Citation: Hats of Distinction

[jamespowers]

Hmmm... The Created by Master Craftsmen seems to evoke the Champ brand name. They used that for quite a long time when they were in business. Their other slogan was Feel the Felt.
I would like to see pictures when you get it.

Regards to all,

J

 

[jamespowers]

I was going to ask for the store information.
The store doesn't appear to be in the yellow pages so I would say it is gone---long gone.
How wide is the brim? How tall is the crown? Pictures. We need pictures.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Biltmore Bob]

Beautiful lid...

Appears to be in great shape.

 

[jamespowers]

The crown and brim are larger than I thought. Looks good to me. See if it looks anything like the Diplomat in this ad.:

That would place it being made in 1947. You are right about the age of the hat. Learning already.

Regards to all,

J

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Not a lot of action on this Citation thread. Here’s a Stratoliner clone I recently picked up. It’s a lower to mid-grade hat. The sweatband doesn’t feel like it wants to be flipped so I’m not going to look for labels.

 

[pop_artz]

Hi y'all!

Long time lurker, first time posting! First of all, thanks to many of you for your pictures and feedback on your haberdashery of distinction over the years. It has helped guide me on many of my wardrobe choices.

Over the weekend I picked up this Citation "Hat of Distinction" at an antiques consignment store in a near suburb of Chicago. It was open crown and untouched with no sign of wear at all! It is pristine inside and out. It also came with the original box that is in perfect condition.
The lady at the store said she had picked up 4 identical ones at an estate sale and thinks that maybe the original owner was in the hat business here in the Chicago area. I wasn't surprised as this thing looks like it sat in a box on a shelf at a hat shop waiting to be custom shaped to the client's desired look. Funny thing was they had it labeled as a Bowler hat. LOL! I told them it was a lot more likely that it was open crown for the reason previously stated.
The color is like a Silverbelly (my Silverbelly Open Road is next to it for comparison) with a slight shade of brown.

We paid the lady, I promptly put a cattleman crease in it and got a compliment on my "lid" minutes later.

Questions:
Does anyone know what model this is?
Approximate year?
Name of the color?

In my research I stumbled upon this article about Citation Hat Corp./Mid City Uniform Cap Co. Let's just say it hits all the right notes of a good Chicago story of success, big personality and corruption.

 

[pop_artz]

More pictures

 

[Mighty44]

Hi y'all!

Long time lurker, first time posting! First of all, thanks to many of you for your pictures and feedback on your haberdashery of distinction over the years. It has helped guide me on many of my wardrobe choices.

Over the weekend I picked up this Citation "Hat of Distinction" at an antiques consignment store in a near suburb of Chicago. It was open crown and untouched with no sign of wear at all! It is pristine inside and out. It also came with the original box that is in perfect condition
The lady at the store said she had picked up 4 identical ones at an estate sale and thinks that maybe the original owner was in the hat business here in the Chicago area. I wasn't surprised as this thing looks like it sat in a box on a shelf at a hat shop waiting to be custom shaped to the client's desired look. Funny thing was they had it labeled as a Derby hat. LOL I told them it was a lot more likely that it was open crown for the reason previously stated.
The color is like a Silverbelly (my Silverbelly Open Road is next to it for comparison) with slight a shade of brown.

I quickly put a cattleman crease in it and got a compliment on my "lid" minutes after my first outing.

Questions:
Does anyone know what model this is?
Approximate year?
Name of the color?

In my research I stumbled upon this article about Citation Hat Corp./Mid City Uniform Cap Co. Let's just say it hits all the right notes of a good Chicago story of success, big personality and corruption.
View attachment 620380

Fantastic hat! Love that crease in it—old, OLD school!

 

[Rmccamey]

Mighty fine hats. It is great to come across those vintage NOS hats.

Hi y'all!

Long time lurker, first time posting! First of all, thanks to many of you for your pictures and feedback on your haberdashery of distinction over the years. It has helped guide me on many of my wardrobe choices.

Over the weekend I picked up this Citation "Hat of Distinction" at an antiques consignment store in a near suburb of Chicago. It was open crown and untouched with no sign of wear at all! It is pristine inside and out. It also came with the original box that is in perfect condition
The lady at the store said she had picked up 4 identical ones at an estate sale and thinks that maybe the original owner was in the hat business here in the Chicago area. I wasn't surprised as this thing looks like it sat in a box on a shelf at a hat shop waiting to be custom shaped to the client's desired look. Funny thing was they had it labeled as a Derby hat. LOL I told them it was a lot more likely that it was open crown for the reason previously stated.
The color is like a Silverbelly (my Silverbelly Open Road is next to it for comparison) with slight a shade of brown.

I quickly put a cattleman crease in it and got a compliment on my "lid" minutes after my first outing.

Questions:
Does anyone know what model this is?
Approximate year?
Name of the color?

In my research I stumbled upon this article about Citation Hat Corp./Mid City Uniform Cap Co. Let's just say it hits all the right notes of a good Chicago story of success, big personality and corruption.
View attachment 620380

 

[pop_artz]

---

Mighty fine hats. It is great to come across those vintage NOS hats.

It is indeed on both counts! It's one size smaller than I usually wear but it fits. I couldn't believe my luck and it's been fun to learn about the Chicago connection. I'm guessing it's from the forties or fifties. It's pretty wild to have a brand new hat that is 70-80 years old!

 

[pop_artz]

Fantastic hat! Love that crease in it—old, OLD school!

I've been known to reshape more than a couple of my Stratoliners with that crease!

 

[TimmyV]

Here's a few pix of a Citation fedora that recently came to me. Seems very well made with brim edge underwelt and wind cord.