An Intro to Hat Terminology: A Fedora Lounge Guide

[Dinerman]

For those of you new to hats, here's a brief intro to terms and styles. For the sake of simplicity and easy reading, a lot of the finer points have been omitted, but this will at least get you started.

General Hat Styles

Common hat creases

Hat Parts

Types of Brim Edges

Types of sweatbands

 

[gtdean48]

Sticky time! Great post...

 

[mikespens]

Sticky time! Great post...

+1

 

[m0nk]

This is great and will go a long way to helping some newer members. Also hoping it'll be a sticky...

 

[jlee562]

excellent!

 

[job]

Great thread. Need to insert a wind trolley on a hat.

 

[Dressedtothe9s]

Thanks again for the great info. I think you are the guy to help me with a question..I have an older Borsalino and I cant seem to find the term for the brim edge. It is not shown above, but has a delicate sewn edge. VERY fine, just on the tip of the edge. Any clues?

 

[job]

Whipstitch?

 

[Dan Cav]

Good Job!!

Concise information at a glance....thanks mate.

+1 on the wind trolley cord inclusion.

 

[scooter]

I finally see the difference between reeded and unreeded sweats. Thank you!

 

[SHOWSOMECLASS]

Moving foward, this is a research post.

 

[m0nk]

Whipstitch?

+1
I've seen this on vintage and modern Borsalinos but Optimo is doing it as well. There may be others...

Would be a good one to add to the brim info.

 

[jlee562]

I didn't know Optimo was doing it....

Here's a picture of my Gay Prince:

Is this what you were describing Dressedtothe9s?

 

[m0nk]

I didn't know Optimo was doing it....

Here's a picture of my Gay Prince:

Is this what you were describing Dressedtothe9s?

That's nice looking. I saw one on their site last year but went back to look it up and can't find it. It wasn't as nearly defined as yours, but similar to the Borsalino style. They have another type of stitched edge too that's similar to a Cavanaugh, but without the slight bump, it's just stitched. It's on a couple of their sample models on the hats page.

 

[scooter]

Here's another term I struggle to understand, taper. Could someone please post a couple pics, clearly demonstrating taper?

 

[Dressedtothe9s]

I didn't know Optimo was doing it....

Here's a picture of my Gay Prince:

Is this what you were describing Dressedtothe9s?

Wow..I love yours, that is really cool. I would definately call that a whipstitch. Here is a pic of mine, it is so fine and right on the edge of the brim

 

[alanfgag]

Decorative stitching on a raw brim edge could fill its own chapter... as would the variations in ribbon binding.

The overcast stitching in the Borsalino you show is a particularly elegant touch. Here is another from the same era:

and a triple line of V stitching in a pre-war Stetson:

 

[job]

I think of taper on a hat as having a cone shape or a triangular shaped crown. The sides will not be perpendicular.

 

[jlee562]

Here's another term I struggle to understand, taper. Could someone please post a couple pics, clearly demonstrating taper?

Taper refers to the angle of the sides of the crown. Lincoln's stovepipe topper is an example of a hat with essentially no taper. The Indiana Jones fedora (at least the version in Raiders of the Lost Ark) is another hat that is essentially free of taper.

Here's an old pic of the Stetson Temple I sold a while back:

You can see that the sides start to slope inwards towards the top of the crown, that's taper.
Here's a head on shot of my Fed IV (pardon the poor lighting):

The sides of the Fed IV are much more straight.

Although you can also have taper (or a lack of taper) at the front and back of the crown too, not just the sides.

 

[tealseal]

Snap Brim

Hi guys,
Every time I think I've got this pegged, something comes up that confuses me. So could someone set the record straight on what exactly a "snap brim" is? Comparisons to "shaped brim" would be much appreciated, along with a quick definition of "flange" and it's various forms. I know it's a big ask, but I think the answer would be quite valuable for this thread.