These are Optimo Melusine hats. It is a kind of long-ish hair hat with a silky finish. Did your hat look anything like this?I’ve been scouring the internet for ages trying to find an answer to this question, with essentially zero success.
First let me give you a little background… during the last dozen or so years of my dad’s life, he wore a cool black early eighties Stetson western hat, pretty much every day.
But it wasn’t exactly typical… and this is the part that’s been driving me nuts. I’ll try to describe it as best I can as someone who isn’t exactly well versed in the world of hats.
The felt was different. I remember the hairs being a little longer… but not like the wooly/grizzly hats that are still found sometimes today. Not that long. It stayed extremely neat and close to the rest of the felt… but it was soft. Very shiny and velvety.
Google told me it’s something Stetson called velour nap.
But I still have my doubts about that… I haven’t seen photographic evidence of this kind of felt… not that black felt photographs easily anyway.
THEN, I’ve been in discussion with a local milliner about the possibility of her giving one of my hats a quality shaping. And this subject came up… SHE says it’s MELUSUNE, something that some of you here seem to be familiar with.
But then I started googling, and the majority of the pics of this don’t really look like the hat I remember… it’s generally a good bit too long, unruly… and not quite as shiny as I remember. But we all know how reliable memory is.
Anyway… can anyone here clue me in somehow? Maybe you’re familiar with the western hats that Stetson was putting out during that era. Or maybe you’re a melusine expert. Or velour nap… unless that’s just something google made up to torture me.
Maybe KIND OF in the ballpark of the second, black one… but the others are too long… and honestly even the black one seems kind of long… and lacquered down or something.These are Optimo Melusine hats. It is a kind of long-ish hair hat with a silky finish. Did your hat look anything like this?
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I don't know about Melusine specifically, but they did something similar.You know… taking a closer look at various vintage Stetson velour fedoras of the sixties on eBay… I think that might be it… but did Stetson make cowboy hats like that in the early eighties? And would it have behaved like any other felt cowboy hat otherwise… when it came to stiffness and shaping?
Anyway… can anyone here clue me in somehow? Maybe you’re familiar with the western hats that Stetson was putting out during that era.
John Lofgren Monkey Boots Shinki Horsebuttt - $1,136 The classic monkey boot silhouette in an incredibly rich Shinki russet horse leather.
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Schott 568 Vandals Jacket - $1,250 The classic Perfecto motorcycle jacket, in a very special limited-edition Schott double rider style. Yes. It's hideous. Please send it to me for proper disposal.Is this “hair” too long? (On the hat …)
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On the hat, he says…Is this “hair” too long? (On the hat …)
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