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What colour fedora?

KingAndrew

A-List Customer
Messages
312
Location
Shanghai
I look forward to the day I get to see and handle an Optimo silverbelly hat. (I look forward even more to the day I can afford to wear one out of the store).

To respond to earlier comments:

I have an olive suit that I wore the other day with a yellow shirt and a green with blue dot bow tie. My hat was my moonstone grey Akubra Fed IV and it looked really great with the outfit. The suit is linen/cotton, so I will soon be pairing it with straw instead.

I, too, have found that a chocolate brown hat can look really smashing with a navy suit.

Wearing a suit is sometimes called "semi-formal" or "business attire" although the Victorians called them "lounge suits" to differentiate from all the levels of formal wear. In the beginning, the Tuxedo or dinner jacket was considered the "semi-formal" alternative to tails, a distinction now described as "black tie" (tux) vs. "white tie" (tails). As far as I know, the Homburg is considered formal enough for black tie (although it is OK to wear it with a suit, too). I don't know if anyone would object to a top hat with a Tuxedo today, but it is definitely the proper hat for any sort of tailcoat, whether evening white tie or morning dress "cutaway" penguin-style coat.

At my wedding I wore a 19th-Century style frock coat, with my top hat and striped trousers. I was excited to finally have an excuse to wear the topper. I have also sported Scottish-style formalwear at times, but with that I wear a Balmoral bonnet.

The best discussion I've found of formal clothing in all its variety is www.blacktieguide.com.

I hope this is helpful/interesting to somebody and not just me rambling :)

Andrew
 

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