How did you start wearing hats?

[jamespowers]

I don't even want to know for what service Deliverance boys would expect a tip

bk

Banjo or Moonshine Delivery of course.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

Bump...

 

[ufguy11]

This might be a little late, but what drew ME to hats was 1st being interested in dress clothes. I grew a taste for dress clothing in the past year, although throughout my life I've always enjoyed dressing-up. From there I started to see movies and pictures of people wearing these "dress hats" as I used to call them. I was interested. But what really took me on to my love for fedoras was when I went to Chicago this past year for a school orchestra conert. I didn't buy a hat, but I was determined to. I searched as much as I was able to in my 3 day voyage but came up with nothing. Later when I went to NY I bought my first fedora and have fell in love ever since.

J.J.

 

[skwerl-hat]

my best friend one day showed up in a vintage bowler and 1920s suit
i was shocked and said
"you look awesome! like a banker, someday im going to get an old fedora and we will go paint the town red!"
"we will" he said still smilling
he died two years later of diabetes
so i got my first hat recently and will wear it for the rest of my days remembering the fragility of life.

 

[The Shadow]

Greetings all,
I am new to this forum and have been feverishly reading posts to learn as much as I can. I have been facinated with hats since I was a child. I have worn Fedoras as early as 10 years old. Back then you could pick them up cheap at Garage sales and since my brother and I loved old Cagney gangster movies and the like I would buy them and regrettably wear them until I literally wore them out.

My re-kindled interest is due to a 1930's-1940's themed wedding my wife and I will be attending at the Queen Mary this weekend. We researched and purchased vintage clothing and I found this site and "Shadowed" your posts to learn which would be the proper lid for my 1940's DB suit. I settled on the Stetson Whippet being a good choice and bid up to $225.00 for one on e-bay. I work at one of those jobs which frowns upon surfing so I could not be there when it ended and lost the hat. I fear I have run out of time too, so I may have to choose from the hats I currently own:

Royal Stetson Nolton
Stetson The Sovereign Twenty

I also have a Dobbs Golden coach and an Oviatts Oviatt Model
But those do not fit me.

Any ideas on which modern hat is closest to the 1940's that I could get in three days or which of my current hats may pass?

Sorry if I'm off topic

 

[jamespowers]

I fear I have run out of time too, so I may have to choose from the hats I currently own:

Royal Stetson Nolton
Stetson The Sovereign Twenty

I also have a Dobbs Golden coach and an Oviatts Oviatt Model
But those do not fit me.

Any ideas on which modern hat is closest to the 1940's that I could get in three days or which of my current hats may pass?

Sorry if I'm off topic

Is the Sovereign Twenty a homburg or a Fedora shape? In either case, I would go with it as long as the color doesn't clash with your suit.
Pictures of the hats and the suit could help more.

Regards,

J

 

[thefedorastore]

How Did I start?

My mother tells me at age five I had a collection of a half-dozen hats, and I used to line them up on my bed, decide which one to wear, and play "store" with the rest. Who would've known that I would fulfill my destiny?

 

[McPeppers]

I think I was born in a hat so

Now if the question was "how did you start wearing visors" thered be a much longer explanation ending with me feeling shamed lol

 

[Samsa]

Earlier in the summer I bought my first two suits (thought I would need them for law school), and buying a hat simply seemed like the proper thing do. (Why wear a suit without a hat?) I'd also been drawn to the look - in movies like "The Untouchables," "Once Upon a Time In America," etc. The first hat I ended up with was a stingy brim black fedora.

Now (three months later) I own four hats, with no plan on stopping at that number.

 

[bubba]

I've always worn a hat. Rarely a ball cap. Why not a fedora or two or three....

 

[SGB]

I've been wearing cowboy hats since I was in diapers, being raised on a small ranch and all. Still wear an Open Road on ocassion.

SGB

 

[ortega76]

I've always worn driver's caps/cabbie caps and the like since I was in diapers. My dad wore them (still does) and I have always liked the way they looked and felt. In high school, I tried to wear the fedora with little success.

In college, I took my grandmother's love of jazz and my parent's love of soul and sort of fell in with the swing crowd. More of the lounge scene (cocktails and suits) and less of the dance scene.

Combine that with being inspired by classic style icons, the swing scene and my appreciation for blending classic styles with modern looks a la T.C. Carson's character "Kyle" in the sitcom "Living Single" whish I ended up watching a lot because it was on one of the few nights I had to watch television for two years in college. I took a liking to some of the hats he wore and like how he mixed classic touches with modern looks. I found a stingy fedora that I liked and started wearing it. It was wool and was destroyed in a year or two. I then went back to my caps.

A few years ago, I bought some wool hats and a single fur felt hat from a men's store when I was working in the Loop. I kept going, buying what I liked in looks but not really knowing where to find fur felts and the like. About a year ago, I decided to start buying quality and scrapped the junk hats. I started buying vintage on the 'bay and I have picked up about 6 so far.

 

[The Shadow]

Is the Sovereign Twenty a homburg or a Fedora shape? In either case, I would go with it as long as the color doesn't clash with your suit.
Pictures of the hats and the suit could help more.

Regards,

J

James,

Thanks for the advise!

The Soverign twenty is a fedora shape. Both hats match my Grey gabardine suit pretty well. The Nolton is caribou grey and the Sovereign is a darker almost charcoal grey. Although both hats have a 2 inch brim, the Sovereign gives a stingier brim appearance though because the crown is taller.

Man, I wanted that Whippet bad! Patience I guess, I will have one someday.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

I've been wearing hats in general for who knows how long. Baseball caps and newsboys mostly. I started a collection of novelty hats when I started buying them from Disneyland. That led to buying them from Halloween shops, along with anywhere else where I could get my hands on one. Most of these hats I don't even wear. You could say that out of all these hats, I have a small collection of hats I actually wear, and I just got my first two fedoras within this year. I also have a bowler, and a few more newsboys. I took a break from wearing hats all together when I was younger, and just started wearing them again not even 4 years ago. I even used to wear a hat in the pool at my old house. My grandfather on my mom's side wore newsboys and I acquired one or two from him. In other worlds, I am a BIG hat person, not only with fedoras, but hats in general.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

When I was younger I never cared for hats, that is to say, ball caps and beanies and such. Fedoras weren’t something I was really exposed to or thought about. The same goes for most contemporary clothing.

I can't really say what made me want to wear them; watching old movies we got on DVD from a couple of years ago onwards seemed to have some effect. But no conscious effect that I can think of, no "Wow, I really want to wear one of those" happened.

Possibly part of it would be the painting Nighthawks. I've always liked that painting and have it as my PC's desktop image. Staring at those fedora-clad gents everyday may have helped.

I first really made a move to get myself a fedora around the time I found the lounge. It was searching for different places to buy them that lead me here. Now I wear one around a bit, not as much as I’d like. It’ll be a while before I have a wardrobe that fits them.

But the desire to wear the hats and other Golden Era stuff… It feels more like something that was always there, just undefined and lying in wait.

 

[Tommy Fedora]

Hats, always

When I was young, in the early fifties, it seemed that everyone wore hats, it was the natural thing to do. Even my early TV heros, such as Clark Kent, never went anywhere without a hat so why should I ?

 

[jamespowers]

James,

Thanks for the advise!

The Soverign twenty is a fedora shape. Both hats match my Grey gabardine suit pretty well. The Nolton is caribou grey and the Sovereign is a darker almost charcoal grey. Although both hats have a 2 inch brim, the Sovereign gives a stingier brim appearance though because the crown is taller.

Man, I wanted that Whippet bad! Patience I guess, I will have one someday.

I understand the draw to the Whippet. It was my quest to get a Whippet like that of my grandfather's---albeit in my size----that led me here. Now I think I have about 6 at last count.

Regards,

J

 

[RadioHead]

Just the way it was.

I grew-up in the tail-end of the hat wearing era (1960's). My Dad always wore a hat

So I guess the answer to the question of "how did you start wearing a hat" would be - it was primarily due to tradition.

Pretty much the same here. Born in '55 and this town being somewhat... um... slow to catch up, shall we say?... men still wore hats and ladies still wore dresses pretty much up until the 70s. My dad never really wore hats (aside from a straw fedora in the summer, sometimes), but he did own a beautiful Homburg. I have no idea what manufacture or vintage, but I never saw him wear it, and nobody in our family knows what happened to it after he died.

Ah, well. Just another opportunity lost.

I've always wished hats would come back in a big way, and I'm doing my part as best I can.

"RadioHead"

 

[mauriciogray]

Many people ask me to wear my hats.
Also there is much people who make mockery of but soon they want to wear the hat.
I believe it is a repressed desire in people. Much people feel shame to wear a hat because the others.

I agree with Matt, “The Untouchables” was my main influence to use a fedora. I do not like the films with Kevin Costner but “The Untouchables” are an exception.

Also the icons of the popular culture, movies and comic were an influence. The spirit, Question, The Shadow, John Steed, Indiana Jones, Carlos Gardel, Jesus Gris from Cronos, Road to Perdition, Adam Savage… etc, etc…

The felt is like the wines with years are put better.

I don’t feel shame to wear a hat and I feel great.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Sometime in late 1993 or 1994, a good friend of mine in the Sydney Rockabilly scene really got into jump blues and swing. He especially dug Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan, and began to dress in 40's-style trousers with braces and wide deco-patterned ties. He began sporting a fedora out and about too, a black Akubra Stylemaster he bought from the much-loved but now extinct Gowings Department Store.

Also back in '94, my then girlfriend and my self, and a few others, found a big band that played every Wednesday night in Paddington. We began dancing to them and really got into the music, and I thought one day it would be cool to get a zoot suit or a sharp 40's DB suit and look the part too.

Well, '94 ended pretty disastrously. The final straw was when my Dad passed away. I had tickets booked to see Glenn Miller's Orchestra (featuring 7 original members from the 40's plus Beryl Davis singing) two weeks later, and I guess moving into the whole 40's lifestyle enabled me to begin recreating myself, moving on from the disasters that had beset my life at the close of the previous year.

Following my friend's lead, I bought my first Stylemaster (black) from Gowings too, and over time, as my vintage wardrobe grew, I wanted other hats to match my brown, grey and blue suits. That's how it all started for me.