Huertecilla
Banned
- Messages
- 347
- Location
- Mountains of southern Spain
Went down to the coast yesterday on a hat shopping date: Combining a date with a Malagena lady with looking at gents hats.
I have switched on my 20th century desk top to load photos we took. While that is starting itself up, I can enter some proza on the laptop.
We found three shops. One with cheap stuff not worth mentioning so I will not, the other high end public and the third an aspirational middle class store.
The high end public one was a joke. The store was like a mausoleum and the staff reluctant to let us take anything in hand. Understandably so because turning a hat over to look at the interior revealed poor workmanship. More accurately put NO workmanship, just nicely done mass production for silly money.
All brand were spanish names and the level of finish/manufacture not like anything I see over here. The best felt was on par with a 90 Euro Wegener I have at home but the cotton sweatband was single row parallel stitched with none too fine stitches: my Wegener is better.
No way I was allowed to try on any of the hats and that was no issue as I had no desire to.
The last store had quite a large selection of hats falling in roughly three categories: Panamas, general light summer and felt hats.
The staff was discreetly available for help and we were allowed to touch, ry on anything we wanted. As my 57 cm. head proved to be present in all off the hats we had great fun.
The Panamas ranged from El Cheapo Asian to Cuenca's finest. The offering was in bleached to caramel brown with a wide choice of bands.
They has some caps too.
The Cuenca's finest was quite nice with tight, straight, 'extrafino' weave ending in a straight very nice looking double 'welted' elegant edge. The pinch was reinforced on the inside with a thin shape of silicon. Priced at just over 50 Euros I thought it good vfm.
I hope the photo of trying that one pans out.
The summer hats ranged from course straw, through VERY fine open weave nylon to cotton/canvass from caps through nondescript to fedora and trilby.
Nicely made cheap hats. The nest was a step up from entry level nylon weave trilby by Mayser.
The one in dark grey with a discreetly striped band I would have liked to buy for salsa nights but it looked HORRIBLE on my head.
Now for the main course: the felt ones.
Again several shapes and several qualities. The cheapest were about on par with the average of the posh shop and the best were mid range Mayser and equivalent local made.
I was amazed by the differences in felt. From light floppy looking/feeling just lke the thin felt filler I have put in saddle underlayers to hard stiff non resilliant that deformed when bent.
The biggest turn off were the edges. Most were folded in and stitched down, looking crude.
I am uploading a photo of the inside of the best one. Including a head shot.
All in all the trip was a fun success.
I was surprised about the wide difference in felt even at such a narrow band at the lower end. The stuff I buy for horse tack is my reference and I was not prepared for the abissmally poor quality of felt available. And I thought the horse stuff was rough but tough... I am really working that over in my mind.
What did I take from it?
Most importantly that I am out of my depth about felt. The felt one I have is appearantly not such cheap low end material at all.
Furthermore that Panama does not suit me nor does unfortunately anything else strawlike woven. The latter was a bit of a downer as I really wanted a dark ' straw' trilby for salsa dancing.
On the positive side is that the Fedora style suits me. My company was quite taken with the look*. Also that lighter colors and brown suit me and that dark grey, black do not agree with me at all.
Meanwhile it was closing time even here so we went enjoying Malaga's social lfe.
* She has an open face which shows what she thinks and it was ever so informative to watch for her primary non verbal response.
Right. The pc is ready and it will take some nifty workaround outdated software versions to get the fotos onto an upload site. Where is the coffee?
I have switched on my 20th century desk top to load photos we took. While that is starting itself up, I can enter some proza on the laptop.
We found three shops. One with cheap stuff not worth mentioning so I will not, the other high end public and the third an aspirational middle class store.
The high end public one was a joke. The store was like a mausoleum and the staff reluctant to let us take anything in hand. Understandably so because turning a hat over to look at the interior revealed poor workmanship. More accurately put NO workmanship, just nicely done mass production for silly money.
All brand were spanish names and the level of finish/manufacture not like anything I see over here. The best felt was on par with a 90 Euro Wegener I have at home but the cotton sweatband was single row parallel stitched with none too fine stitches: my Wegener is better.
No way I was allowed to try on any of the hats and that was no issue as I had no desire to.
The last store had quite a large selection of hats falling in roughly three categories: Panamas, general light summer and felt hats.
The staff was discreetly available for help and we were allowed to touch, ry on anything we wanted. As my 57 cm. head proved to be present in all off the hats we had great fun.
The Panamas ranged from El Cheapo Asian to Cuenca's finest. The offering was in bleached to caramel brown with a wide choice of bands.
They has some caps too.
The Cuenca's finest was quite nice with tight, straight, 'extrafino' weave ending in a straight very nice looking double 'welted' elegant edge. The pinch was reinforced on the inside with a thin shape of silicon. Priced at just over 50 Euros I thought it good vfm.
I hope the photo of trying that one pans out.
The summer hats ranged from course straw, through VERY fine open weave nylon to cotton/canvass from caps through nondescript to fedora and trilby.
Nicely made cheap hats. The nest was a step up from entry level nylon weave trilby by Mayser.
The one in dark grey with a discreetly striped band I would have liked to buy for salsa nights but it looked HORRIBLE on my head.
Now for the main course: the felt ones.
Again several shapes and several qualities. The cheapest were about on par with the average of the posh shop and the best were mid range Mayser and equivalent local made.
I was amazed by the differences in felt. From light floppy looking/feeling just lke the thin felt filler I have put in saddle underlayers to hard stiff non resilliant that deformed when bent.
The biggest turn off were the edges. Most were folded in and stitched down, looking crude.
I am uploading a photo of the inside of the best one. Including a head shot.
All in all the trip was a fun success.
I was surprised about the wide difference in felt even at such a narrow band at the lower end. The stuff I buy for horse tack is my reference and I was not prepared for the abissmally poor quality of felt available. And I thought the horse stuff was rough but tough... I am really working that over in my mind.
What did I take from it?
Most importantly that I am out of my depth about felt. The felt one I have is appearantly not such cheap low end material at all.
Furthermore that Panama does not suit me nor does unfortunately anything else strawlike woven. The latter was a bit of a downer as I really wanted a dark ' straw' trilby for salsa dancing.
On the positive side is that the Fedora style suits me. My company was quite taken with the look*. Also that lighter colors and brown suit me and that dark grey, black do not agree with me at all.
Meanwhile it was closing time even here so we went enjoying Malaga's social lfe.
* She has an open face which shows what she thinks and it was ever so informative to watch for her primary non verbal response.
Right. The pc is ready and it will take some nifty workaround outdated software versions to get the fotos onto an upload site. Where is the coffee?
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