Searching for this hat

[Son_of_Atropos]

Anyone seen any hat like this for sale, vintage or modern?

 

[yoonie]

I googled "barbershop hat" thinking of barbershop quartets, and it seems like you're looking for a "straw skimmer". Dunno if that helps

 

[MattJH]

Yep. That's a high-crowned skimmer or boater for sure. You see them pop up fairly often on eBay.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Y'know, it's funny. I learned here - and on Ebay - that these are called 'boaters' and 'skimmers' but my father always called them a 'sailor straw'. My dad was born in 1914 and he and his father both bought and wore them when in actual style so I've always wondered if that name was his own invention or another actual term or actually the right term. ?...

 

[Michaelshane]

I see them all the time on Ebay.

 

[cooncatbob]

Miller hats has a variety of boaters if you want new.
http://www.millerhats.com/boater_index/boater.html

 

[dhermann1]

You can get a nice on one Ebay for about 1/3 of what a new one would cost. Be sure about the size, because they're absolutely rigid, they have no give.
I'm sort of wondering about the weave in that hat. Are there boaters that have varying degrees of fineness to the weave?
BTW, I'm not sure if I ever saw a picture of Doug Fairbanks without his trademark skinny mustache. It must be very early.
He is one golden age icon who doesn't get talked about nearly enough around here. One of the coolest movie stars of all time. I'm talking Senior, tho I really like Junior, too.
Also, I picked this info up here. A hat with a wider brim, maybe over 2 ", is a boater. With a narrower brim it's a skimmer. And no, they're not supposed to be made out of styrofoam!!!

 

[Sargon]

but my father always called them a 'sailor straw'.

These were also calles sennit hats and were worn by British Royal Navy sailors during the 19 century. Maybe that's what was meant.

 

[Brad Bowers]

These straw hats are also known as Sennit hats, sennit being the braids of straw used to make up the hat. The word sennit is a corruption of "seven knit." These braids of straw used to be woven in China and Japan and shipped to the U.S. (or other countries as well), where the braids were sewn together into the finished straw hats.

Somewhere along the way they lost the Sennit name, and became known as skimmers and boaters.

Brad