In Praise of Narrow Brims

[Senator Jack]

Finally got around to Arnold Hatters here in NY. I was looking for the elusive black straw stingy. Didn't find it, but walked out with The Belmont. The brim clocks in at 1.5". Here it is in brown. I got it in black and had them steam a dent into it. I'll take a picture when I'm feeling up to it.

The maker is Bailey. Never had a Bailey before. We'll see how it holds up. Fur felt and lined for $90. Probably not the best construction in the world for that price, but at least we're starting to see stingies being made again.

Tried this hat on too.

They had it in a really beautiful blue-pearl grey. Color I haven't seen before. Very Miles Davis. I already have two porkpies but I may have to break down and pick this one up too. Same maker, Bailey's. I asked if they could get The Belmont in that pearl-grey color but it was a no-go. Now THAT would have been a good hat.

If you're in the city,you should check them out. The website is http://www.ahat.com

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Shademaker]

This one's been around with me a long time. 1 3/4" Royal Stetson. Certainly the mug on the guy under it doesn't do it justice.

Regards,

Senator Jack

It does too! That is one serioulsy cool look you have going on there. I am in the camp that likes narrow brims.

 

[Senator Jack]

Right back at you, Wyatt. We look like long lost brothers!

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[adamgottschalk]

Nice hats!

Finally got around to Arnold Hatters here in NY. I was looking for the elusive black straw stingy. Didn't find it, but walked out with The Belmont. The brim clocks in at 1.5". Here it is in brown. I got it in black and had them steam a dent into it. I'll take a picture when I'm feeling up to it.

(image)

The maker is Bailey. Never had a Bailey before. We'll see how it holds up. Fur felt and lined for $90. Probably not the best construction in the world for that price, but at least we're starting to see stingies being made again.

Tried this hat on too.

(image)

They had it in a really beautiful blue-pearl grey. Color I haven't seen before. Very Miles Davis. I already have two porkpies but I may have to break down and pick this one up too. Same maker, Bailey's. I asked if they could get The Belmont in that pearl-grey color but it was a no-go. Now THAT would have been a good hat.

If you're in the city,you should check them out. The website is http://www.ahat.com

Regards,

Senator Jack

I've come very close to buying one of those two hats in the past few months. I have 4 stingies that are center-crease affairs. I love that style (a style Cagney apparently liked too), but I wouldn't mind getting a stingy porkpie like that one on ahat.com. Senator Jack, a man with taste and style I'll be posting some pics soon of the outfit you designed for me with that blue-check jacket. I've been assembling the parts.

 

[gekisai29]

How does ths arnold store compare with JJ hats on 5th Ave.? When i drive by on 8th Ave. arnolds window has the appearance of a tourist trap shop.

 

[Senator Jack]

Where's my Racing Form?

Adam, the Belmont pretty much made this look complete for me. I had been wearing a grey stingy with it. As I wrote, this jacket is a black check, but I think the dark blue check with the red tie will work equally well. If you can't find a red tie with a geometric design at mid-chest, use a tie clip. I think the late 50s early 60s look is defined by the chess piece tie and tie clip. I'll post some pics of them at some point.

Here's the Belmont up close. I think it would have a bit more flair with a strip of gold running through the ribbon. No one pays attention to details like that any more. Too bad.

Gekisai, I had thought the same about Arnold. There's that tourist hat shop in midtown that's just atrocious and I had visions of the same. Really quite surprised by the selection of styles and colors they had. Staff were very helpful too. They carried mostly Stetson, Bailey, and Biltmore. No Dobbs or Adams. A few Borsalino, if I recall. I'm not too much for Borsalino personally because their hats are generally over the 2" brim. I know they make stingies but I could never find them here. Not very popular in the States it seems.

It's certainly worth the trip over there. They did tell me they were going to have black straws in with the spring shipment. Funny how that's one vintage hat I've never found in all these years. Well, in my size anyway. I think I drove the guy crazy because I kept saying I want black - black, black -and all they really had was a smoke. Yeah, I'm a picky guy.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[adamgottschalk]

Red tie with geo design

Adam, the Belmont pretty much made this look complete for me. I had been wearing a grey stingy with it. As I wrote, this jacket is a black check, but I think the dark blue check with the red tie will work equally well. If you can't find a red tie with a geometric design at mid-chest, use a tie clip. I think the late 50s early 60s look is defined by the chess piece tie and tie clip. I'll post some pics of them at some point.
...

Regards,

Senator Jack

I did in fact find a 2.5" brick-red sort of tie that was named a "deco" tie, with a simple design embroidered mid-chest. Came in a lot of 6 deco ties, each a solid color with a simple geometric design. Paid $30 for the 6, so they weren't dirt cheap, but they're way cool and really are vintage. Haven't gotten here yet. I like the idea of a chess piece theme (having just taken up chess again recently). That outfit looks great on you...why, you look like you'd be a razor cutting through the city

 

[Senator Jack]

$30 for 6 is a good price if you get at least 2 out of the deal. What I see in the lots is that they mix one or two good ones with the rest that are..well...meh. Snowy day here in NY so I got the camera out again.

This one is interesting a subtle black on black of kings, queens, and knights. Who would do this these days? Subtle but people do tend to spot them.

One of my favorite tie clips

I need to have this one cleaned up and painted.

 

[adamgottschalk]

$30 for 6 is a good price if you get at least 2 out of the deal. What I see in the lots is that they mix one or two good ones with the rest that are..well...meh. Snowy day here in NY so I got the camera out again.

(image)

(image)

This one is interesting a subtle black on black of kings, queens, and knights. Who would do this these days? Subtle but people do tend to spot them.

(image)

One of my favorite tie clips

(image)

I need to have this one cleaned up and painted.

(image)

Great stuff! I love the ties and the clips.

 

[Quigley Brown]

Narrow brim vs. wide brim: who looks cooler?

 

[Senator Jack]

You're a riot QB.

The funny thing is that the wide brim fans generally don't understand the stingy. I have about a half-dozen 2 inchers and for a guy for my height and stature, that is a wide brim. If I were taller, bulkier, I'd probably be wearing a 3". Just the same, I wouldn't wear a suit with heavy padded shoulder either as it would make my head look like a pea. (Microcephalic?)

I'll have to post some pics of me in my 40s garb with the 2". Quite a different look.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[adamgottschalk]

Stingy man takes it

Narrow brim vs. wide brim: who looks cooler?

(image)

I'd lay my chips wherever the guy on the right put his.

 

[Magus]

Ok...you guys have inspiried me...getting out the chocolate brown Adam Stingray tomarrow and doing a photo session!

M

 

[Wild Root]

I'm too tall to rally look good in a narrow brim. I prefer the wider brims much more. But, as you all know that the only narrow brims I wear are 75-80 years old. Don't care for the severe taper of the later ones.... just don't jive with me.

The wide brims reflect a different era then the real narrow ones I feel. If some one wants to look 1940's, they should wear a wide brim. Some feel that they'd look awkward in a taller crown or a wider brim.... remember how some of the wide brims and tall crowns are in small sizes?? Yeah, small guys wore them then too and they looked good. Small suits from the 40's and 50's had large sized shoulder pads but, they?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re proportioned to the size of the man it was supposed to fit. Recall how so much of the cooler suits from those days we find are in small sizes??? I rest my case.

Don't any one be afraid to try something new, the worse thing that could happen is that you'd find that you really like the look.

=WR=

 

[Senator Jack]

Posted by WildRoot:
I'm too tall to rally look good in a narrow brim.

I'll have to reiterate my converse point on this, WildRoot. I got my first fedora when I was about 19. I remember it cost me at least $100 (bought it new) and being that was early 80s and I was working for minimum wage, (three and change back then?) that was a huge expenditure. (Still is!) But I made the rookie mistake of buying a brim too wide for my features. After six months of seeing myself in the mirror, I realized the brim and crown were making me look comical, that there was a shorter, thinner man under there trying to fill a very big hat - not size-wise, but just in regards to cut and proportions. The brim and crown were overpowering. I wished I had understood this when I had first tried it on at the shop, and it's definitely something the a newcomer should take into consideration before shelling out a lot of jack for a hat.

Now one can argue about the not-so-tall Bogart and his selection for fedoras, but as we can only judge his appearance by film and photos it's difficult to say if in reality his hat selection worked or not. We also don't know exactly how wide his brims were. Perhaps they were only 2", maybe 2 1/4". I seriously doubt they were 3". Again, a 2" brim for a short/thin man is a wide brim hat. With a 2" brim and a pinstripe DB I definitely have the 30s/40s look down. I think if I wore anything larger I'd appear the zoot-suiter which of course does look comical - something nobody here is shooting for. (I hope)

But certainly you're correct in your assessment of the under 2" stingy. It's a different era, different attitude, it's the birth of cool, so one I appreciate. I mean, the way I look at it, had I been around during that time, I would have lived through all those styles, so why not enjoy them?

Edited - OUCH! Time flies. I just recalled that I wore that first fedora to an Elvis Costello concert in '82, so I must have been 17 when I bought it. What a hazy past.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[J. M. Stovall]

I remember a few years back the size a brims was bugging me, I thought it must have been some slow evolution in style from one size to another. Then I saw a PBS special about the circus and they showed all this footage from the 30's, and whatayaknow, there in one spot were brims of every size, up and down.

I just don't think that one size brim can reflect any particular era.

 

[Senator Jack]

The same goes for tie width. People associate narrow ties mainly with 60s, and then with the 80s "New Wave", fashions, but gents were wearing narrow ties in the Victorian era, and the style has been lurking ever since. In films from the 30s/40s you'll sometimes see the character of a doctor wearing a narrow tie and eton collared shirt, head topped by a bowler. A great look.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[PutALidOnIt]

QB, how close to DC are you...maybe a little too close (I escaped 18 years ago)?:cheers1:

Those were great morphs and quite eloquent in their point! We can like or subscribe to any detail of style, but the pendulum swings, and so should we!

How old is the bowler style - at least 130 years??? Ever really gone out of style??? Isn't it a stingy brim???[huh]

I have examples of 1 3/4 up to 3+ and each has a time and place...

 

[PutALidOnIt]

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION FOR THIS THREAD

DO YOU WEAR A LID WHILE YOU'RE ONLINE AT THE FEDORA LOUNGE??

...moved to the "Remove your Hat?" thread...

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Ultimate answer:

Oh, yes, especially when I am on the FL.

karol