Choosing My First Fedora

[bozak]

I’m thinking about getting my first fedora but I’m not sure where to start. I usually wear casual clothes and jackets. Any advice on a good style, color, or material for a first hat?

 

[GHT]

Welcome to The Lounge Bozak, tell us a little bit about yourself and where you are from, new members are always good to see.
You will find, in The Gentlemen's Gazette, much information about the fedora hat. https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/fedora-hat-guide/

 

[belfastboy]

I’m thinking about getting my first fedora but I’m not sure where to start. I usually wear casual clothes and jackets. Any advice on a good style, color, or material for a first hat?

1. Decide on a budget 2. Never buy a wool hat, choose a fur felt, rabbit to start. Much better value for money. 3. Check out Akubra, they offer great value for the money. Decent quality, they look good and are hard wearing. 4. Look at their Stylemaster model it offers great beginning proportions. medium width brim at 2 1/2", medium crown height. 5. Stay away from black and look to a more versatile colour such as gray or a fawn brown. 6.. If you buy on line make sure you have your size measured correctly.

 

[Edward]

I’m thinking about getting my first fedora but I’m not sure where to start. I usually wear casual clothes and jackets. Any advice on a good style, color, or material for a first hat?

Welcome on board. Where are you located? There are a couple of brands I'd recommend, perhaps location dependent. Is there a particular look you're going for? (Time period, style?)

Furfelt hats are by and far preferred over wool in these parts. A wool fedora can be very serviceable as a practical hat, though in my experience it will never hold as nice a shape as furfelt, particularly if you want that classic fedora brim-shape (snapped-down at the front, up at the back).

The first thing to do is figure out your size. If you can get to a shop that sells hats with specific (numerical) sizes (as opposed to "S / M / L / XL / et cetera), that would be a huge help in working out your size. Metric size is the most useful to confirm, given its consistency: US traditional sizes are 1/8 up from the UK sizzing system, such that a UK7 is equivalent to a US 7 1/8, which can be confusing to begin with. Once you have a good idea of size, it's easier to try a range of hats by post, especially buying used via eBay.

Oh... just one word of warning. If you want to find the single hat that will be "your hat" in colour / shape / style, the one hat you'll wear every day.... A lot of us once thought like that too. Twenty years later, I have maybe two dozen furfelt hats, close to a dozen straws, and maybe three dozen caps.... This place is full of enablers! ;-)

 

[ClementJames]

I’m thinking about getting my first fedora but I’m not sure where to start. I usually wear casual clothes and jackets. Any advice on a good style, color, or material for a first hat?

'Tis the classic question! That partly depends on what you want to spend. There are many great custom hatter for fedoras that are very reasonably priced. If you did not want to go bespoke, then I personally think the classics from Fernandez y Roche and Borsalino are top notch. Bellissimo is more fashion forward. Stetson also makes many nice fedoras. Their temple, stratoliner and Whippet are reasonably priced and nice quality.

 

[belfastboy]

'Tis the classic question! That partly depends on what you want to spend. There are many great custom hatter for fedoras that are very reasonably priced. If you did not want to go bespoke, then I personally think the classics from Fernandez y Roche and Borsalino are top notch. Bellissimo is more fashion forward. Stetson also makes many nice fedoras. Their temple, stratoliner and Whippet are reasonably priced and nice quality.

Borsalino and F y R are expensive off the rack hats and I don't think a great choice for a starter hat. I think a common arc for first time hatters is not getting thieir forever hat on the first purchase. It can take a while to dial in what exactly is a fit for us. Spending big $$ on a first hat is not the prudent purchase.

 

[ClementJames]

Borsalino and F y R are expensive off the rack hats and I don't think a great choice for a starter hat. I think a common arc for first time hatters is not getting thieir forever hat on the first purchase. It can take a while to dial in what exactly is a fit for us. Spending big $$ on a first hat is not the prudent purchase.

I think you can find pre-owned hats at a very reasonable price. You don't have to buy new. I think every hat that I bought new, I first started with a pre-owned version. I started with scala and made my way up the line. I would note that I also gave a range or price points that were not Borsalino and F y R. What is expensive to one is not to another. Personally, I would rather pay more for a hat that I love and will wear but let the poster decide what is prudent for their budget. There was a beaver-mink F y R listed for $260 here... Gems can be found pre-owned.

 

[belfastboy]

I think you can find pre-owned hats at a very reasonable price. You don't have to buy new. I think every hat that I bought new, I first started with a pre-owned version. I started with scala and made my way up the line. I would note that I also gave a range or price points that were not Borsalino and F y R. What is expensive to one is not to another. Personally, I would rather pay more for a hat that I love and will wear but let the poster decide what is prudent for their budget. There was a beaver-mink F y R listed for $260 here... Gems can be found pre-owned.

Yes, but a new buyer, that is unfamiliar with hats it is risky to buy used. My experience, many years back, as a newbie looking for used/vintage hats, I had to kiss a lot of frogs before finding keeper hats. Unless one is experienced in the hatting world buying used is fraught with difficulties. And you did not direct the poster towards the used market. For instance, vintage Borsalinos tend to run small so the poster buys his size he risks the purchase of a hat that does not fit.

 

[ClementJames]

Yes, but a new buyer, that is unfamiliar with hats it is risky to buy used. My experience, many years back, as a newbie looking for used/vintage hats, I had to kiss a lot of frogs before finding keeper hats. Unless one is experienced in the hatting world buying used is fraught with difficulties. And you did not direct the poster towards the used market. For instance, vintage Borsalinos tend to run small so the poster buys his size he risks the purchase of a hat that does not fit.I dI have bought hats that were too small ... and now my children have a nice hat collection. I just want to avoid someone buying a cheap hat and then thinking, "They are not a hat person" because they were with a bad choice on quality.

I'll leave it with this: I hope the OP finds a nice hat, and I hope they don't buy a cheap or poorly constructed hat and end up regretting it. Buying something inexpensive and then buying what you wanted anyway is not saving money. A hat is an important purchase, but its not financially crippling to most. If it is - don't buy any hat. I also think that you can improve your learning curve by starting out with a better hat. I didn't buy another hat for a decade because my first one fell far short of the quality I later learned was out there. I stand by the brands I mentioned as offering genuinely fine quality, whether new or pre-owned, across the price range.

 

[jba972]

I just want to add that I've bought some hats where I have flip flopped my feelings about them where after I got it I wasn't crazy about it but for whatever reason after some time of living with it I have become attached to them. Sometimes all it takes is just a matter of changing the crown or brim a bit.

 

[jlee562]

What are we even doing on a *vintage hat forum* if we are discouraging people from buying vintage.

As I don't have a vested interest in selling hats, I will point out that in general, the quality of a good vintage hat surpasses modern in every way. Yes, of course individual hats might have an issue(s), but there is a reason that a forum exists to document and discuss vintage hats. I am in no way suggesting that all vintage hats are flawless and worth your time. But if you do spend a little bit of time, the end result will be better than what you can buy today off the rack or from a hatter. If you spend a little bit of time to say, learn some cues of an actual Stetson made in the Philadelphia factory and how to avoid Stevens era hats and later, one could be well equipped to seek out a good Open Road.

Which is also my recommendation for a first hat. The Campdraft is an acceptable substitute, but Akubras tend to shrink, and I'm not particularly fond of Akubra's Silverbelly. As an aside, in my experience, the size variation of vintage hats is not wildly out of proportion to the production tolerances of modern factory hats. In other words, you can buy a brand new hat and it also might not fit correctly. I don't think this is a convincing reason to forgo looking at vintage. But anyways, the Open Road is relatively easier to find because it is a long-standing and popular hat. Be sure you're buying a hat that says Open Road on it, because many sellers think everything is an OR. Silverbelly is a very versatile color that you could wear with a suit or with jeans. I would take a 60s 3x over a modern beaver felt any day of the week.

I think the "kissing frogs" analogy is really more of a skill issue. If you jump in head first, yeah, you might buy something you'll come to regret. I've certainly bought hats that I now wear infrequently because my tastes have changed, but I haven't personally really had the experience of buying lots of vintage hats that I did not like for whatever reason. One person's anecdotal experience (mine included, obvs), should not be taken as gospel.

FWIW, among the hats I did buy and later sell, was a Stetson Temple. I do actually think it's a perfectly fine hat that looks good on a wide variety of face shapes. If you only ever bought one fedora style hat, you could do a lot worse than the Temple. But the deeper I got into hats, the less tolerance I had for the pre-creased crown.

 

[belfastboy]

What are we even doing on a *vintage hat forum* if we are discouraging people from buying vintage.

As I don't have a vested interest in selling hats, I will point out that in general, the quality of a good vintage hat surpasses modern in every way. Yes, of course individual hats might have an issue(s), but there is a reason that a forum exists to document and discuss vintage hats. I am in no way suggesting that all vintage hats are flawless and worth your time. But if you do spend a little bit of time, the end result will be better than what you can buy today off the rack or from a hatter. If you spend a little bit of time to say, learn some cues of an actual Stetson made in the Philadelphia factory and how to avoid Stevens era hats and later, one could be well equipped to seek out a good Open Road.

Which is also my recommendation for a first hat. The Campdraft is an acceptable substitute, but Akubras tend to shrink, and I'm not particularly fond of Akubra's Silverbelly. As an aside, in my experience, the size variation of vintage hats is not wildly out of proportion to the production tolerances of modern factory hats. In other words, you can buy a brand new hat and it also might not fit correctly. I don't think this is a convincing reason to forgo looking at vintage. But anyways, the Open Road is relatively easier to find because it is a long-standing and popular hat. Be sure you're buying a hat that says Open Road on it, because many sellers think everything is an OR. Silverbelly is a very versatile color that you could wear with a suit or with jeans. I would take a 60s 3x over a modern beaver felt any day of the week.

I think the "kissing frogs" analogy is really more of a skill issue. If you jump in head first, yeah, you might buy something you'll come to regret. I've certainly bought hats that I now wear infrequently because my tastes have changed, but I haven't personally really had the experience of buying lots of vintage hats that I did not like for whatever reason. One person's anecdotal experience (mine included, obvs), should not be taken as gospel.

FWIW, among the hats I did buy and later sell, was a Stetson Temple. I do actually think it's a perfectly fine hat that looks good on a wide variety of face shapes. If you only ever bought one fedora style hat, you could do a lot worse than the Temple. But the deeper I got into hats, the less tolerance I had for the pre-creased crown.

Well, we do agree then that purchasing vintage hats requires knowledge and skill. For a first time hat purchaser it is good that you warned them the process is not easy, not straightforward and will require them to dive in and gain the skill and knowledge to equip themselves to enter into the vintage hunt.

 

[jlee562]

Well, we do agree then that purchasing vintage hats requires knowledge and skill.

I don't think there's fundamentally any difference between making an informed vintage hat purchase vs any other informed purchase. Collecting anything: hats, jackets, baseball cards, comic books, knives, etc, etc, etc requires knowledge.

Purchasing a new, off the rack hat also requires knowledge, because one can, in fact, also make a bad purchase of a new or custom hat.

If you're done collecting vintage, you do you. But this is the vintage hat forum, and I'm going to discuss vintage hats and encourage people to buy and enjoy them.

 

[shopkin]

I think you have to buy at least one or two hats to zero in on your size. Then buy one or two more to find what style and color suits and compliments you. Only then. graduate from wool to fir. The first beaver will cost as much as everything that came before it put together.

 

[Judgmentalist]

What are we even doing on a *vintage hat forum* if we are discouraging people from buying vintage.

As I don't have a vested interest in selling hats, I will point out that in general, the quality of a good vintage hat surpasses modern in every way. Yes, of course individual hats might have an issue(s), but there is a reason that a forum exists to document and discuss vintage hats. I am in no way suggesting that all vintage hats are flawless and worth your time. But if you do spend a little bit of time, the end result will be better than what you can buy today off the rack or from a hatter. If you spend a little bit of time to say, learn some cues of an actual Stetson made in the Philadelphia factory and how to avoid Stevens era hats and later, one could be well equipped to seek out a good Open Road.

Which is also my recommendation for a first hat. The Campdraft is an acceptable substitute, but Akubras tend to shrink, and I'm not particularly fond of Akubra's Silverbelly. As an aside, in my experience, the size variation of vintage hats is not wildly out of proportion to the production tolerances of modern factory hats. In other words, you can buy a brand new hat and it also might not fit correctly. I don't think this is a convincing reason to forgo looking at vintage. But anyways, the Open Road is relatively easier to find because it is a long-standing and popular hat. Be sure you're buying a hat that says Open Road on it, because many sellers think everything is an OR. Silverbelly is a very versatile color that you could wear with a suit or with jeans. I would take a 60s 3x over a modern beaver felt any day of the week.

I think the "kissing frogs" analogy is really more of a skill issue. If you jump in head first, yeah, you might buy something you'll come to regret. I've certainly bought hats that I now wear infrequently because my tastes have changed, but I haven't personally really had the experience of buying lots of vintage hats that I did not like for whatever reason. One person's anecdotal experience (mine included, obvs), should not be taken as gospel.

FWIW, among the hats I did buy and later sell, was a Stetson Temple. I do actually think it's a perfectly fine hat that looks good on a wide variety of face shapes. If you only ever bought one fedora style hat, you could do a lot worse than the Temple. But the deeper I got into hats, the less tolerance I had for the pre-creased crown.

I disagree with the characterization of this forum as a “vintage hat forum”. Despite the obvious preferences of a vocal purist subset of the community, from what I can tell significant space has always been devoted to modern and custom hats, among others.

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/focus-only-on-vintage.18006/

Deckard went even further elsewhere.

In another 2007 discussion about combining contemporary clothing with older styles, Deckard said:

“It’s not about looking vintage, it’s about looking good and knowing your own sense of style.”

And, discussing Classic Style, which was closely tied to TFL, he explicitly said that “you don’t have to be vintage to be classic.” He talked about putting together an entire outfit from modern clothing.

Modern hats have been part of the forum’s substantive discussion almost from the beginning.

There was a dedicated “Modern Production Hats” thread in 2007 discussing contemporary Borsalino, Optimo, Art Fawcett, current production felt and commissioning new custom hats.

We can also establish where TFL actually came from.

MK himself described its origins in January 2006:

“We started off as a very small group that either came from the Indiana Jones camp or from Atomic Magazine’s website.”

The current official language is broader still. The current moderation policy doesn’t define TFL in terms of either hats or vintage:

“Our forum exists to foster intelligent, respectful discussion about style, craftsmanship, and culture.”

Those three nouns are the closest thing TFL presently has to a formal mission statement.

 

[ClementJames]

I just want to add that I've bought some hats where I have flip flopped my feelings about them where after I got it I wasn't crazy about it but for whatever reason after some time of living with it I have become attached to them. Sometimes all it takes is just a matter of changing the crown or brim a bit.

That is a good point. I am sure my lesser quality hats led me to a deeper appreciation for my "better" hats. Even my inexpensive hats still get their day in the sun a few times a year. I just love hats ...

 

[jlee562]

I disagree with the characterization of this forum as a “vintage hat forum”. Despite the obvious preferences of a vocal purist subset of the community, from what I can tell significant space has always been devoted to modern and custom hats, among others.

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/focus-only-on-vintage.18006/

Deckard went even further elsewhere.

In another 2007 discussion about combining contemporary clothing with older styles, Deckard said:

“It’s not about looking vintage, it’s about looking good and knowing your own sense of style.”

And, discussing Classic Style, which was closely tied to TFL, he explicitly said that “you don’t have to be vintage to be classic.” He talked about putting together an entire outfit from modern clothing.

Modern hats have been part of the forum’s substantive discussion almost from the beginning.

There was a dedicated “Modern Production Hats” thread in 2007 discussing contemporary Borsalino, Optimo, Art Fawcett, current production felt and commissioning new custom hats.

We can also establish where TFL actually came from.

MK himself described its origins in January 2006:

“We started off as a very small group that either came from the Indiana Jones camp or from Atomic Magazine’s website.”

The current official language is broader still. The current moderation policy doesn’t define TFL in terms of either hats or vintage:

“Our forum exists to foster intelligent, respectful discussion about style, craftsmanship, and culture.”

Those three nouns are the closest thing TFL presently has to a formal mission statement.

No offense intended, but you've been here since March of this year, I signed up in 2009. I'm not going to litigate the history of the board culture, but I will say that a number of respected members no longer post. So if your impression is that the vintage folks are a small group of "purists," I would simply point out that was not always the case. The claim is not that we never discuss modern hats, heck, we used to have a resident Hatco rep and I'm literally talking about a modern OR in another thread. But the lions share of information has always been vintage.

Do note that what Matt wrote also included this part: "we ask where the good looks from back then went and tell you who makes the clothes up to the old standars today."

Even in this post you present, the reference is to vintage. Akubra does not make hats to those standards. Modern hats do not hit all the old standards.

 

[belfastboy]

I don't think there's fundamentally any difference between making an informed vintage hat purchase vs any other informed purchase. Collecting anything: hats, jackets, baseball cards, comic books, knives, etc, etc, etc requires knowledge.

Purchasing a new, off the rack hat also requires knowledge, because one can, in fact, also make a bad purchase of a new or custom hat.

If you're done collecting vintage, you do you. But this is the vintage hat forum, and I'm going to discuss vintage hats and encourage people to buy and enjoy them.

Wow, all these years I have been operating on the premise that the Lounge is a place for all things hat related: new, used, vintage and custom. Could other members chime in and tell me their thoughts? Am I so wrong on this point? Is this no longer the place for me as I don't collect vintage hats?

 

[jlee562]

Is this no longer the place for me as I don't collect vintage hats?

Correct.

 

[Judgmentalist]

No offense intended, but you've been here since March of this year, I signed up in 2009. I'm not going to litigate the history of the board culture, but I will say that a number of respected members no longer post. So if your impression is that the vintage folks are a small group of "purists," I would simply point out that was not always the case. The claim is not that we never discuss modern hats, heck, we used to have a resident Hatco rep and I'm literally talking about a modern OR in another thread. But the lions share of information has always been vintage.

Do note that what Matt wrote also included this part: "we ask where the good looks from back then went and tell you who makes the clothes up to the old standars today."

Even in this post you present, the reference is to vintage. Akubra does not make hats to those standards. Modern hats do not hit all the old standards.

1.) None taken.

2.) I did not propose litigating the history or culture of the board.

3.) How long I have been a member has no bearing on what the forum’s publicly available content demonstrates. I am not presenting my limited personal experience as evidence. Where would be the value in that?

4.) I made no claim about the size of the subset of this community that might be described, for lack of a better word, as “purists.” I referred only to the existence of that subset and to the position it advances.

5.) I do not accept the premise that the best modern hats are inherently inferior to the best vintage hats. “The old standards” is too vague to constitute evidence. Which particular standards are meant, how are they being measured and what independently verifiable evidence establishes that modern makers cannot meet them?

Akubra is one modern manufacturer. Its products do not establish the upper limit of modern hatmaking any more than an ordinary vintage Stetson establishes the upper limit of vintage hatmaking. The relevant comparison would be between the finest documented examples from each period.

Thus far, every attempt I have made to find objective support for the proposition that superior vintage quality is categorically unreproducible has dissolved upon close examination. I remain entirely willing to consider evidence to the contrary.