The Cap Faction

[Chepstow]

Pinesiw, cool cap for the liitle one, looks good!

Adnamira, nice fabric, suits you!

 

[St. Valentine]

While shopping for a top hat in a store in Hamburg I couldn´t pass by this Stetson Hatteras cap. I have seen them before on Ebay but was reluctant because of their price. Ok, it´s silk which should come at a higher price and I still needed a summer cap. Until now I couldn´t get myself to buy a linen or cotton cap for the warmer days. Flat- or newsboy caps shout so much "Tweed" at me that it´s hard to go for a non-wool fabric. What Stetson does with their Hatteras series intrigues me though. The pattern of the fine silk with it´s irregular little knots looks like a much heavier fabric but is so light and airy that it seems to be the ideal material for a summer cap. What can I say, I bought it and I fear that this one won´t be the last. [huh]

It´s not that full-bodied like some of my other caps but like Adnamira said so well, you need a cap for occasions where you want to keep a lower profile.
Excuse the quick and dirty shot inside my car, but time is a bit in short supply these days...

 

[Adnamira]

That cap actually looks really good on you, St Valentine. Colour is perfect for you. I have a Hatteras tropic wool cap, but that silk one looks to have more shape and structure and I like the thicker brim. That size cap is also very good for driving as they are not bulky and you won't damage their structure if you want to chuck them on the seat or dash. It's fun to have variety too.

I wish we had stores here that stocked good caps, because it would be so much easier to buy something that suited you if you could try them on. the Classic Cap Company website has some City Sport silk caps with the little knots that look very similar to the Stetson ones but a bit cheaper - I think they might be a pretty small profile cap too, but maybe silk is better in the more moderate styles.

 

[Adnamira]

Classic Cap Company Silk unbranded CS cap £39.00

As you can see, it's the same as Wintergreen's silk City Sport cap... for some reason Classic Cap Co. gets them unbranded.

Bond caps? - looks a bit like the caps worn by Hugh Laurie as Worster in 'Jeeves and Worster'. Different cut of flat cap again - seam runs right around the top of the crown. Not sure they looks as full as Worsters cap though http://www.classic-caps.co.uk/acatalog/Bond_Caps_.html

Classic Cap Company seem pretty good to deal with. Couldn't get any communication out of them, and their images aren't much chop in determining what the caps are like, but their postage was very cheap for registered post and their prices seem reasonable.

 

[St. Valentine]

Thank you Adnamira! I really like the Classic Cap Company Silk cap. The price is very, very good too for a silk cap. Unfortunately I have already ordered a Retro Sport cap from Paris and a custom cap is made for me by one of our talented forum members. When do you know that you have too many caps?

 

[Adnamira]

The Stetson and CS would be quite similar I think. I think Stetson might have better linings than City Sport too - I think this is an area that City Sport is of cheaper quality, but they make up for it with their bigger brim versions and fun fabrics. I think Stetson, Wigens or City Sport are worth a try for anyone who wears Kangols - similar prices but much better fabrics. Although, I do like Kangol's bamboo fabric - pity they didn't make a style of cap out of it big enough to fit my head.

I don't know, but there are more expensive and unhealthier compulsions. One of the most expensive parts of cap wearing for me, is having to improve the rest of my wardrobe as well - that's hard... a cap is simple, but figuring out shirt and jackets and waistcoasts and pants and shoes and matching it all up is seriously hard ****. If your headed down the authentic vintage look, that's going to take some effort. This is where caps like Hat People are good for those of us that want something that looks good but we can wear with our general wardrobe. I guess that is part of why cap buying becomes so continuous, you are always finding a reason for a different cap for a different occasion or wardrobe selection. Hell, just colours alone gives you reason to own several caps, let alone season, style and activity choices. This is where it would be much simpler to be a fedora wearer.

 

[Chepstow]

Frank, looks good on you this Stetson Cap. I own myself several Hattaras Caps from Stetson and all of them are great.

 

[St. Valentine]

Manfred: Thank you very much! Aren´t those Hatteras nice? If it wasn´t for the price....

Adnamira: City Sport caps seem hard to come by here. Strange, Belgium is just around the corner. [huh] The one I ordered is a Retro Sport from Mamieblue, Paris. They have a more vintage look and are dirt cheap. It will have to show if they suit me and if the quality is up to par.

 

[Adnamira]

http://www.swaineadeney.co.uk/hats/bond_tweed_cap/index.html

Bond 'Bertie Wooster' caps. If any of you have seen the English series 'Jeeves & Wooster' you will recognise this cap. Kind of seems to be the English answer to the French eight dart caps, or an oversized version of the English flatcap style. Different approach, but that seam right around the top seems to accentuate that high back - apparently some of them have four lines of stictching to further stiffen that area. Maybe not everyones cup of tea, so to speak, but probably a good choice to go with tweed suits and jackets I expect. For me, I'll probably stick to Wigens for the driver style caps, because of the quality, although I do like the wedgelike vintage angle. I really like the style of my City Sport Flat Cap actually... It has a deep back like these Bond caps, actually deeper than their Newsboys, but the front on profile is very narrow - if they made a fuller crown version in the same shape to go with the big brim it would be an awesome cap. I'm sort of gravitating back toward the driver cap style, maybe because I tend to wear my caps centred and the symmetry works better in that regard... and yeah, I kind of like changing my mind and switching to a different style occasionally. If there were only more oversized driver caps - they seem to be even rarer than oversized newsboys.

 

[Adnamira]

She's a ripper as far as the general run of grandpa style flatcaps go. It's got the tremendous brim and perfect depth in the back, a nice angle in the crown from the back to the front. Now if it had a bit more width, this would be a sophisticated cap, I reckon. Really, this cap is a bit like a mullet hairdo, long at the front, and the back, and short at the sides. 'Business in the front, party in the back - ze mullet!' One thing I've realised with this cap is that you couldn't really work this pattern in a Newsboy. Retro Sport too, I noticed, can do this chequered pattern with their eight dart caps too... what a mess it would be if you tried it in an eight panel.

Earland Bros have these in heaps of colours and sizes on ebay at the moment. The cap is listed in individual metric hat sizes in each colour and each size, but they have two listings, so I guess if they are sold out in one listing chances are the other listing will have them available - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Harris-T...909365063?pt=UK_Hats&var=&hash=item76c2402671

Oh and the Earland Bros seem to be young women.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Looks like a nice cap of this style. I all ready have a bunch like this.

 

[Adnamira]

Yep, they are the most common flat cap these days, it seems. Not many have the brim this big though. I got rid of my Kangol 504 - it was alright for what it was, but being a wool grower I wasn't impressed that it was a polyester mesh with a bit of bum fluff (they go on about how they use wool, but it is just cardings) wrapped in it. So there is actually a spot for this cap in my collection.

I'm also a bit different from the rest of you too, because I am involved in the commodity side of things, which is probably why I am impressed with City Sport. As a woolgrower, vintage caps and caps made out of vintage fabric isn't going to help sheep farmers and the wool industry much. So for me, seeing City Sport, a belgium company that has higher labour costs than China (I assume), producing attractive, appealing caps out of much more expensive fabrics 100% wool in an actual real woven tweed, rather than melton or bum fluff, and making them affordable is like a big wow to me. They mightn't be quite up to standard of the vintage cap afficianados, but hey, people need jobs, and I think more general type fellows might also start being that little bit more stylish sometimes instead of walking around like bilboards in their advertisement slathered baseball caps, with a product like this. So I think they are worth posting.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Nothing wrong with a new cap. I want to encourage
companies to make caps in vintage styles. Hoping get
a cap from Johnny J soon. Newsboy caps are more common than fedoras to the average person so there is a large market for new caps.

 

[Johnny J]

Here is one I'm working on for one of the loungers. This is a very nice thick 100% wool fabric; I need one of these for myself! This one does not have the leather sweatband installed yet, but when done I will post more pics. Just wanted to give a little glimpse of what I was doing. Trying to get that true vintage style! Art does it with fedoras, I want to do it with caps.

Anyone interested? I'm giving a special price for the first 10. So far I have 3 orders.

 

[Feraud]

Art does it with fedoras, I want to do it with caps.

I think you are doing it Johnny J! :eusa_clap Your work looks classic.

 

[Chepstow]

Johnny, that looks fantastic! You made it! Congrats! Is the cap available in the gray/white pinstripe!

 

[Johnny J]

Johnny, that looks fantastic! You made it! Congrats! Is the cap available in the gray/white pinstripe!

Thanks guys! I'm studying those 1920s vintage ads and looking closely to the styles and just working at it little by little.

Chepstow, if you look back a couple of pages on this thread you can see the fabrics I have at this moment. I do have a linen stripe that you might like, but if you are interested in something else just let me know.
You can PM me, or email me at: thecapmaker@yahoo.com

 

[Chasseur]

Johnny,

That looks great. I love the profile of it. I might have to ask you do make me one...

 

[Rudie]

Johnny, you've got the knack! Usually I like newsboys better than flat caps, but man, yours are outstanding. Better than most newsboys I've ever seen.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Johnny the profiles are great on that one.
Looking forward to my gray pin stripe one.