In the News!

[DanielJones]

Check this out gang! From Oregonlive.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/index.ssf/2011/03/downtown_hatter_fashions_class.html

Downtown hatter fashions classic men's hats by hand
By Kathy Fuller, The Hillsboro Argus

He's mad about hats.
And judging from the success of his business, so is a fair portion of the population.
John Penman, firefighter turned hatter, has been making — well, hats — since 2008 in his modest workshop in downtown Hillsboro. One by one. All hand made. Penman is an old-fashioned hatter.

Congratulations John! Looks like you are just about to get much busier.:eusa_clap

Cheers!

Dan

 

[DJH]

I saw that, nice article.
I always like John's hats and the way he seems to handle his business. I can certainly see myself getting a hat from him at some point.

 

[SpeedRcrX]

I saw that, nice article.
I always like John's hats and the way he seems to handle his business. I can certainly see myself getting a hat from him at some point.

+1

John's customer service is really awesome just like his hats !

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Boy, I am looking forward to the hat hook that is brought up at the end of the article. I have seen purse hooks in department stores for ladies purses and always thought it would be great to have a way to attach a hook to the back of a chair in a restaurant so that I didn't have to put my hat on the floor or where ever while eating.

 

[RBH]

Its always nice to read of one of 'us' doing good!
Thanks dan for posting.

 

[DanielJones]

No problem Rusty, always happy to spread good news in this day and age.

Cheers!

Dan

 

[randooch]

Nice broad title to this thread, so here's an article from NPR's website with some great pictures.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/picturesho...rising-sartorial-culture-of-congolese-sapeurs

 

[g.durand]

Randall--fascinating.

 

[Blackthorn]

That's really cool, Randall!

 

[RBH]

Cool Randall, thats the way to do it.
Nice info on John and now what you posted.
If we add to this thread both [plus future info] will be more widely seen.

 

[dhermann1]

One interesting mistake in the article about the Sapeurs. It wasn't the French who colonized the Congo, it was Belgium. The Congo was run as a personal cash cow by the king of Belgium. Millions died during the time that the Congo was a colony. So it's fascinating and ironic that these guys should emulate they styles of Europeans. But life is more ironic can we can ever fathom. I've seen other videos about these guys, and they are truly cool.

 

[KingAndrew]

I admire the sapeurs' sense of style. Despite some negative reporting ("How can they afford these clothes? Are they good husbands?"), I really salute their dedication to elegance in the face of poverty, civil war, and crime. Those pictures are worth several thousand words.

Now for a very different story. The Atlantic Monthly picked this as one of the week's best pop culture pieces. It focuses on the fedora hat as an item of female fashion. The author discusses the idea that a woman looks sexy in a "man's hat," exploring several celebrities (Katharine Hepburn, Paris Hilton, and especially Lindsay Lohan). She also feels that maybe a woman in a fedora is often unlucky (Lohan, or the lead character in the play "Fedora" itself). She also suggests that the woman in the hat may be pining for a time when "men were men." It's definitely well-written, although its focus is pretty far from our usual discussions here.

http://www.nplusonemag.com/fedora

The idea of a sexy woman in a man's hat always reminds me of the character in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" who wore a black bowler when trysting with a man. I wonder what the author would make of that.