Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Is a non-fedora yet felt hat wearing man, welcome here?

Katt in Hat

A-List Customer
Messages
353
Location
The Gold Coast of Florida
I experienced the early '50s as a high school boy in Brooklyn and have been a jazzbeaux and an aficionado of music from the '20s on. Living near the water back then, I wore a big-green-billed,cloth,fishing hat. After moving to The City and starting to work Downtown I found Young's Hats and the HST model Stetson Open Road. An aside, I hate it when they connect the hat to LBJ. As was stated on the plaque on Harry's desk in the Oval Office, "The Hat Started Here." Having bought a magnificent olde Swiss made split-hand stop Chronograph after my first year on a job; and after nicking my Mother for her $10 1883 gold piece, to be used as a fob, I wore hardly naught but vested suits for years and years until the town became a trifle too edgy for a display of gold such as I then sported.

Part of the attraction that Western or semi-Western headgear held for me was that even as hats as an item of standard apparel were on the wane, those few hats that I saw on the Street were Fedoras. A Young Man seeks not to be in strict conformity, or at least, I didn't. Jeeze, I was out of step with most of my peers in the '60 with the 3 piece suits.

In my time I have owned 2 Open road and 2 Stetson 150s. One of the 150s is now a rain hat because so old and beat up. The other has been well kept and is rarely used from year to year unless I travel. I have left out a bunch of non-de script straw hats.

It's so hot and humid most of the year; down here, that wearing a hat seems a chore. Full grown Gents wear shorts 7 months out of the year, and worse...

Tell me then, why have I bought two heavy and very wide brimmed, lower grade, but of good manufacture(Amer. Hat and Stetson) Western hats this month?
 

WEEGEE

Practically Family
Messages
996
Location
Albany , New York
WELCOME

Is a non-fedora yet felt hat wearing man, welcome here?

Of course...just don't hold anything against a lounger who converts a vintage Western into a Fedora.I have not heard the reverse but there has to be a first.


regards,

WeeGee
 

Wolf

New in Town
Messages
28
Location
North Carolina
WEEGEE said:
Of course...just don't hold anything against a lounger who converts a vintage Western into a Fedora.I have not heard the reverse but there has to be a first.


regards,

WeeGee

Converting a western into a fedora? Tell more. I have a nice Stetson western hat I don't wear anymore, brims too big. Was thinking of ebaying it, but maybe a conversion is in order?
 

K.D. Lightner

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,354
Location
Des Moines, IA
Katt --

The Open Road converts quite nicely into a standard fedora. I have one, a silverbelly colored hat that looked LBJ-ish. I don't like that look, nor do I look good in it, so it was turned into a fedora by a local hatter.

Looks great.

I have a number of super cowboy hats -- a Stetson "Gus", a black Stetson, a silverbelly Rand hat with black trim, several Akubras, an unformed Bailey silvermist hat that I am thinking about having styled, and I have at least a dozen newsboy caps.

We have all sorts here, welcome to the Lounge.

karol
 

WEEGEE

Practically Family
Messages
996
Location
Albany , New York
REBLOCK, CUTDOWN BRIM AND ADD A NEW RIBBON

Wolf,

Art Fawcett http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/ can do it ...and i'm sure others will chime in soon.

I have an old Knox on my list to get done but i have not walked that path

yet...others in the Lounge have though.

Make a new post and ask the question or just wait the answer will come.


regards,

Weegee :cheers1:
 

Wolf

New in Town
Messages
28
Location
North Carolina
WEEGEE said:
Wolf,

Art Fawcett http://www.vintagesilhouettes.com/ can do it ...and i'm sure others will chime in soon.

I have an old Knox on my list to get done but i have not walked that path

yet...others in the Lounge have though.

Make a new post and ask the question or just wait the answer will come.


regards,

Weegee :cheers1:

Weegee, I wouldn't even know where to begin asking questions, being new to fedoras, I don't know what looks good on me yet.
 

Fedorista

Familiar Face
Messages
73
Subheader of Hats Forum title on the Fedora Lounge's main page:

"Everything from fedoras to pith helmets. If a guy doesn't have a lid, he is not worth talking about."
 

Bebop

Practically Family
Messages
951
Location
Sausalito, California
I have converted a western hat into a fedora by cutting the brim down and reshaping the crown with steam. It takes a steady hand to cut the brim but it can be done. Open Roads are also easy to bash into fedoras.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
108,466
Messages
3,061,663
Members
53,660
Latest member
HyakujuJoe
Top