What Outer Jacket To Wear With Fedora

[hatflick1]

I live in LA where it doesn't get all that cold.
However, a jacket is required during some of the winter months.
My favorite is a brown leather bomber jacket I have had for some twelve years.
But...the jacket and a fedora combo launches the Indiana Jones reference time and again. It gets old, no?
So suggestions are welcome. Pix even better.
And, yes, I have a trench coat but normally only wear it in San Francisco when I visit my son.
Thanks, as always.

 

[Tomasso]

Sportjackets and safari jackets in linen (warm weather), corduroy and tweed (cool weather).

 

[T Rick]

I still wear my USAF contract A2 from Cockpit, so far no one has yet compared me to Indy (not that that would be so bad), but the above mentioned sport jackets would be a suitable option. Really, any casual light jacket could work, especially if it were retro styled, like say a Barracuda maybe. Military outerwear such as an M65 field jacket could even be pulled off.

 

[monbla256]

I live in LA where it doesn't get all that cold.
However, a jacket is required during some of the winter months.
My favorite is a brown leather bomber jacket I have had for some twelve years.
But...the jacket and a fedora combo launches the Indiana Jones reference time and again. It gets old, no?
So suggestions are welcome. Pix even better.
And, yes, I have a trench coat but normally only wear it in San Francisco when I visit my son.
Thanks, as always.

A lot depends on what you wear for your proffession. Suit and tie? Sport jacket and slacks? , jeans and t-shirt? I wear whatever I want with my hats, but don't wear a
casual hat with a pinstripe suit etc. Keep the colors somewhat co-ordinated ie don't wear a green hat with a blue suit etc. Other than that, use common sense and wear what you want.

 

[Woodfluter]

You've gotten good advice...one more opinion if you please.

Wear it with whatever you like when you look in the mirror and it'll be fine.
Don't overthink this. Suit yourself and be yourself.

We don't see a lot of 1930s-40s photos of guys in fedoras and shorts, but then again we don't see a whole lot of shorts then, do we? They wore a hat with whatever they liked. It was very natural then to don a hat and not worried about, IMO.

I recall the studio photo somewhere on this site (help me guys) of the gent in evening clothes and boater. A boater was decidedly casual by modern standards. I've always suspected those kinds of standards were very much more flexible in practice. My parents lived in that era and always laughed at the "rules"...because nobody they knew paid any attention to them.

It's a new millennium, and if hats are to be relevant, we have to do whatever pleases our own tastes.

[End of rant.]

Cheers,
-Bill

 

[Tomasso]

I recall the studio photo somewhere on this site (help me guys) of the gent in evening clothes and boater. A boater was decidedly casual by modern standards. I've always suspected those kinds of standards were very much more flexible in practice.

Black Tie is a casual offshoot of White Tie, which has a very strict protocol. A boater would be correct with the former but not with the later. I've noticed that some folks on the Internet today try to apply the strict standards of White Tie to the relatively lax standards of Black Tie. It may be that they're trying to dress up Black Tie now that White Tie has gone the way of the buffalo.

 

[job]

If your jacket looks like it goes with your hat than your good. It's your opinion that matters most. I have more than one jacket and more than one hat so I try to select the ones that work together best.

 

[DJH]

I have a great clothes/hat solution, that I use everyday.

Step One. Put on clothes I feel like wearing.

Step Two. Put on hat I feel like wearing.

Once in a while, the hat and clothes go together pretty well.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I have a great clothes/hat solution, that I use everyday.

Step One. Put on clothes I feel like wearing.

Step Two. Put on hat I feel like wearing.

Once in a while, the hat and clothes go together pretty well.

That is how I do it, could not have stated it any better!

 

[dogrocketp]

First on the boater comment....The most formal hat is a top hat, then a homburg, then a boater. All the other fedoras fall below according to type, brim width, ribbon, etc. I wear my fedoras on a daily basis, along with whatever suit or sport coat is necessary for the day. My western fedoras are on as soon as I am casually dressed. I have a western fedora that is my rain hat. There is ,as others have stated, an awful lot of what you like that makes you feel good. Just wear them happily.

 

[Levallois]

I've always liked the G9 Baracuta Jacket made in England. Steve McQueen, James Dean and Elvis can't be wrong. Light weight, fashionable and looks great with a lid.

A not great photo.

 

[gpotski]

I like my Buzz Rickson MA-1 with my fedora...

 

[kaosharper1]

I also live in SoCal. Any short brown leather jacket will get Indy comments. I've gone to a longer coat, more mid-length. Then the Indy comments stop. These days there are a lot of nice cloth jackets that are medium length and they all look great with Fedoras and a scarf. Medium length leather jackets also work if you're stuck on leather.

 

[Sam Craig]

I can't imagine any sort of jacket that DOESN'T go with a fedora ... or a homburg or a derby, for that matter.
Last week I wore my new black derby with a sports shirt and tie and a dressy black windbreaker ... actually a golf jacket. It looked great.
Of course if you enjoy your leather jacket with any fedora, you get the Indiana Jones thing ... foolish rabbits!
But a leather jacket does look hot with a fedora.
I have a black leather three button blazer that looks great with my black derby.
All of my sports coats look terrific with fedoras. I just try to match up the colors so I like them.
I wear a hat every day. On days that I can drop by the house midway through the work day, I often change out, just so I don't wear the same hat ALL day, especially if it's warm.
So I am not going to fret over how the jacket goes. I just glance in the mirror. If I don't cringe, I head out.

Sam

 

[Rick Blaine]

My Jimmie Jeans Jacket

 

[gtdean48]

One of these...

 

[Sam Craig]

Now you are talking.

I don't suppose you find those at Wal-Marts

Sam

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

I have a black leather jacket that I wear with a Beaver Brand wide brimmed fedora. I wear my Brown Stetson Temple with an M-43 jacket, I have a WW2 reproduction and a lined M-65 both in Olive Drab. I also own a light tan sportcoat, but I haven't worn it with the Temple (yet). I have a Bone Rough Rider hat (3 inch brim) that I wear in the summer and with safari jackets. I just ordered a Tumwater Charcoal gray fedora with a 2.75 inch brim, and I just received a Jos. S. Banks Charcoal gray camel sportcoat to wear with it. I hope the Charcoal thing works out, the sportcoat was darker than I imagined.

Later

 

[1961MJS]

First on the boater comment....The most formal hat is a top hat, then a homburg, then a boater. All the other fedoras fall below according to type, brim width, ribbon, etc. I wear my fedoras on a daily basis, along with whatever suit or sport coat is necessary for the day. My western fedoras are on as soon as I am casually dressed. I have a western fedora that is my rain hat. There is ,as others have stated, an awful lot of what you like that makes you feel good. Just wear them happily.

OMG, Boater's are FORMAL. I didn't ever think of them that way. I'd wear a homburg, but the whole stiff boater thing leaves me kind of cold.

Later

 

[scottyrocks]

A boater is the last type of brimmed hat I could see myself in. Just not my thing although they look perfectly at home on some other people's heads.