questions re button & sticker

[budward]

'lo all. I have two questions about my Borsalino. First, just below the ribbon on the hat band there's a small button looking thing in the same material as the band. What's that? Second, the (at least nicer) hats I've seen have the size stamped on the band or on a tab or something that looks like it's intended to have the same life span as the hat. Mine doesn't have that but instead has a sticker with the size (actually 4 different translations of what must be the same size--60, 6 1/2, 7 3/8 [UK], and 7 1/2 [USA]), which frankly looks kinda cheap. Am I expecting too much? Thanks for your help.

bud

 

[jamespowers]

Bud,

I am guessing that your Borsalino is not vintage by the way you describe it. In the vintage Borsalinos, the size would be on a material tag that is at the back of the hat---in the 1960s it became paper. I am sure you probably know all those size variations are from different measuring systems. The 60 is 60cm. 6 1/2 is the French size system. The others you have already identified.
That little button is the end of the wind trolley or wind string. That button goes in your lapel or such to keep the hat from flying off you head and into some place where you will never be able to extricate it.
As I said before, it looks like you have the newer Borsalino. Does the sweatband look like this:

and the liner like this?:

You will notice part of the little sticker on the sweatband that should be something like yours.
In answer to your question, you might be expecting too much from a modern Borsalino. They just do not make them like they used to unless you trek to Italy and get one yourself---to the tune of at least $600. That is not for the best quality one either.

Regards to all,

J

P.S. Here is the inside of a 1960 Borsalino:

Notice any difference?

 

[budward]

James--Mine does look like that, and you're right, not vintage, alas. Interesting, now that you mention it, the button thing is part of a slip knot on a stretchy string. I'm not sure how that would actually function over the brim, though. Thanx for your post.

 

[ginobarracuda]

Interesting... I'd never heard of a wind trolley or wind string before...
where does that attach? On the collar?

 

[jamespowers]

Interesting... I'd never heard of a wind trolley or wind string before...
where does that attach? On the collar?

It attaches to any handy button hole. It can be the collar but it was meant to be buttoned onto a jacket. The string uncoils from the hat crown. It gives you quite a bit of line. the button is then inserted in the button hole on the lapel---usually.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

By the way, make sure you cut open the button hole on your suit lapels. Their is a scene in one of Buster Keatons silent films where he is on a cruise ship and uses the lapel string to secure his hat from flying away.

 

[ginobarracuda]

Oddly by coincidence, I'm reading ' Hatless Jack: The President, the Fedora, and the History of American Style' by Neil Steinberg. Today at lunch, on page 126, he talks all about the button in well made hats, wind trolleys, and lapel button holes...