Guide for first fedora/hat

[jlee562]

Well, that's a broad first post....

Modern Stetsons are really Stetson in name only. The John B. Stetson company no longer makes hats, they license their IP to Hatco, which also produces Resistol and Dobbs (among other brands).

So if we are being academically precise, the modern Open Road is decidedly not the open crown, dress western, soft felt hat that has been historically sold. The OR had varying brim widths, but would have been produced with a consistent block and flange combination. Modern ORs are hydraulically pressed into a cattleman crease crown.

As far as historically popular styles, it's hard to make generalizations. The Boss of the Plains is "the hat that won the west," but if we examine historical photos, the bowler hat arguably was more popular. We tend to think that shorter brim and taller crowns were popular for dress hats in the 20's and 30's, but that was also the time when Tom Mix was popularizing the "10 gallon" hat.

There are some broken picture links in some of these threads, but this is Where I would start if I wanted a crash course in Stetsons:

https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/pre-1940s-stetson-westerns.42532/
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/pre-1940s-stetson-dress-hats.42859/
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/the-open-road-guild.7047/
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/nothing-but-stetson-ads.45495/
https://www.thefedoralounge.com/thr...rtising-and-ephemera-of-the-golden-era.92141/

 

[deadlyhandsome]

I wouldn’t know where to begin.

The Open Road (OR) is a western flavored thin ribbon fedora...at least that’s how I think of it. LBJ and others were partial to the style. The “originals” are much nicer than the current hats, but the Royal De Luxe OR that Stetson currently sells is the best of the current crop. I’d look for vintage, and I’d expand beyond Stetson as many makers had similar styles.

I’ve read variations of this here several times:
The guys working the ranch wear “cowboy hats” and the guy who owns the ranch wears an Open Road.

 

[tropicalbob]

Hi, Regius,
As I'm familiar with your tastes from the Outerwear forum, I'd suggest right off the bat you might want to skip the preliminaries and go straight for a custom job. A good custom hat will cost only a little bit more than a Stetson (if at all), but you can get something way nicer and made to order (which is also a lot of fun). BTW, if you want to start off for a bit less, check out Akubra's Campdraft (an OR style) or their Fed IV ( the Indiana Jones style) at Hats Direct. I just got a black leather jacket this past year and really like the way it looks with a black Fed IV.

 

[Just Daniel]

Jumping straight to a custom is really great advice, as is looking at those other threads to see pics of great past hats.

Since you mentioned Open Roads, I would definitely endorse that direction, particularly if you wait for an early 50s, late 40s 3X. One with a Last Drop liner, without a plastic cover or with an oil skin cover.

These hats generally run just under $200 on eBay, but if you have been buying jackets, etc you know what can happen if people get interested. I assume with jackets there is a similar price relationship with size. Larger sizes get more demand.

The 3X originally cost $15 and makes for a great quality hat to start. You are never in a panic about getting it dirty, it handles the elements well, and it looks great.

Honestly I would not recommend a Royal Deluxe Open Road (originally ~$12.50). Although they are sweet hats, I find the 3X is nicer and worth the effort to find. Your second vintage hat would probably be a 7X Clear Beaver, an upgrade of $100 to $200. Third maybe a 20s, 30s....

So: what size hat are you?

 

[Bushman]

My advice to whenever anybody is new to anything is to always take a step back and look around. Look at the different styles available, talk to people who are more senior than yourself, ask questions, and eventually you'll figure out what you like and what to get. But that may just be for me. I've always been a visual learner, and a patient man.

 

[belfastboy]

My advice to whenever anybody is new to anything is to always take a step back and look around. Look at the different styles available, talk to people who are more senior than yourself, ask questions, and eventually you'll figure out what you like and what to get. But that may just be for me. I've always been a visual learner, and a patient man.

It really does help to have a hat shop near you so you can try on various styles to discern what suits you and what you feel comfortable wearing. Early on in my fedora collecting I purchased hats online. They looked great, appealed to me but for one reason or another they looked strange on me or I did not feel comfortable wearing them. I generally could resell them for at most a small loss. So my learning was not too expensive. I second your advice spend the time to do you research and enjoy the journey.

 

[itsallgood]

What era and what kind of people wore which hat

Hat making using felted beaver fur is at least a 500 year old industry, documented I believe in Holland and Spain. Very active, I bet, in Poland and Russia, too. Later, in 1732, Great Britian passed The Hat Act to control production by its colonists in British America in an effort to protect local industries. But, in 1789 Congress enacted its own American tariff on "highly-manufactured articles", which was a long list of items that included hats. The purpose of the act, "It is necessary for the support of this Government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the protection of manufacturers."

My understanding in the Old West in the US, all hats began as open crown, e.g. ten gallon hats, but creases were added for weather protection, heat retention or to create resistance to wind gusts. Apparently, those creases eventually evolved such that particular creases came to reflect where a person was raised and/or what he did for a living.

So, there's a long, long history here for creases and crowns and brims and styles to evolve and see convergence. For example, you mentioned the Dune. I see that as a crossover hat, western proportions with a thin ribbon, but a city crease. Anyway, all that history, mix in 100 years of corporate marketing, and here we are!

If you're interested in the Open Road, Stetson has listed in its 2020 City Fall catalog a pure beaver Open Road; I don't think it's in the stores yet, but perhaps something to watch for.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Hat making using felted beaver fur is at least a 500 year old industry, documented I believe in Holland and Spain. Very active, I bet, in Poland and Russia, too. Later, in 1732, Great Britian passed The Hat Act to control production by its colonists in British America in an effort to protect local industries. But, in 1789 Congress enacted its own American tariff on "highly-manufactured articles", which was a long list of items that included hats. The purpose of the act, "It is necessary for the support of this Government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the protection of manufacturers."

My understanding in the Old West in the US, all hats began as open crown, e.g. ten gallon hats, but creases were added for weather protection, heat retention or to create resistance to wind gusts. Apparently, those creases eventually evolved such that particular creases came to reflect where a person was raised and/or what he did for a living.

So, there's a long, long history here for creases and crowns and brims and styles to evolve and see convergence. For example, you mentioned the Dune. I see that as a crossover hat, western proportions with a thin ribbon, but a city crease. Anyway, all that history, mix in 100 years of corporate marketing, and here we are!

If you're interested in the Open Road, Stetson has listed in its 2020 City Fall catalog a pure beaver Open Road; I don't think it's in the stores yet, but perhaps something to watch for.

Those “Pure Open Roads” are interesting hats, but I do wish they hadmore crown height. However, at the prices they are likely to sell for you can also get a custom made 100% beaver hat too.

http://www.hat-co.com/perch//resources/f20-stetson-city-no-prices.pdf

 

[johnnycanuck]

Open road is a great classic Stetson hat. I personally own a Stetson 25 (an open road at the $25 price tag) unfortunately the sweatband fell out and I haven’t got it repaired yet. Enough about my problems.

Keep in mind back in the day hats usually went to the hat shop open crowned and the hatter or owner would bash it the way they liked. Older movies showed them in fedora bashes rather then the cattleman bash. But it was really up to the hat owner.

Stetson didn’t always make their own hats. They used to outsource the manufacturing to hat company’s in the other country’s for sale. Biltmore hats in Canada. Akubra hats in Australia. When the contract was up for Akubra, the open road was such a big seller they renamed it the Campdraft and kept selling it under their own label.

there are some fun historical facts for you.

Now if you want one of your own I would consider the Akubra Campdraft. It’s probably closest to how they used to come from Stetson. It also helps you see if the hat suites you without a large price tag. Outside of that I would seriously go custom. I know I have seen great examples from North West Hats. Look at Instagram and Facebook. It’s probably one of the most copied hats and any custom hatter has their version.
Good luck my friend, have fun and remember to post your decision when it’s made.
Johnny

 

[GHT]

It really does help to have a hat shop near you so you can try on various styles to discern what suits you and what you feel comfortable wearing.

Quite so. Like Regius, before I bought my first fedora, I had been deliberating what was best. This was way before the internet days and not long after the Raiders movie. At the time I was living in London and all the press were going on about the Indiana Jones hat being made in London by, Herbert Johnson Hatters. It put me right off.

Fast forward a year and my missus and I were enjoying a week's break in the beautiful city of Glasgow. We also took time out to visit Edinburgh and there we discovered a hat shop name of Fabhatrix. They sold many brands but one that caught my eye, for it's style, quality and price. It was a fedora made by a company called Susquehana. I bought a brown one there and then, cost me eighty pounds.

Back in London I looked up the famous shops like Lock & Co, Christy's and Lairds. They all sold a myriad of hats, but I was so taken with my first purchase that I called Fabhatrix and ordered two more over the phone. Since then I have bought a Stetson, it's a sovereign, Biltmore and others as well having three bespoke hats made, but whether it's hats, leather jackets or even two tone shoes, I had a similar experience buying my first pair of spectators, you can't beat a visual sighting and the experience of trying it on. Just one word of caution though, hat addiction has no known cure.

I forgot to mention that Herbert Johnson Hatters, makers of the Indiana Jones hat, were bought up by Swaine Adeney Brigg, makers of James Bond's briefcase, in the movie, From Russia with Love: "Q Branch had put together this smart-looking bag, ripping out the careful handiwork of Swaine and Adeney".

 

[itsallgood]

the jacket side of the forum

What I find really interesting, and I don't recall seeing discussed here on the FL, is the interplay between a leather jacket and a nice fedora. I have 5 leather jackets and 10 nice fedoras and it's amazing how a subtle shift changes things. I love wearing a leather jacket and a casual brown leather jacket seems dressed up when wearing a brown fedora with a black ribbon, but dressed down with a brown ribbon. On the other hand, a black leather jacket is calmed down with a fedora in fawn or tawny, but really pops with caribou beaver and black ribbon.

It's endless. One thing I learned is that if you have two destinations on the same trip, you need a hat box! Because the same leather jacket gets dressed up for the city or dressed down for the country depending upon what fedora you're wearing.

I am not interested in the Indy look and try to avoid it at all costs; not always, but I usually manage to succeed.

 

[regius]

When it comes to jackets of the golden era designs (mainly the townsmen/gentleman jackets, halfbelt or no halfbelt, can be long or hip length, or flight style), a fedora is almost always a necessity back in the day.

 

[itsallgood]

a fedora is almost always a necessity back in the day

I think today, too. I notice solar panels put out juice even when it's raining. My dermatologist had said to me, "Wear a hat!", but I never really thought about it because I always wore a baseball cap. However, when my father-in-law had the tops of his ears surgically removed due to melanoma, that was a real wake up call. It's been full-brim hats for me ever since.

The thing is, I discovered I really like them. And you get pulled into it the more you learn about them, just ask a few of the regulars here in the hat section! I get the eye roll here at home every time I talk about getting another. In her eyes, I clearly have one too many.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

When it comes to jackets of the golden era designs (mainly the townsmen/gentleman jackets, halfbelt or no halfbelt, can be long or hip length, or flight style), a fedora is almost always a necessity back in the day.

And today as well.
Good to see you interested in hats Regius.
Keep coming back.
B

 

[RossRYoung]

It’s a slippery slope! I started out with 2 modern ORs, but after getting a feel of vintage felt, I gave away one OR and the other (my first purchase, saved for sentimental value) sits as a wall hanger. Like jackets, it’s good to have variety but there is something truly special about vintage lids. I don’t own a custom, but that does seem like a good place to start. I have a feeling vintage will be closely followed though!

 

[tropicalbob]

I'll strongly third the notion expressed above about visiting a hat shop. It's a truly uncanny experience to stand in front of a mirror and see how you look in different styles. My experience has been that styles that didn't suit me were immediately apparent the moment I saw myself, even though I may have loved the style. Being in New York, you have a number of options available to you.
I'd be interested in hearing your experiences as you explore the world of hats.

 

[Just Daniel]

Hope all this was good advice.

Going back a little, what size are you looking for?

Daniel

 

[1961MJS]

Hi, I'd second what Tropical Bob says. When you see something online, you THINK you want it. When you try it on you know. If you're married etc, I'd suggest taking those who will be with you when you're wearing it. The kids won't let you look too stupid. Most hatters are good about telling you what looks good and what doesn't. NOT ALL though, I was in a place a decade ago that would have sold me a dunce cap and told me I looked good.
Later

 

[belfastboy]

Hi, I'd second what Tropical Bob says. When you see something online, you THINK you want it. When you try it on you know. If you're married etc, I'd suggest taking those who will be with you when you're wearing it. The kids won't let you look too stupid. Most hatters are good about telling you what looks good and what doesn't. NOT ALL though, I was in a place a decade ago that would have sold me a dunce cap and told me I looked good.
Later

Yes, the best defense is always to develop your own ability to discern what looks good, what feels good and what you feel good wearing. In this way you are never at the whims/tastes/judgement of others

 

[Rmccamey]

All true, find what looks good and feels good to you, but don't be afraid to explore! I never really thought about bowler hats all my life but now it is hard for me to wear anything else!

Yes, the best defense is always to develop your own ability to discern what looks good, what feels good and what you feel good wearing. In this way you are never at the whims/tastes/judgement of others