How did you start wearing hats?

[vespasian]

My flat cap certainly comes from my grandfathers influence. He was a coal miner, always in a flat cap, shirt, waistcoat, silk scarf and he chewed tobbacco like he had to get through 1000 tonnes a week. My wife couldnt understand a word he said and occasionally I lapse back to a broad Yorkshire accent, even more broad than the one I already have. Living in the south of England if anyone mentions my flat cap I say, "Cos its like 'turban to a Sikh. Its religious tha nus." Its a shame that in Yorkshire few people wear flat caps and they actually shy away from them because of the stigma. Flat caps, whippet dogs, pigeon racing etc.

 

[herringbonekid]

Flat caps, whippet dogs, pigeon racing etc.

same associations attatched to my home town : Newcastle.
i wear a depression-era style cap a lot now that I live in the south, but up north people would ask "why are you dressed as your grandad ?".

 

[photobyalan]

I started in late 2004. I was picking up a suit I had just bought and the store had some wool fedoras on display. $35 on sale, which seemed like a lot for a hat (at the time!). I thought I might look spiffy in one, so I said, "What the hell," and bought it. My wife didn't roll her eyes when she saw me in it, and I discovered that I liked my head being warm and dry, so I kept wearing it.

I also discovered why wool fedoras are not expensive, as the one I had shrunk and tapered and just didn't look good after one season. I decided to try a vintage hat since a new, quality fur felt hat was still out of my price range. Once I saw myself in a real hat, that was it. I'm up to ten now, in less than a year. Now I'm buying a custom limited edition from Art and the price seems pretty reasonable to me. My, how things have changed. If this keeps up, I'm going to need a 12-step program!:cool2:

 

[Clint_Southwood]

I agree with RainDog on this one.

First Clint Eastwood in the Spaghetti westerns.
Then Indiana Jones.
Last but not least Bogart.

 

[WEEGEE]

WHAT...

I was'nt born like this:cool2:

 

[Solomon Kane]

Undertakers wear hats.

 

[jamespowers]

Undertakers wear hats.

The Tall Man in Phantasm didn't---that I remember anyway.

 

[G MAN]

When I was 18 I was a huge Waylon Jennings fan, I still am.
His hat was a big part of his image and I was amazed at how much a hat could change your look or express your mood simply by the way it sat on your head.
A short time later I discovered Akubra's and now Fedora's.

 

[Clyde R.]

Gosh, good question. I started being a "hat guy" when I was a kid. Like another poster, they were an easy part of getting into "character" when playing. I then started buying neat hats at junk and antique shops...a deerstalker and an Irish tweed hat I still have from that time. I didn't have a good fedora until about fifteen years ago when I ran across my chocolate brown Stetson stratoliner in an antique store and bought it for three dollars. I was in college at the time and I wore it quite a bit. I also used the Strat and my vintage wardrobe in a film noir homage short I made for film class. Since I found this site, I've been looking at more fedoras online, and am even considering a custom one from someone like Art. I have a couple of hats in mind that I'd like to get...a Howard Hughes style "lucky fedora" is top of the list now. A good Indy Raider would be nice also, and I need a good dressy lid for black tie occasions.

 

[Feraud]

The environment did it to me. My dad is a hat wearer who prefers cowboy style lids. I tried that and most other styles. I currently wear fedoras and 'newsboy' style caps.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I have always been interested in military uniforms as long as I can remember, and have collected vintage uniforms especially hats since I was a kid. I never started wearing hats until after I started reenacting about four years ago. I got used to wearing a hat, and also got interested in clothing (especially vintage clothing) around the same time period.

As for my personal hat-style models I would say that I follow the lead of James Cagney for informal hats, and Soames Forsyte for formal hats.

 

[Big Joe]

I wear a fedora because my Dad did, plain and simple.
His calling card was a good suit (notch lapels 3 button and blue), a brown hat and a cigar. He bought and sold clothing often working 7th Avenue in New York.

Here's to Dad

Big Joe

 

[Fedora]

I grew up on a farm in rural Mississippi, in the 50's and 60's. A hat was put on my head as soon as I could hoe cotton. I kinda got used to it. In my teens, I grew my hair as long as the school would allow and ditched the hats. My hair was too pretty to hide under a hat, and the girls seemed to like the look. Enuff said about that.

Vietnam was going on, and I volunteered for the military, and I was wearing a hat once again. When I got out, there was all of this free money for college, so I bought me a panama hat and started wearing hats again. There was some picture or poster that I saw somewhere, featuring a guy , Panama Jack, or something like that, and his hat caught my eye. Hence the panama hats. I bought these for years, basically one a year, and wore those until sometimes in the 80's I was at a friends house and they had rented the first Indy film. Now, I had no clue as to who he was, as I was trying to get rich and had little time for movies, or even tv. All work and little play. I really did not watch the film very closely until I noticed the fedora that guy was wearing. It got my immediate attention, the same way old Panama Jack did years before. I then spent many years trying to find one that looked like his. A few thousand dollars later, I found Optimo, and what they made me was as good as it got. But pricey. I bought 3 within a one month span. Then I got really anal, and finally endied up making the hats myself. It is cheaper that way. Fedora

 

[pointystuff]

noggin protection and the movies

I started wearing hats a few summers back on the advice of a dermatologist. My better half thought a straw fedora looked better than a pith helmet.
Once cooler weather set in, I was hooked on felt fedoras. Some credit also must to go to film noir--plus Indiana Jones , Brad Braden and Harry Steele.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I'm almost exactley like Vladimir, I started collectng Russain military uniforms and hats when I was young, Late soviet Cold War rather than stalin era "I still do". And when I was 15 I went to a vintage clothing store and bought my first fedora. Ever since than I've just been upgrading on the felt qualities of fedoras. But military and police uniforms brought me in to mens vintage fashion.

Vladimir you probably know, but try Trident Military Imports
http://www.tridentmilitary.com/
It is the best American website for Russian military and police uniforms "WW2 included" and world military surplus.

Trident is a great place for stuff, I have had several of their reproduction WW2 Soviet uniforms over the years.

 

[indyjim]

Never wore a hat...until I moved to Colorado, where the wind was always blowing and I got into the cowboy culture. Then Indiana Jones happened for me, like many others. I wore the Stetson Temple for years, along with some other wool, "country gentlemen" styles. After finding some of these forums, I started aquiring better grades, and more styles, of hats.

 

[Wild Root]

My story…

Well, I have always worn some type of head wear. When I was just a little one, I wore pinstriped locomotive engineer hats. It was one of those styled caps with a few other odd styled ball caps but, always had a soft spot for the old rail road caps. As a teen, popular ball caps with trendy names like Stussy, I’d wear. Also, some popular football team caps I’d sport.

One year, in 1995 or so, my brother decided to go as a gangster for Halloween and I thought that 1930’s look was kind of neat. I used to watch “I Love Lucy� and the original “Superman� from the 50’s with my mother when I was a kid and also liked the look of those old hats. When my Grandmother died, the people conducting the sales of my Grandmother’s Estate had a costume shop and I was told by my father that they had lost of old hats from the 40’s! By this time, I was bitten by the 1940’s bug and wanted a real 40’s fedora! The first one I owned was a black wool felt Burlington Coat Factory model. So, I went to this shop and saw quite a few old hats! At that time there were many! And all rather inexpensive so, I bought a few! I still have the first one I bought, it’s a dark brown 50’s Dobb’s 5th Ave. The second one I bought is a light green Royal Stetson from the 40’s. I still have that one too.

So, ever since my brother wore a hat for Halloween, I got the vintage fever and it’s been like that ever since.

=WR=

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

I'm ordering my russain police uniform for reenacating.
I always though the ww2 russian uniforms had very very odd color scemes like olive green tunic and visor cap with blue and red striped pants, but they have more uniquness than the models I have. Plus original are extreamly expensive. There are a whole lot of knock offs much more than even the cold war era. Just a question is the NKVD than the modern MVD now.

The NKVD became the MVD in the immediate post-WW2 period.

And you are right, the Russian WW2 uniforms did have some strange color combinations. The green tunic/blue sharovari uniform actually looks really cool when you see it in person.

The most strange colors are usually seen on the officer/NCO visor caps. Infantry caps have this bright pinkish red band with a green crown. Other services had blue, black, green, etc. The infantry cap especially is basically a big pink target for enemy fire.

 

[Lincsong]

I got tired of having a...

redneck.

 

[John in Covina]

Got my check list

Some people are hat people, some are not. I am a hat person. As a little guy I had sailor caps and baseball caps. In my teens a variety of hats including a cap similar to a greek fisherman's cap and later a newsboy. Later I had a canvas LLBean that is orbiting the earth right now, it got taken by a gust of wind. Several military caps and an early wider brim boonie cap that was for the high desert camping trips. I do have a camo Aussie style for the desert and even a USMC pith helmet for doing the lawn at Church.

Now in the back of my mind was dad's Borsalino and for years wanted to get it cleaned and blocked plus resized to my head. Prior to my dad passing away I was watching a lot of film noir and Bogart, then I had watched "Mulholland Falls" with Nick Nolte and the gang. Nick was just so macho and menacing in his fedora, I went looking for a hat store that had fedoras. FOund several cowboy hat places, then I spotted the Hats Mart on Colorado Blvd in Pasadena. Got the Stetson Souvreign with a high crown and wide brim in Grey. Which I wore a bunch, then I got Dad's Borsalino restored and wear it a lot, also a straw Dobbs Rouge, so the three get cycled thru regularly. I do still where ball caps when casual, as I like to have caps for: movies I liked, or brand identity or even my Pen World International cap that shows my love of fountain pens.

I am looking to add to the collection, perhaps an Open Road or two, a Stratoliner, Whippet, and Playboy to round out the Stetsons. I will like to get a hat from the major vintage line ups and one from Art one of these days.

I need a brown, navy, tan, and a light ivory/cream colored fedora for my stable. Add to it a Panama or two, a Homburg, a Derby, a top hat and a straw boater. Plus I need to replace the newsboy cap and the greek fisherman cap. I also would like a WWI British officer's trench cap, a WWI Campaign hat with the taller crown and maybe a nice cowboy hat either a Tom Mix crown or a Montana Peak.

With warmest regards,