Post new VINTAGE hats here!

[StetsonHomburg]

Pork pie. See how the similar shape is just the shape of the hat's crease? A real boater can only be made of hard straw, and the crown's shape is final. No way to adjust. It's hard to imagine just how hard the straw is on one of those boaters unless you feel it in person. Feels almost like cardboard, to me. Boaters, being so hard, can be uncomfortable if your head is unusually shaped. Brad Bowers was kind enough to show us this bit on head-conforming Bon-Ton Ivy Sweatbands back in February. The concept was also used on hard felt hats, like derbies.

...Sorry, that was a little more than what you asked for.

Cheers,

No actually it is just what I was looking for, THANKS!

 

[Phineas Lamour]

Just picked this up at a local thrift store. Needs an good cleaning and a steaming. Champ "feel the felt"

 

[Judgmentalist]

James Oviatt was born in 1888 and died in 1974. He commissioned the construction of what would later become known as the Oviatt Building, which housed the Oviatt Haberdashery from its opening until it closed in 1969. Oviatt and his wife lived in the penthouse suite there until their deaths in 1974 and 1975.

This hat must have been produced and originally sold sometime before the haberdashery closed in 1969. I bought it partly because I found the provenance fascinating, but also because it is probably the most finely woven Montecristi hat I will ever personally handle. The damaged areas in the weave made it affordable enough for me to justify as both an educational piece and an object d’art. I also wanted the opportunity to experience a hat of this WPI firsthand so I could better understand how much I personally value extremely high weave counts.

I bought a few tools on Amazon to help with measuring it, and I’m going to try to get an accurate WPI count tomorrow. Once I do, I’ll post the results in reply to this thread.

This hat may ultimately save me far more money than it cost. People often describe higher-WPI hats as feeling like linen. This hat is definitely a different animal from my PHD, but to me it feels more like paper than linen. Perhaps the weave count simply isn’t high enough to enter that “linen-like” category. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow. Either way, I don’t think I personally need to spend the kind of money required to acquire a hat of this WPI—unless I happen across an exceptional deal on the secondary market for one that actually fits me.

This is now the third Montecristi I’ve owned that I can’t wear. I gave one to a good friend, one to my wife, and now I have this one as more of an educational artifact.

I’m going to send it to Brent Black and see if he’d be willing to take a look at it. At the very least, I’d like to hear his opinion. If he’s willing to risk attempting a reblock, I may see whether he can turn it into something my wife would actually wear. I don’t think she’ll be much of a fan of the Optimo style, but we’ll see.