How did you start wearing hats?

[R.A. Stewart]

My dad always wore a hat; and I have to say, for all that he was a farmer and workingman all his life, he wore them with style. So he really was my first influence. For a while in my teens I got out of the whole hat-and-cap thing, but some of us will recall that an eye-popping variety of hats started showing up in the sixties. Some of them would seem pretty strange today, but as far as I'm concerned it was all to the good; my interest revived and has never gone away since.

~Rich

 

[StetsonHomburg]

When I was 9 I started liking history and the old styled stuff and I started wearing snap brim's I think they are called or paper boy caps and has I got older and more money I bought nicer and older hats.

 

[150719541]

Marvelous Hats

I born in 1954, in that days our Mexico, few people had T.V. in home, the kids who didn´t have it, paid $0.20 mexican pesos to see movies or programs in house of T.V. owners. ( one dollar cost $12.49 pesos in 1960), here we could see some artists using hats like: James Arnes (Smoke Gun), Robert Fuller and Jhon Smith (Laramie western series), Bonanza (lorne Green, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts), ( Robert Stack (The Untouchables), furthermore, my grandfather and uncles using western hats, my dad in México City used amazing fedoras (stetson,chamois and others), i had my first hat in 1961, a straw western (the cost was $ 1.25 dollars or $ 15.00 mexican pesos) and 1963 my first straw fedora, both hats; were made of coconout straw, a single but beautiful hats in dark brown, from that time till now, I have always used one, fur felt in winter and straw in summer, me don´t have one favorite brand, only want to use a good quality in hat and a personal style.

 

[lostinperiphery]

I won't lie... my first fedora went with my leather jacket and bullwhip when I was in my teens. Always loved fedoras, and had a nice (enough) fur felt indy hat but never felt I was quite of the age where I could be taken seriously in public with one... it wasn't until just a year or so ago did I start wearing them out again,

 

[S. Beagles]

I remember when I was a kid my grandfather always wore a Fedora. He didn't even go out to check the mail box without putting his hat on. His younger days would have been in the 1920's and '30's. As a child I associated the hat with dignity and respect just like I did my grandfather I suppose. Some time ago I was in a Salvation Army Store and saw an old russet colored Dobbs on the hat rack for $9.99 complete with out of shape crown and brim, salt stains and a frazzled feather, and it was my size. It brought back a lot of memories of my grandfather. Along with the fact that my hair line is receding it just made sense that I should buy that hat. That was about 25 hats ago. And yes, I wear my hat to check the mail box.

 

[jkingrph]

My Dad wore fedora's back in the 50's & early 60's until they became scarce an gravitated too western styles, so I always gravitated toward westerns until a about 4 years ago I picked up a couple of Tilley's ventilated hats.

I liked the smaller style so then picked up a couple of Akruba Banjo Pattersons and liked them so well I wound up ordering a couple made to order from Art and and Adventurebilt.

I had one of Dad's old Open Road style Stetsons conveted to a wide brim fedora and it fits me much better after the conversion, plus took another old Stetson I had since the mid 70's, a stovepipe style that had a cheap looking imitation tooled leather hatband, and put a nice brown ribbon type hatband on it, makes it much dressier.

Nowdays I do not leave the house without a hat, if for yard work a old cheap Tractor Supply cloth/nylon mesh fedora for summer or an all cloth fedora hunting hat for colder weather.

 

[Chainsaw]

From caps to hat's

I guess I inherited my Grandfathers corduroy cap, it was still hanging on the wall in the old farmhouse. It must have been a magic hat, because after I started wearing it, everyone else in high school started wearing newsboy caps, wearing bell bottoms, and listening to disco.

I digress though, I always wanted one of those Indy hats, and some how me and my Buddy from Hong Kong got into a conversation about it. He told me About the hat shop in China town, the last Jewish store on the strip. All the other guys had moved to Israel.

The place had gotten real dirty since they left, guess there weren't any street sweepers anymore. Anyway, I talked to the old guy a couple times about hats, he was real old school, he finally sold me this Biltmore, professed to be the master hat of Canada.

Now, I don't know about all that, but he said "It's one of those Hollywood hat's" in a raspy kind of voice. If he wasn't in a wheel scare you'd be scared pale, when he talked. It cost Fifty bucks.

The Fedora's nice to wear with a good pair of wool slacks, for chopping wood or shooting guns. But maybe that's all too European for you guys.

Sorry for being long winded

 

[Bouncer]

I hope you guys don't mind if I make my first post here.

My love of hats came from my Grandfather. He never left the house without a jacket, tie and a nice hat.

My dad wore a hat up until his fifties and then he just stopped.

Both are gone today and I wear them in their memories.

It also does a good job of hiding my chrome dome, though the wife doesn't seem to mind.

 

[S. Beagles]

Welcome to The Lounge Bouncer. It seems a lot of people were inspired by Grandfathers and/or Fathers. My father never wore a hat, but always had on a cap. My Grandfather wore the Fedoras. Never could figure out why my father didn't take an interest in Fedoras. In my case it skipped a generation.

 

[Tim in Ohio]

How I started wearing a hat

I guess you can say I have always been a hat guy. There are pictures of me when I was "potty training" age wearing the little bowl out of my "potty chair" on my head. I'm told that I called it my "potty hat." Thankfully, my taste in hats has changed since then. Now i prefer fedoras.

(Still like to get shitfaced on occasion though)

 

[John in Covina]

I guess you can say I have always been a hat guy. There are pictures of me when I was "potty training" age wearing the little bowl out of my "potty chair" on my head. I'm told that I called it my "potty hat." Thankfully, my taste in hats has changed since then. Now i prefer fedoras. (Still like to get sh*tfaced on occasion though)

Now about that potty mouth! :eusa_doh:

 

[B.J. Hedberg]

I grew up watching Bogart and company in The Maltese Falcon every New Years Eve, and I just knew I had to have a fine fedora for myself when I could raise the funds. Took a while, but I finally was able to get my first quality hat with some high school graduation gift money – a pearl colored high crown Biltmore with a 2.5” brim. I sure do miss that hat; it was the finest one I owned for years, not sure what became of it. Luckily it was only the first of many acquired!

 

[danofarlington]

When I grew up in Minnesota in the 1960s, although my grandfather and Dad wore hats in the early part of the decade, they were hopelessly out of style by the time the rock music era hit. When I played in a band for small crowds, and had a white hat on, don't remember what it was, my girlfriend thought it was super duper. So that gave me the idea that hats might be a good accessory for me. Started wearing them around here in Washington for the last six or so years, finally feeling myself enough of a free agent to not care about others' opinions, which probably wouldn't have been that negative anyway, as it turns out.

 

[jwalls]

Welcome

B.J. glad to have you aboard.

 

[B.J. Hedberg]

B.J. glad to have you aboard.

Thank you for the welcome jwalls.

 

[Redwoodjedi]

My Grandpa and...

...some old movies were an influence. Although, as a born and raised Southwest Desert Rat where hats were a necessity, I didn't really get into Fedoras until about 13 or 14 years old after not only enjoying the comedic stylings of Abbott and Costello but the attire as well.

My Grandpa was never without his Fedora whether going to town or chopping the wood. He rotated about four or five of them and all of them were 30's and 40's tall crowns and wide brims and so, me admiring my Grandpa dearly when he was on this Earth, I emulate that same style suspenders and all.

Cheers,

RJ

 

[NDW76]

My hair has been getting thinner and thinner as I grow older. When I would walk the short distance every day to buy my lunch I noticed my head was hurting. About this same time my sister had a tumor cut out of her scalp. I realised I needed to start wearing a hat but I hate baseball caps. They are not hats.

Any way, on a shopping trip in Bangkok I found a cheap synthetic fedora and I loved it. From there I remembered that once apon a time I had bought a Fur felt fedora from Statesman hats many years ago and that it was sitting in storage back in Australia.

After a quick trip back to Australia to get the hat, and do other things, the bug bit. Now, not counting the synthetic thing, I have two hats and I'm looking for a third. I have my heart set on a Homburg.

 

[rjenkins]

My father would not think of leaving the house without his 'Trilby' (or one of them, he had several in mid-grey, dark brown and black).

I always thought these were particularly smart in comparison to other hats & caps, and occasionally over the years I have looked at buying one myself.

The problem I had was that I could never find a 'Trilby' that looked anything like the ones my Father had worn.

It took years for me to discover that they were in fact Fedoras, albeit with fairly narrow brims.

In the intervening years I've made do with various baseball caps for purely practical reasons, but after finding this site and doing some intense studying I have have purchased my first real Hat, a Stetson Firenze fedora with a 2 3/8" brim, in black.

It will hopefully be arriving in the next few days.

Robert.

Edit: I've found some photos of my father and some of his friends on a business trip, probably early 1950s.
Posted in the 'steamer trunk' as I thought they may be of general interest, but they do show a good selection of hats. Link here:
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=50809

 

[scottyrocks]

Congrats on the new/first hat and welcome to the fold.

 

[Matt Deckard]

I hope you guys don't mind if I make my first post here.

My love of hats came from my Grandfather. He never left the house without a jacket, tie and a nice hat.

My dad wore a hat up until his fifties and then he just stopped.

Both are gone today and I wear them in their memories.

It also does a good job of hiding my chrome dome, though the wife doesn't seem to mind.

Welcome to the Lounge. That's a great reason to wear a hat. I tend to think of my grandfather now and again as I wear mine. My grandfather on my mother's side always wore a fedora, where as my grandfather on my father's side didn't even wear hats in the 1930s.

Welcome aboard!