CHURCHILL HATS

[Will Morgan]

Thats interesting Will...I bet your dad has lots of inside stories about the hat business!
Colby Jack

Indeed he does! One thing on the burner is to create a blog with which to get those hat stories out, and / or a book. For example we got our start as an Akubra distributor selling the Slouch or military hat to Eddie Bauer. And when I say Eddie Bauer, I mean David went downtown to sell them to Eddie personally, who featured them in a very successful national ad campaign.

Anyways more of that elsewhere, over time, I feel very fortunate to be able to chime in on these threads with the help of that forty five years of experience!

Meanwhile, I believe I might have earned one of these...
fftopic:

 

[HATCO]

Actually Churchill was created by Byer-Rolnick. It wasn't bought.

 

[CactusJax]

Hatco, Longview, Tx

Years ago this factory had an outlet. I think it was Resistol. some of us would buy the imperfect blanks and made some great Jed Clampett fishing hats with them. When I moved back to Longview in '83 the outlet was no more.

 

[CactusJax]

Dallas Outlet Location

Where is the Stetson Outlet in Garland Located? I need to check it out.

 

[J.T.Marcus]

Where is the Stetson Outlet in Garland Located? I need to check it out.

Hatco Hats
721 Marion Dr, Garland, TX 75042
(972) 494-0337

 

[ideaguy]

I bought a Churchill on the 'bay a couple of months ago- very much like
Alan C's; mine is also from Neiman-Marcus, but is a Silverbelly felt; OR
styling, but a little different- 2 5/8 brim, 4 1/2 crown, but looks larger;
nice felt, a bit stiffer than a vintage OR, but very smooth. Overall-very nice
quality hat, wear mine a lot. Small world.

 

[CactusJax]

I bought several nice Churchill Straws at NM in the 70's. When Dallas was the hot TV show and I lived there I also bought a Churchill western hat with a fat pheasant feather band that looked alot like one of JRs. They used to have Churchill seconds at the outlet in Longview.

 

[Uncle Vern]

Funny you guys should be discussing Churchill hats from Needless Markup---I just picked one up today at the Goodwill in south Austin, for $5.00. This is a western, with a leather band, a soft, camel-colored velour finish which is very nice, a 3.25-inch brim and a lot of crown, very soft and of seemingly high quality. It's got a few worm holes under the brim, but most of them should sand out easily. The original paper label in it states the price at $29.00. It was too tight when I tried it on, a 7 1/8 when I wear a 7 3/8. It felt bigger, though, so I Lexoled the sweat and fired up the tea kettle, and it stretched easily to my size. I read on Wikipedia that men's westerns at NM where going for $265.00 in 1965. I wonder if some of these NM hats are pure beaver?

 

[pplepic]

Box

I have a black Churchill hat box, but I got it at a flea market with a dandy Biltmore hat inside. The box is good condition however, and has a leatherette belt. Maybe someday I'll run into a Churchill hat to put in it.

 

[billysmom]

My Churchill "Savanah" in shantung straw is the hat that got me interested in dressy head coverings. My husband bought it for me over 20 years ago at John L. Ashe, at the time a very nice Fort Worth men's retailer. I still wear it regularly.

 

[Mario]

Here's my Churchill. Bought on the 'Bay about six weeks ago. Never touched it yet. It's still with my family in Maryville, and my mother will bring it over to Germany at the end of September. Me, I'm trying to be patient...until I can finally get rid of that feather!

It also appears to have a Cavanagh Edge as well.

 

[Mario]

Nice one. I really like it! :eusa_clap

I have a vintge one and I like it. It's my everyday hat. It's a nice hat with soft felt.

 

[buler]

Churchill Grosvenor

Here is a Churchill I found NOS in the box still covered with plastic. Model is a Grosvenor, color is London Gray. The hat looks black until you set it next to a black hat. Then it looks like a super dark brown/grey. Has a cav edge and a very stingy brim. Original price was $16.95.

B

 

[buler]

more pics...

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[AlterEgo]

Well, well, well, the things you learn by sharing info here.

The hat that I called my favorite for a decade and wore all through college and most of my twenties was a Churchill from Neiman Marcus and marked as such.

I bought it at its store in Atlanta in October of 1977, the first time I'd ever been to a NM store. I remember the date well, because my dear grandmother was sick and couldn't get out to buy me a birthday present, so she sent money to me in college instead with a note to buy something really nice and show it to her when I was home for Thanksgiving.

Needless Markup is spot on--that rust-colored suede stingy brim trilby with an Austrian alpine profile was a heart-stopping $55.00, and that was over thirty years ago! Still have the hat, though the moths snacked on the crown a few years ago, so I don't wear it anymore, but the things I did in that hat are too precious to ever let it go. Man, does that hat have some stories to tell!

It appears that upscale retailer Neiman Marcus had a lengthy and ongoing relationship with Churchill for special hats. Makes sense, as the HATCO factory is in Garland, a suburb of Dallas, where NM's headquarters are.

You say HATCO owns the name Churchill, yet I have not seen a hat sold under that name in many, many years. It was a prestige brand, and I wonder if HATCO is saving it for an upper tier of qualty hats some day. Not likely, but one can hope.

 

[christphil]

Recently got a Churchill off ebay. Brown with the softest touch you could imagine. This is when I realized how nice vintage hats are.

What I appreciate most about my Churchill is that it has a matching felt ribbon. Seems you can't really get that on a modern production hat. The few that I have seen with a felt ribbon look like pimp hats in weird colors.

 

[AXL DEMOCRACY]

Glad I found this thread!

My first fedora I owned is a Churchill! I am an actor and it was part of my wardrobe for a play I was in, and was allowed to keep it after the production was over. It is beautiful on the outiside, yet the inside is very beat up, almost to a point where I need to get it fixed up I think.
It is a dark gray with a beautiful ribbon (that I actually had to have re-sewn in the middle of the play's production) and I am very attached to it for several reasons.

 

[Ephraim Tutt]

G'day Axl. NY is the perfect town to be an actor I'm thinkin'
And there's no better hat than a Churchill. Well worth getting it restored if it needs it.

 

[HatRak]

Had a Churchhill years ago. My daughter surprised me the other day by producing the only pic I can find of the hat. It was one of the best I've ever owned including a slew of Stetsons and Borso's. It was half-eaten by a new puppy after having fallen from the hat rack.

 

[AXL DEMOCRACY]

Churchills are so classy!

I really need to get mine fixed up. The inside is pretty beaten up and it desperately needs a new ribbon. But I almost like it that way cause of emotional attachment I have to it!

Can anyone recommend a good place to take my Churchill to in New York City to be fixed up? Worth and Worth perhaps?