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Indiana Jones Raiders Hat Brim Shape

Rogera

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,365
Location
West Texas
If you want the real deal John Penman makes a heck of an Indy hat.

I've thing that is very important on the shape of the Indy brim from Raiders(I just did a quick skim of this thread and didn't see it mentioned please forgive me if I am being repetitive) is the Raiders turn. That plays a big role of the way that hat looks.

Put the hat on your head rotate the hat so that the bow moves toward your face until you get the brim the way you want it. The brim will distort due to the block shape, brim cut and flanging being forced into an unnatural position.
 

jlee562

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,101
Location
San Francisco, CA
The thing is, the brim on the Raiders hat is that way because the hat was beat to heck and has shrunken up from exposure to the elements.

But it's a fedora, and it's supposed to have a flanged brim. I don't really think of the Raiders hat as having a downturned brim in the style of an Aussie hat anyways:
181.jpg

128.jpg

022.jpg
 

Wesslyn

Practically Family
Messages
836
Location
Monmouth, Illinois
If you want the real deal John Penman makes a heck of an Indy hat.

I've thing that is very important on the shape of the Indy brim from Raiders(I just did a quick skim of this thread and didn't see it mentioned please forgive me if I am being repetitive) is the Raiders turn. That plays a big role of the way that hat looks.

Put the hat on your head rotate the hat so that the bow moves toward your face until you get the brim the way you want it. The brim will distort due to the block shape, brim cut and flanging being forced into an unnatural position.
I'd imagine it'd take a lot of breaking in for having the Raiders "turn" sit right on your head. So I wonder if the hat from Raiders was made to look that way and fit normal, or was actually turned on Ford's head...
 

moontheloon

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,592
Location
NJ
I'd imagine it'd take a lot of breaking in for having the Raiders "turn" sit right on your head. So I wonder if the hat from Raiders was made to look that way and fit normal, or was actually turned on Ford's head...

the hat is so soft and crushable that it would take literally zero breaking in ... you can see in many scenes in the movie just how floppy the felt is ... like the open seat plane scene for example ... you can see it in the Fedora Chronicles vid I posed earlier in the thread

the movie hat was rabbit ... but I have the Penman version in beaver which is the closest replica you can find and you can pretty much do anything you want to it... you could fold it up and put it in your pocket if you want ...

I actually reblocked mine and took the turn away then rebashed it with the same tight pinch and center crease

you can get a sense of how crushable and durable the hat is here

 

Wesslyn

Practically Family
Messages
836
Location
Monmouth, Illinois
the hat is so soft and crushable that it would take literally zero breaking in ... you can see in many scenes in the movie just how floppy the felt is ... like the open seat plane scene for example ... you can see it in the Fedora Chronicles vid I posed earlier in the thread

the movie hat was rabbit ... but I have the Penman version in beaver which is the closest replica you can find and you can pretty much do anything you want to it... you could fold it up and put it in your pocket if you want ...

I actually reblocked mine and took the turn away then rebashed it with the same tight pinch and center crease

you can get a sense of how crushable and durable the hat is here

That's incredible! Now I need one...
 

zeus36

A-List Customer
Messages
392
Location
Ventura, California
I forgot to mention that Harrison's head is a long oval and contributes to the hat shape in the films. Put your hands in the hat, one in front and one at the back and stretch it like a hat stretcher does. You'll see the result.
 

Rogera

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,365
Location
West Texas
the hat is so soft and crushable that it would take literally zero breaking in ... you can see in many scenes in the movie just how floppy the felt is ... like the open seat plane scene for example ... you can see it in the Fedora Chronicles vid I posed earlier in the thread

the movie hat was rabbit ... but I have the Penman version in beaver which is the closest replica you can find and you can pretty much do anything you want to it... you could fold it up and put it in your pocket if you want ...

I actually reblocked mine and took the turn away then rebashed it with the same tight pinch and center crease

you can get a sense of how crushable and durable the hat is here

That video never creases to amaze me and makes me cringe at the same time. Makes me want to order another.
 

Wesslyn

Practically Family
Messages
836
Location
Monmouth, Illinois
nin, since you are in Europe, check out the Advintage Fedora guys hats:

http://www.advintagefedora.de/shop/index.php?language=en&

He has Indy hats at various price points - some of them look really good.

One of the UK members recently acquired one and gave good reviews.
I've been looking at those for a while now. I'm wondering if I could get a Junior in the clipper grey...
Anyhow, I'd love to see more in depth reviews from loungers on them.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,078
Location
London, UK
I have the Fed DLX III - minial differences from the IV. I've tried flipping the brim down once or twice - I think it would shape nicely into looking much more like the one in Raiders with a bit of steam and work. To me the one in the film just looks flat a lot of the time (rather than curved downwards like an outback hat), fwiw. I bashed mine close to a Raiders look, though I wear it as an item of clothing, not in Indy drag, as it were - so I kept the upturn at the back as I prefer 'em that way.

Felt-wise, over time both the rabbit / hare mix of the DLX and the rabbit of the standard Fed soften up nicely - just with ordinary wear. I guess you could soften it up faster by abusing it or sitting on it or such, but really I find just wearing a hat does well enough.

I'd imagine it'd take a lot of breaking in for having the Raiders "turn" sit right on your head. So I wonder if the hat from Raiders was made to look that way and fit normal, or was actually turned on Ford's head...

Turned on his head. The story is that he was fitted for the hat while filming Empire Strieks Back with his long, Han Solo hair. Then when he turned up on set to shoot Raiders with his freshly cut, thirties-style shorter hair, it didn't quite fit and they had to pull it in a notch, which gave that off-centre pinch to it, that then broke in so nicely. Seems legit to me - I went down a full hat size when I started going bald and shaved my head ten years ago.
 

ninman

One of the Regulars
Messages
137
Location
UK
The thing is, the brim on the Raiders hat is that way because the hat was beat to heck and has shrunken up from exposure to the elements.

But it's a fedora, and it's supposed to have a flanged brim. I don't really think of the Raiders hat as having a downturned brim in the style of an Aussie hat anyways:
181.jpg

128.jpg

022.jpg

The second photo you posted is the nazi guy not Indy.

If you look at the pictures at the bottom of this page, that show the actual hat that Harrison Ford wore.

http://www.indygear.com/igfedora.html

You can see that the rear brim is not flanged. Maybe it just got that way over time though, I don't know.
 

jlee562

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,101
Location
San Francisco, CA
The second photo you posted is the nazi guy not Indy.

If you look at the pictures at the bottom of this page, that show the actual hat that Harrison Ford wore.

http://www.indygear.com/igfedora.html

You can see that the rear brim is not flanged. Maybe it just got that way over time though, I don't know.

That's the way the hat looks now. Look at the screen captures, the brim does not swoop down in the style of an Aussie hat:
ScreenUsedFedora3b.jpg


It still has a pretty defined flange on the brim.
 

ninman

One of the Regulars
Messages
137
Location
UK
That's the way the hat looks now. Look at the screen captures, the brim does not swoop down in the style of an Aussie hat:
ScreenUsedFedora3b.jpg


It still has a pretty defined flange on the brim.

Ok, but the thing is that a hat like a Federation 4 has a much larger flange than his hat. His hat looks nearly flat, with a very slight lip in it. So how would I get a hat like like the Federation 4 to look that way?
 

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