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Which hat for a Noir Movie ?

Camille DeLarge

New in Town
Messages
25
Location
France
Skal vi ikke forsøge at holde dialogen på engelsk? Ellers kan dette hurtigt blive et splittet og uinteressant forum ;)

And translated from Danish:

Shouldn't we try to keep the dialog in English? If not, this could soon be a divided and uninteresting forum ;)


Sorry guy ^^
 

frenchgentleman

New in Town
Messages
31
Location
Paris
I do agree with what TheDane and ManofKent have said. The problem with most ready-to-wear modern hats will be the low crown if you want a "film noir" hat anyway. I have no Akubra Federation IV myself but if you want to stay in ready-to-wear maybe this would be the best alternative? You should read the Akubra Fed IV thread, I think you can buy it open crown if you wish. Also maybe "The Film" by Borsalino? Or if you can find a Stetson Nostalgia somewhere.

Regarding Flechet, once their slogan was "Chapeaux Fléchet, chapeaux parfaits" ("Flechet hats, perfect hats"). I have a 1943 "Fléchet Grand Luxe" from my grandfather, it is in great shape, high crown, quite boxy, not much taper, very high quality felt. I think I have read somewhere (maybe on the Lounge) that Flechet was a French company that had their factory at Chazelles s/ Lyon. Now it is a museum and the brand Fléchet was acquired by a distributor, whose hats are made in Italy or Eastern Europe. And the quality seems no to be the same anymore.

Regarding the size, you should now that it can differ a little from maker to maker: for example I have a modern Borsalino, size 58, but it is tighter than a size 58 hat I had from another company. I dont know which one was the most accurate.
 

Camille DeLarge

New in Town
Messages
25
Location
France
Okay, so if I'm looking nostalgia, I would have to find an original / vintage hat.

I think I'll stay with my choices are to take the hat Royal Stetson Whippet, and we can find it easily.
 

KingAndrew

A-List Customer
Messages
312
Location
Shanghai
When I looked at the Chapellerie website link, there was a hat in the lower right corner called the "Bogarte." It looks like it has a higher crown than the imitation Gris, but it still didn't look as 1940s as a Fed IV.
 

John Galt

Vendor
Messages
2,080
Location
Chico
Depending on size and condition, that's not a lot for a whippet

Yes, alas (mostly) gone are the days of $40-60 Whippets. I picked one up in a BIN for $68 or so a few weeks back though. It still happens from time to time, but you've gotta be fast & lucky...

Oh, and it helps to be a pinhead ;-)


"Faint hat never won fair lady."
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
Funny remark about film noir by Robert Mitchum in the last interview he ever did.

Noir films were B pictures. The features got all the best equipment, we had to light our scenes with a couple of cigarettes.
 
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TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Funny remark about film noir by Robert Mitchum in the last interview he ever did.

- and he probably meant it more or less as a joke. One of the characteristics was a sparse lighting with hard shadows (poor lighting, seen from a traditional PoW). I'm quite sure, it was due to visual style - not due to finances. Actually nobody made "film noir" back in the day. The concept became a mainstream term long after the noir era. Only very few movie-professionals used the expression in the 50s, while everybody was talking film noir in the 70s.
 

T Jones

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,633
Location
Central Ohio
Definitely looking noirish hatsRme....

Nobody did film noir like Mitchum and nobody wore the Whippet as well as he did....

"Out of the Past"
robert mitchum.jpg

Honorable mention from the same movie...looks to be a Stratoliner...
Out of the Past 02.jpg
 

T Jones

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,633
Location
Central Ohio
He also said he wore the same old hat and trench coat for years, they just changed the girl and the script.



I dunno....the coat looks different but the hat does look the same though...Well, the girl's different too!

Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh (Jamie Lee Curtis' mother). From the 1949 Christmas romance movie, "Holiday Affair". I actually liked that movie!...

Holiday Affair B&W.jpg
 

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