Wormser

[Mobile Vulgus]

You are landing some nice fish there lately.

Thanks, Dan.

 

[hatophile]

Thanks,

I can see why you like that one!

 

[Neophyte]

Beautiful hats here, but it saddens me when I remember that the Wormser store here in town closed down before I ever got into hats . Oh well, there's always the bay !

 

[monbla256]

I bought my first Panama at the Wormser store in downtown Dallas back in the early '70s. I remember them well, always stopping in when I went to Dallas. As I recall, I bought two or three more Panama's from them till they closed in the '80s. Never looked at the felts, mabe 'cause I seemed to only get there in the summer

 

[barrowjh]

I visited the Wormser store in downtown Chattanooga before it closed; its closure was a non-event. The owners had purchased the existing inventory which may have included mostly Hatco products, or they beefed up with Hatco. There were a very few hats left that had a Wormser label in them, and they were real odd-balls from the 1960s or later, I would not have purchased them even if they had one in my size (which they didn't). The Hatco fur felts looked almost as old as the Wormser hats, inventory was turning slowly if at all. They did not have a decent looking fur felt in my size; they were not really marketing them, so I got the impression that the felts were just some dead stock they were slowly selling off. All of this talk about fur felts; they occupied one floor-to-ceiling glass cabinet near the cash register at the back, and most of the store was caps, beanies, all sorts of headwear-related stuff and some other winter accessories. The sales 'force' (possibly the owners) was a pair of young asians; they did not speak english well and were not interested in talking about fur felt hats, and from what I could tell, could have been nothing more than students who did not care one whit about what they were selling. Underwhelming is an understatement of the feeling after visiting the store. I visited it twice over a few months, but the 2nd visit was extremely short as I quickly recognized that nothing had changed.

I did pick up a nice Wormser in my size on the bay, an OR clone where the wind trolley button is sewn to the hat with just a loop at the end of the string (instead of the other way around).

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

I did pick up a nice Wormser in my size on the bay, an OR clone where the wind trolley button is sewn to the hat with just a loop at the end of the string (instead of the other way around).

The first four vintage fedoras I bought were with the button sewn on. When eventually I got one that just had a loop on the end, I thought it was broken!! LOL

Nice Wormser, John. I like it a lot.

Shame about the store.

 

[freefalling]

I just won a Wormser. Here is the photo the seller had and I'll add more when it gets here either tomorrow or Monday.

Pretty rad hat!

 

[Bourne ID]

Just Joined the Lounge and I'm lovin it! Here are my Wormsers, the first was a gift and my first REAL Hat. The second I just picked up and it's fast becoming my favorite.

 

[Bourne ID]

The wind trolley on my Wormser is also stitched on with one single stitch in the back. Any help with ages would be appreciated since I've not delved that deep into this habit of mine.

 

[JimWagner]

Nice hats, one and all, but not being familiar with Wormser hats the first thing I pictured in my mind was:

 

[bowlerman]

Well you guys and your Wormser hype got me all curious, and I received one from 'da Bay today. I don't trust my own judgement enough yet to make a real assessment of the felt, but so far, after a little cleaning it really seems superb! Definitely a style I didn't have yet, and I think I could get used to it, even with such a stingy brim.

[/IMG]

Thanks for the indirect recommendation-- perhaps this is a *healthy* case of heartworm?

 

[I Adore Film Noir]

Possibly. Or 40s. There's no way it's a 60s hat, not from any year in the 1960s.

I'd guess 40's. I wonder if you could date it from tracking down an advertisement with the price of $8.50.

PS I want that hat and I'm a girl!

 

[Bourne ID]

Very nice find bowlerman. Stingy or not it's a great looking hat.

 

[barrowjh]

I was in Chattanooga yesterday and took a walk over by where the former Wormser store was; it is definitely gone. However, just one block away (on Market St. instead of Broad, and 8th or 9th) is the 'Downtown Mart' and they apparently purchased the entire contents of the Wormser store (including the display cases) and you can still see some Wormsers from their final inventory still for sale, with the original Wormser price tags. They are from the 1970s, maybe 80s, I presume. There is a 7 1/8 (my size) if I wanted a white bowler, but I do not. Mostly the inventory is newer stuff (cheaper), wool felts. Most of this 'Downtown Mart is like a drugstore, minus the prescription drug part.

 

[Neophyte]

That's too bad. I live in Chattanooga, so it would've been nice to have a hat shop around.

 

[barrowjh]

No change, really. It is now just a small part of a larger store. The selection was not so great before, anyway.

 

[HatsEnough]

I had an ebay seller sell me a nice Wormser in a silver/gray. It was a beautiful hat. It was sold as a size 7... the seller was SURE of it. When it came in... size 6-5/8 was clearly on the re-order sticker inside the hat. Fortunately they refunded my cash. But, seriously. That's a pretty big jump from a 7 down to a 6-5/8!

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Here are two shots of the Wormser hat store in Louisville,KY.
First is from 1923 in its first location on 4th street the main shopping district in Louisville a long time.

Now at some time the store moved down the street to the corner of 4th and Liberty and here is a photo from 1939.

The first one shows all the great caps and hats boy what a store. I have seen a lot of Wormser hats in the local vintage shops though never found any in
my size.

 

[Chepstow]

Ed, great finds!

 

[randooch]

Enjoying my soft Wormser bowler today.