and millions of men worldwide.

Otherwise,it would be Rik's job to explain why Jimmy Stewart wore an Indiana Jones hat in most of the (non-western) movies he made - decades before the first Indiana Jones picture was made.

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And BTW - I agree with Rik that we're all free to select the style of bash we wear, and variety is nice. That's why I have a number of Open roads that are worn in Cattlemen's bash style, and a couple worn with the Cattleman's crown but a snapped down front brim. But when it comes to fedoras, I have a bash I prefer - and that's what I wear.

Dinerman · Mar 17, 2009

Hat Creases thread

scottyrocks · Mar 17, 2009

Pilgrim said:
I must disagree with the basic premise of this thread.

Just because a hat has a brim snapped down in front, a sharp pinch and something vaguely resembling a C-crown, that does NOT make it an "indiana Jones hat." What it makes it is nothing more nor less than a conventional fedora hat with a bash typical of those work for 30+ years by males all over the world. And that hat style (the fedora) was named for a character in a play staged in the late 1800's - and a female character at that.

Calling such a generic style an Indiana Jones hat reflects more on limitations in the commentator's viewpoint than any fact which is conveyed. If that's Rik's primary context for a hat work in that style, perhaps more perusal of old movies would help broaden said viewpoint. It's probably most accurately called a fedora, and that's the generic name for the style worn by the movie character and millions of men worldwide.

Otherwise,it would be Rik's job to explain why Jimmy Stewart wore an Indiana Jones hat in most of the (non-western) movies he made - decades before the first Indiana Jones picture was made.
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And BTW - I agree with Rik that we're all free to select the style of bash we wear, and variety is nice. That's why I have a number of Open roads that are worn in Cattlemen's bash style, and a couple worn with the Cattleman's crown but a snapped down front brim. But when it comes to fedoras, I have a bash I prefer - and that's what I wear.

Would that be another way of saying that a person could possibly be annoyed that a contemporary fictional hero has dominated the fedora sub-culture for the last 27 years?

I love hats. Always have. I loved, when I was a kid, watching what guys like Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, Robert Mitchum, et al, wore on their heads from the 1930s through the 50s.

But who knew, when they walked into Herbert Johnson's shop and discovered the Poet, that this hat, by gracing the head of what would become an iconic character, would define men's headwear for decades? I've watched the first movie hundreds of times, and the sight of THE HAT still thrills me every time, I'm sorry.

My Fed IV will unapologetically have an Indy bash. I wouldnt have it any other way.

Pilgrim · Mar 17, 2009

scottyrocks said:
Would that be another way of saying that a person could possibly be annoyed that a contemporary fictional hero has dominated the fedora sub-culture for the last 27 years?

Well, personally I'm not annoyed at the influence that the movies have had - I think hats are a nice item of personal style that is also functional.

I guess I'm amused and piqued that someone would frame the whole history of the fedora as "Indiana Jones hats"...when that is very much a johnny-come-lately in the timeline.

'Tain't the case, McGee.

Not-Bogart13 · Mar 17, 2009

Let it just be said that, although Indy's hat influences many hat wearers today; the hat wearers prior to 1980 influenced Indy's hat. Therefore, a nice hat is a nice hat, and a reflection of better days in fashion. That is all that should matter.

Lefty · Mar 17, 2009

I'm no Indy hat fan, but don't think that it's just a little blip on the hat map. In Debbie Henderson's book Hat Talk, she interviews a former Stetson exec. who says that he thinks the Indy hats had overtaken the Open Road as the best selling model Stetson ever had. This was in the early 80s. I don't have the date on hand, but it may have been prior to Temple of Doom, which would mean that Stetson's Indy hat had 3 more movies worth of publicity to come.

Indy has been around for less than 30 years, and the OR has been in production for around 70. The Indy hat is certainly the most iconic hat of all time and its sales reflect that.

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