Help With Custom Hat Order

Welcome to the Lounge. I recommend that you begin by checking threads such as the two below to see some of what people around here are wearing. That may give you some ideas to work with.

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?19520-What-Hat-Are-You-Wearing-Today
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...FIELD-Images-Of-Fedoras-Worn-Town-amp-Country

 

You posted your question well but folks would be assisted in giving you specidic answers with a posted pic of you. With the option of custom that you have proposed, there is way too wide a choice of options available for someone to give you Post your pic to a photo hosting site first, THEN take it from there to your reply here

 

Well, if you're not going to post a pic, the best anyone can do is give you some VERY general guidelines. Honestly it is no substitute for an actual picture with an actual hat.






Beyond that, it's hard to say what crease or dimensions would look good on you.

 

Any opinion will have advocates and detractors. What's most important is what you think. Observe carefully, experiment and come to your own conclusions.

 

jcmjrt, since you live in SF area, why not visit one of the local hat shops and try some on? If I lived near you, I'd head over to Paul's Hat Works and have the young ladies there help me out.

If you do that, you'd be able to get good advice on what looks good for you and maybe you'll even find a hat you like. Should you decide that going custom is the right thing for you, there are several great hat makers who are members here.

 

Art Fawcett has the rep of working with people and determining the hat for them.
Optimo in Chicago does too but I think that is by in-person service and a rack full of hats.

 

Going to a hat store is a good suggestion. I would suggest going to HatGuys dot com - they are in Oakland. Take BART to 12th street station, as you walk out of the ground hole, entrance door will be right in front. Look them up on the web too. With jeans, grey color is good. In Bay Area winds, get a fedora with shorter brims, like 2 1/4", or get a cowboy hat. Pauls Hats is not for beginners, be prepared to pay around $600.

 

As said by others above, I would go to hat stores, try some lids on, buy a few and wear them for a year or two. If you know someone with good taste in hats, bring them along. Tastes evolve and you'll get smarter about hats over time. Vintage is a good option too (especially if you have a small head). Some of the early lids I bought that I thought would be great are long gone. I can't believe I thought they looked good - luckily they were cheap enough to give away. Now that I know what I like and what works well, I'm much more comfortable buying an expensive lid. It would be a drag (sartorially speaking) to outgrow a $300-$500 custom hat after only a year.

 

Hat Guys is good, though I've found the owner (I can't recall his name at the moment, an older, Caucasian gentlemen) to be more helpful and knowledgeable than the guy who is usually at the counter.

 

Should be fun - enjoy!
As an aside, it's important to support local brick & mortar hat retailers so they don't disappear, so you'll be helping in that way as well.

 

This is a VERY important note, ESPECIALLY U.S. retailers in these days .

 

I think that before I would consider buying a custom made hat, I would want a very clear idea as to what type of hat I wanted.

Trying to figure out what you want? My suggestions are as follows: best thing to do is to look at a lot of pictures. maybe watch some of the best hat movies and go try on a number of hats at a good hat store or two. This way you can get some ideas as to what you think looks good on others and you might just like to emulate, then try something similar on your head to see if it works.

If I'm going to buy a suit or sports jacket, I have ideas before i get to the store. I don't like to be lead by the salesmen.

 

Given the limited info provided, I'd offer something like this:

 

If you go to Mrs. Dewson's Hats, understand that she sells hats ABOVE MSRP and is a very high pressure salesperson. The one time I went there to look at and try on hats, she was pleasant while I shopped, but got remarkably insulting when I went to leave without buying a new hat that day.

I haven't seen this suggestion, yet: Alternative Design Studio, on Valencia, has a decent selection of modern Borsalinos.

 

kinda makes it hard to want to go back or suggest it to others. Everybody can have a bad day but customer service is a key part of almost any retail sales situation. Few places can use insults to drive sales.

 

Re: Mrs. Dawsons'

"...before passing up this place because of its poor overall rating, note that the store is under new management. All of the recent reviews are positive and I had a great experience.

Yes, I've a had a past run-in with Mrs Dewson herself. The new management (relatives of Mrs. Dewson) told me that she has been suffering from dementia for quite some time and had erratic behavior as a result..."

There are also some very funny reviews there.