Fedora Fever

[CRH]

How long have you had it? Have you given it to anybody else - spouses, lovers, friends, aquaintances, family members, business associates?

Does your doctor know you have it? Have you given it to your doctor - or maybe your doctor's nurse or someone in the office has come down with it because of even just casual contact with you?

I had a moderate case in the 80's and made an almost complete recovery by the 90's with only occasional relapses.

I'm afraid my current relapse is terminal .

 

[High Pockets]

I caught it just a few months ago from the Fire Chief. His is a relatively mild case,.....mine may be chronic.
My youngest son is a doctor, and he's just now showing mild symptoms.

Keep is in your prayers.

 

[CRH]

...and he's just now showing mild symptoms.

...

My symptoms are severe. I can't walk out of the house without a lid. Sometimes I can't even make it from the bedroom to the bathroom without a lid let along to the kitchen for a midnight snack .

 

[menzies]

My case is fresh. I have been taking cold baths to bring down the fever but it does not seem to be breaking. In fact I am rising in temperature.

Jeff

 

[duggap]

If I have to go to one more twelve step program, I will croak.

 

[Mr. Paladin]

I've been diagnosed as chronic and incurable since I got my first hat (ok, a western, not a fedora but its a disease that has spread to other styles) when I was eight years old. I seem to have the heaviest symptoms in the OR-homburgus syndrome variety.

 

[Mario]

I figure that I acquired my CHAD (Compulsive Hat Assimilation Disorder) in the mid-80's. Back then, I showed only rather mild symptoms, and by the early 90's all the specialists I consulted finally assured me that I could consider myself cured. Now, about a year ago and a good 18 years after I showed the last mild symptoms of CHAD, I seemed to have involuntarily strained the wrong muscle - and ended up being diagnosed with chronic and utterly uncurable CHAD Grade III Borderline. The 'Borderline' suffix means that it's likely to turn Grade IV anytime soon...

 

[gtdean48]

I'm going with congenital = had it since birth, can't remember not being a hat junky. From earliest memory, I adored my grandfather's fedoras, especially his Open Road, & was always wearing his beaters. In college, fertilizer caps took over as the main lid but always had a brim around for evenings & weekends. Not sure I have infected anybody but have helped other's develop a full fever that was just hanging around tepid.

 

[avedwards]

I must be a strange case as I suffer from fedora fever but not from Mario's Compulsive Hat Assimilation Disorder as I don't get tempted to buy new hats but I wear my existing two hats (mid grey and light grey) all the time, though not both at once.

 

[Mario]

(...)though not both at once.

Aw, that seems to be a very mild case of Fedora Fever, then... You should see me wearing four or five lids at the same time! Quite a sight when I leave the house like that...all my neighborhood is constantly waiting for the next outburst - I never fail to make it into the national headlines!

 

[M6Classic]

My grandfather was in the hat business...importer of felt and trimmings...as early as the 1920's, so it is in my blood. I have been wearing fedoras as a habit since about 1976. IO have owned many pieces of felt, but I am now "down" to about nine favorites, most by Gary White with a few ancient Herbert Johnsons I purchased oh so many years ago.

Buzz

 

[elvisroe]

A plea for understanding...

A female work colleague was laughing at my disability recently when she found me taking a quick look over my ebay account. “What is it with you and hats? I just don’t get why you’d need more than one!”

“New handbag?” I asked indicating the large purple leather monstrosity that sprawled across her desk like an overweight baby dragon. “How ‘bout those Jimmy Choos? Only pair you own?”

I think now she understands my unfortunate condition.

 

[Chiliarches]

I got mine around the beginning of the swine flu. I think they are somehow related.

A female work colleague was laughing at my disability recently when she found me taking a quick look over my ebay account. “What is it with you and hats? I just don’t get why you’d need more than one!”

“New handbag?” I asked indicating the large purple leather monstrosity that sprawled across her desk like an overweight baby dragon. “How ‘bout those Jimmy Choos? Only pair you own?”

I think now she understands my unfortunate condition.

Someone tried to make the shoe comparison to me...I vehemently insisted that that hats have an intrinsic worth that most other articles of clothing and "accessories" don't have i.e., the craftsmanship and artistry elevate them somewhat closer to art..

 

[scottyrocks]

I had CHAD until recently, until I acquired my Fed IV. I now have CFHD - Compulsive Favorite Hat Disorder.

 

[Drew B]

i've found i have a bipolaric (if that's even a word) hat disorder... sometimes i find myself in the sweat of fever and other times i can ignore the addiction, but like a junkie longs after his heroin i always have to get my fix.

Cheers,
Drew.

 

[Benny Holiday]

A female work colleague was laughing at my disability recently when she found me taking a quick look over my ebay account. “What is it with you and hats? I just don’t get why you’d need more than one!”

“New handbag?” I asked indicating the large purple leather monstrosity that sprawled across her desk like an overweight baby dragon. “How ‘bout those Jimmy Choos? Only pair you own?”

I think now she understands my unfortunate condition.

Exactly!

I've had my disorder since 1995. A buddy of mine from the Rockabilly scene got into 40s Swing/Jump blues and started wearing sharp suits and a black Akubra Stylemaster. I was inspired and followed suit (no pun intended). I think I might've passed the bug onto KoopKooper here at the Lounge a few years after that.

Now I've got 15 felt hats, one Panama for summer wear and one newsboy cap, and I'm itching for a VS custom in silver mist or a blue colour - if only I could scrape together the dough!

 

[Roninjedi]

Hmmm... I seem to have had a low-grade case for years. Then I found this forum and it seems to have flared up something awful!

Right now I'm figuring out how to justify a nice fur felt despite my meager budget. I'm looking for a decent Indy clone, but I'm torn between the Akubra Fed IV, Christy's Adventurer, and Stetson Temple. I've read that the Temple has a tendancy to bleed color in the rain and develop an awful taper. Can anyone verify that?

 

[babs]

Hmmm... I seem to have had a low-grade case for years. Then I found this forum and it seems to have flared up something awful!

... you too huh. Yep.. same here. I have the same delimna.. Saving for a campdraft and fed IV and get my akubra fix fixed, if I can lay off the ebay vintage binge.

 

[avedwards]

Hmmm... I seem to have had a low-grade case for years. Then I found this forum and it seems to have flared up something awful!

Right now I'm figuring out how to justify a nice fur felt despite my meager budget. I'm looking for a decent Indy clone, but I'm torn between the Akubra Fed IV, Christy's Adventurer, and Stetson Temple. I've read that the Temple has a tendancy to bleed color in the rain and develop an awful taper. Can anyone verify that?

The Temple of a few years ago may have done that, but I don't think the modern Stetson Temple will. At least my Chatham (of the same quality Soveriegn felt) has never done this and been in a lot of rain showers. However, in terms of screen accuracy I think a Fed IV or an Adventurer are better. There is a thread somewhere comparing the two and it was said that the Adventurer has a nicer texture and is nicer out of the box but the Fed is more durable over the long term (not that the Christys isn't, the Fed is just even tougher).

 

[Doctor Strange]

My vintage-2002 Stetson Temple hasn't ever bled or tapered, and it's been in plenty of rain and snow.

That said, the Akubra Federation IV is a better made, more versatile hat for considerably less money. It's also a much better Indy-type hat than the Temple.

Hmmm... I seem to have had a low-grade case for years. Then I found this forum and it seems to have flared up something awful!

Right now I'm figuring out how to justify a nice fur felt despite my meager budget. I'm looking for a decent Indy clone, but I'm torn between the Akubra Fed IV, Christy's Adventurer, and Stetson Temple. I've read that the Temple has a tendancy to bleed color in the rain and develop an awful taper. Can anyone verify that?