Brim up or brim down

[milandro]

A lady once asked Duke Ellington “what is jazz?” He answered, “If you gotta ask, don’t mess with it.”

I suppose then, that this article will make a nice reading ....


https://www.deseret.com/1990/3/23/18852945/histories-mess-with-jazz-saying

 

[blewnote]

Similarly I have a number of panamas but one I wear with the front brim down and one with both up (and I am very happy with its looks).

I realized that I should have added when I was talking about snapping the brim down that I only meant in the front. I am not at all a fan of the brim down in front and back. For whatever reason it just looks hokey to me.

But all that said, I think people should wear their hats however it makes them feel good.

 

[blewnote]

I don’t think it has any impact on formality regardless of what someone may have written 80 years ago. It’s also not a dichotomy: up or down. There are many ways to shape the brim and it’s not a spectrum but a web with all sorts of divergent styles.

I’ve grown to like the brim up style more over time, but it’s a very different brim up look than most modern wearers use. It also requires the right dimensions and the right flange.

On a related subject: I recently received a wonderful custom western hat. I wasn’t sure how I was going to shape the generous open crown, but I knew it wouldn’t be a cattleman’s crease as I don’t like that over-used style. Once I had the hat in my hands it just wanted a cattleman’s crease so I went with it and it really works well with the hat. Often you need to just go with it and not fight the hat trying to achieve some preconceived style or shaping.

I guess for whatever reason having the brim up and tilted back a little seems to work better with less formal outfits in my eye and when I read that old copy I was suprised that at the time they considered the opposite the case (although as I said, it didn't seem like there was a huge distinction). I agree with you that it takes a certain shaping, I like the brim to be relatively flatter for it to work.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I guess for whatever reason having the brim up and tilted back a little seems to work better with less formal outfits in my eye and when I read that old copy I was suprised that at the time they considered the opposite the case (although as I said, it didn't seem like there was a huge distinction). I agree with you that it takes a certain shaping, I like the brim to be relatively flatter for it to work.

There never has been truth in advertising and I’ve never cared too much for what the supposed style experts have had to say.

Brim up is growing on me, but not in the way most modern hat wearers think of as brim up.

 

[milandro]

I realise that there is no account for taste or rules , but brim up are a frequent feature of the elegant people of a by gone era and not a modern thing only. Duke Ellington (who wore also hats brim snapped down at the front) was certainly one of the most elegant people of his times.

That is the look that I am talking about and I am after with SOME of my hats

It may be that this is predominately a musician thing ( I play although I am not a great saxophone player), but this look Is carried on by many modern musicians too.




click to enlarge if you so wish

 

[Rmccamey]

I realise that there is no account for taste or rules , but brim up are a frequent feature of the elegant people of a by gone era and not a modern thing only. Duke Ellington (who wore also hats brim snapped down at the front) was certainly one of the most elegant people of his times.

That is the look that I am talking about and I am after with SOME of my hats

It may be that this is predominately a musician thing ( I play although I am not a great saxophone player), but this look Is carried on by many modern musicians too.




click to enlarge if you so wish

Few people (not none, but few) have the head/hair to wear a hat with the sweatband above the front hairline in all but the most sedate settings (ie, an indoor photo shoot or sitting at a piano). The least puff of wind would take it right off the head. The last two pictures you post, with the sweatband at or over the front hairline, is much more common for active, daily wear hats regardless of whether the brim is worn up or down.

Homburgs traditionally have a moderate flange (brim curl) and/or rolled edge that tends to open up the wearers face to a greater extent. Rather than struggle with a snap brim fedora or trilby, you might check out a few Homburgs to see if you can get the look you are going for.

 

[milandro]

I have an homburg and I occasionally wear it.

I still like SOME other hats to be worn wit the brim up .

I consider the classic open road also a brim up....

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I have an homburg and I occasionally wear it.

I still like SOME other hats to be worn wit the brim up .

I consider the classic open road also a brim up....

But the photo is not of a classic Open Road. The classic didn’t have the machine pressed cattleman’s crease crown. Your photo is of a very modern hat worn in a very modern manner. At least to my eye.

 

[Bamaboots]

I consider the classic open road also a brim up....

Regardless of what the expert says, I think Stetson considered it a classic look as well, whether machine pressed or hand creased. These old ads are testament to that.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Regardless of what the expert says, I think Stetson considered it a classic look as well, whether machine pressed or hand creased. These old ads are testament to that.
View attachment 557098
View attachment 557099
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And this shit gets so old! I guess these aren’t classics either.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Well heck….i’m so darned confused now!
I don’t know what to do??
One post i’m up, the next post i’m down. Then comes which hat on what person, when they wore it and what they were doing. And then the weather!
I give. Imma iron all my hat brims out flat as a pancake, just like the earth!!
That way when the winner wins i’m in the middle and my opinion was 1-1=0.
But…love the convincifications!!
As always.
YMMV
B

 

[livelyjames]

I wear my hats with the brim up….just cuz I like it.

 

[Who?]

One man’s suave and debonair look is another man’s goofball look.

No matter what you do, someone, somewhere, will think you look like a dork.

 

[Bamaboots]

My involvement in this discussion comes from not giving a damn about how one wears their brim and the making of declarative statements without citation. This place is loaded with BS and misinformation. I'm sure @milandro thinks of it as a classic style and Hatco or whoever is making Stetson's surely does. The Open Road has never left their lineup. It may not be the open crowned beauty so many of us enjoy but it's still easily recognizable after all these years. At least to my eye. And once again, since we're on the subject. I've never seen an OR worn brim down before TFL

 

[Frunobulax]

My involvement in this discussion comes from not giving a damn about how one wears their brim and the making of declarative statements without citation. This place is loaded with BS and misinformation. I'm sure @milandro thinks of it as a classic style and Hatco or whoever is making Stetson's surely does. The Open Road has never left their lineup. It may not be the open crowned beauty so many of us enjoy but it's still easily recognizable after all these years. At least to my eye. And once again, since we're on the subject. I've never seen an OR worn brim down before TFL

I don't have a dog in this fight, either. I agree the brim up cattleman is the classic look. However, I find it curious I've never bought a vintage OR that had a cattleman already in it.

Never thought about that before.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

A short while back I found this quote while doing some research on Amon Carter. Until this BS came up again today I had forgotten about it. I will be quoting the article at length in the appropriate thread with documentation but will quote a partial paragraph here:

“Carter named his new creation the Shady Oak. “He changed the hat business,” says Chieffalo. “He made a hat that was urban for the Western states. Suddenly, men that lived in cities all up and down the Midwest, from Chicago to San Antonio, they had their own hat style. If you were in a city in the West, you had one of those hats.” Hat shops all over began making the design and giving it their own name: the Open Road, the San Antonio, the Bankers Special, the Cattle Buyer. By the 1940s, most ranch owners were wearing this “cowboy fedora,” not only when they traveled to the city but back on the ranch as well.”

See the full article in the other thread. To that I only add that it was the Stratoliner that was designed perfectly for a smaller film noir, tug boat, brim down style.

 

[Bamaboots]

I find it curious I've never bought a vintage OR that had a cattleman already in it.

Got me to thinking. I believe out of the six or so I have only two came with a cattleman crease and only one was obviously worn as a snap brim fedora. All of the various OR clones I have came with a cattleman.

 

[Frunobulax]

Got me to thinking. I believe out of the six or so I have only two came with a cattleman crease and only one was obviously worn as a snap brim fedora. All of the various OR clones I have came with a cattleman.

Well, two points. First, my memory may be mistaken. Second, most of my vintage hats have come with a "smoosh" rather than a crease.

 

[milandro]

my conversion of a stetson silver belly Bar None ended up as a wide brim back up and front down... Go figure!