The BORSALINO BROTHERHOOD

[randooch]

Much more complexity in that color in this light. Beautiful!

+1

You certainly take great photographs.

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks Randall. I've been enjoying the iPhone camera and using it for almost all my FL posts over the last month or two. I discovered today that there is an exposure lock feature in the new software release that I didn't know about. I do open the images in Photoshop to adjust color and size. The color balance and image processing is generally better than my Canon digital Elph and the workflow is quicker. As long as you have enough light to work with, it's brilliant.

 

[DougC]

Stopped in at Meyer the Hatter while in NOLA and bought one of their last Allesandria's in 7 1/8th. What a great hat!

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

So, I'm bumping along w/o a single Borsalino to my name when I buy my first from Bond around Christmas, a beautiful dark brown 30's vintage hat. Wow, I say...now I get what all the fuss is about. These are really nice hats. Imagine my delight when I win 3 of them in a single ebay bid...and they fit! But now, I need to know what I actually won. Two have 3" brims and one has a 2" brim. My guess is that one is fairly old, one from the 60's (which is probably still fairly old but that makes me old, too, so let's not go there ) and one from maybe the 80's. But I post them here for more input from folks that have handled these hats far more than I.
Brown Borsalino:

Grey Borsalino:

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

Continuing...Green Borsalino:

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

On the green stingy Borsalino, I found a stamp on the inside of the sweat: 13. Mal 1963. Not sure if that is an Italian month but it would confirm my guess that it was from the 60's

 

[Chepstow]

Great Jeff, wonderful Hats. The dark brown with borsalino on the bow is a newer one.
Difficult to estimate. I would guess 80s.
The green has a stamp. Maybe from the retailer shop, then he is older as the stamp, my guess.
The gray Borso, my tendenz too the 50s. As I said. just a guess.
But all, very nice.

 

[alanfgag]

Hi Hoss,

The first hat is modern era. 60s-70s on the other two would be my guess.

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

I forgot to put my Borsalino Rollable in here earlier this week...

I was looking back through the thread when I noticed your Rollable was virtually identical to the hat I just picked up this week. Even the shadow where the ribbon had been appears to be the same height. The liner looks to be from the same shop in Rome, as well. What is the brim dimension of your hat if you don't mind me asking? Here are some shots to compare...

 

[Rodkins]

The brim on mine is 2 7/8 inches.
Nice hats!
Mike

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

I'm not up to speed on how to read the tags and date the Borsalino. I think I read that the older tags (w/logo) did not contain date info but later tags did. If so, how do these tags read? On those above, is one a 1968 and one a 1970?

 

[carouselvic]

no, dateable tags are this type

rounded corners with a hyphenated numeral in the upper right corner...1978

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

Got it...and obviously even with rounded corners, the date wasn't necessarily posted as the brown hat has similar stamp shape but no hyphenated date. Thanks for the illustration

 

[carouselvic]

correct

 

[Hoss & da Posse]

The brim on mine is 2 7/8 inches.
Nice hats!
Mike

Ok...same as mine. Do you consider it a rollable hat or just a shipping box for initial use. I guess I thought a rollable hat would not use a leather sweat but a cloth one. Also, have you dated yours? Flowers, chocolates?

 

[EggHead]

Gentlemen, I notice that often in regards to Borsalino fedoras, the leather sweatband looks detached in some places, particularly at the front. Is that a normal thing? or does it has to do with the fact that sweat is not reeded? How does one go about fixing, if needed, something like this?

 

[Rabbit]

Egghead, the front area in question is a Borsalino feature on unreeded sweatbands specifically designed to prevent sweat from permeating into the felt. It doesn't alter the wearablity of the hat; it's a quality feature. It is only at the front area, where the skin has direct contact to the sweatband, that the additional layer is installed.

Here's an example on my Borsalino Misto. Blow it up separately for more detail:

Older, especially 1930s unreeded sweatbands are prone to popping stitches. If that happens they need to be re-sewn very carefully. I've sewn them by hand; a hatter might be able to sew it more professionally. I don't know whether or not hatters of today still accept work on unreeded sweats.

I fixed a 1930s Mallory heather blue this way (got help from Josh on how to do it), see also here, posts #461 to #475:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/show...MALLORY-MILE&p=1374240&viewfull=1#post1374240

 

[GamaH]

Packable hats have always boggled my mind.

 

[EggHead]

Thanks Rabbit!!

 

[Rodkins]

Ok...same as mine. Do you consider it a rollable hat or just a shipping box for initial use. I guess I thought a rollable hat would not use a leather sweat but a cloth one. Also, have you dated yours? Flowers, chocolates?

I don't plan on putting mine back in the box. While it is certainly "rollable" I think this was really meant for packaging or shipping and not storing once the hat had been shaped. I think mine is 50's but I'm not sure.