To Feather or Not to Feather?

[Redshoes51]

... I am tickled by talk of feathers.

For some reason, I found this line quite humorous...

HAR!!

~shoes~

 

[johnnycanuck]

I like the right feather with the right hat. But this is Alberta so the wind eventually takes it away.
Johnny

 

[Hat Dandy]

I find that most of my hats have the feather removed to look good to my eye. However, there is the odd one that looks better with it.

 

[bond]

This is my personal hat and I like the subtleness of this feather.

 

[gtdean48]

This is my personal hat and I like the subtleness of this feather.
...

:eusa_clap

 

[DesertDan]

I like that one too Bond, nicely done.
I really like the way Art uses feathers on his creations. If all goes well I hope to be able to order from him this year and the models I am interested in have feathers.

I only have one hat in my collection that has feathers and that is a vintage Knox.

 

[RJR]

That looks good,Scott.

 

[tropicalbob]

Many times the feathers just look too ostentatious, but that's nicely subtle.

 

[triple-d]

I'm not a feather guy, but.......after seeing Scott's and Tommy's I'm reconsidering.

I'm off to set up a bird feeder....need to score some Cardinal feathers..............

 

[humanshoes]

That hat is an absolute beauty Bond. I'm not much of a feather guy myself, but when it's right it's right. Found this Champ at the vintage store the other day and the feather and hat pin are definitely right, at least as far as I'm concerned.

 

[KingAndrew]

I have left the feathers in all the hats I own that came with them. The only hat I have added feathers to is my Tyrolean. I bought it as a souvenir of the Alps when I was a teenager, so I added every possible decoration at the time. Not merely feathers, but brushes and pins for all the cities I visited, too. I still wear the hat that way, but it has been a special-occasion hat since I got home from Europe (although I wore it daily during the trip).

But feathers certainly seem like a key part of headgear in many cultures and time periods. We all know the image of the Plains Indian chiefs in their "warbonnet" headdresses. But then there were the black feathered bonnets worn by Scottish regiments in the British Army. And I can't picture Robin Hood's green cap without a feather. Don't forget Yankee Doodle putting a feather in his cap and calling it "macaroni" (that is, fashionable, like the young noblemen returning from the Grand Tour with the latest Italian clothes).

 

[tropicalbob]

Humanshoes, great find and nice color combination. Something charming about it.

 

[humanshoes]

Humanshoes, great find and nice color combination. Something charming about it.

Agreed tropicalbob. Somebody definitely wanted to add some flair to what was, essentially, a low-end hat back in the day. I just thought it would be a shame to undo their artistic statement.

 

[RTM]

Feathers obviously have their attraction or they wouldn't decorate new hats. Around these low-key parts, however, like on a mess of quail or pheasants after the hunt, feathers are best plucked.

 

[Feraud]

I do not add feathers to fedoras but leave any that come with the hat.

 

[moontheloon]

My grandfather had wise words on this topic

a feather on a mans hat is like a mustache on a beautiful woman

He and I agree

 

[Genuine Classic Gangster]

When I used to wear $200 Biltmore hats, I would always wear real peacock feathers on them. Usually I would overlay one or two thin ones on top of a normal sized one, to create dazzling combinations of color. In my opinion, those peacock feathers look amazing!

However, when I switched to more expensive custom made hats, I stopped wearing feathers on them, simply because I don't want the stems (I'm not sure if that is the technically correct term) to scratch into the felts. If only I knew of a way to divest the soft feathery parts of feathers from the hard, sharpish stem parts of feathers, without ruining their structural integrity, then I'd wear feathers on my hats always.

I'm surprised that most members in this thread seem not to like how feathers look on hats. I'm wondering if those who don't like feathers on hats are possibly thinking of a sub-par variety of feathers? Are we all talking about peacock feathers specifically? Maybe feathers from other birds don't look as good?

 

[-30-]

Hat without feather: more formal.
Hat with feather: less formal.
(Similar to pinches.)

Regards,
J T

 

[RJR]

I'm just not a fan of feathers on my hats.

 

[Bob Roberts]

Occasionally a parrot feather.