It's about time we define "fedora"

[BanjoMerlin]

But, so well anyway.

Is this hat a FEDORA?

 

[Richard Warren]

I submit this is a fedora:


http://timetoeatthedogs.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/darwin.jpg

Or would be if a monkey came up and the crown top with a banana so as to create a center dent.

 

[danofarlington]

But, so well anyway.

Is this hat a FEDORA?

Yowza.

 

[1961MJS]

Genus or Species?

Hi

I think that we need to first decide if a Homburg and a Fedora are different kinds of hats, OR if a Homburg is a type of Fedora. Good luck and good hunting.

Later

 

[Yeps]

Hi

I think that we need to first decide if a Homburg and a Fedora are different kinds of hats, OR if a Homburg is a type of Fedora. Good luck and good hunting.

Later

Over in one of the historical threads, this popped up.

I know we are not looking for a historical definition, but rather a modern, working one, but this I think is interesting. Fedora appears to mean Alpine and also Homburg.

 

[Atinkerer]

Hows this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedora

 

[fluteplayer07]

A visual organizer?

...................................Felt hats
Soft Felt.............................................................Hard Felt

*Fedora.............................................................*Derby
*Homburg
*Western
*{Porkpie?}
*{Tyrolean?}
*{Straw?}


A map like this? Fedora being merely one style?

Edit: Duh.

 

[Yeps]

Homburgs are most definitely soft felt, not hard.

 

[Panda Moanium]

What about hats like Akubra's Banjo Paterson? For me, it doesn't quite say Fedora, yet I'm struggling to define why not.

Is it that the brim is too large at 3 inches? Or that the back is turned down? Or (perhaps this is the most likely) the narrow leather band instead of a larger ribbon.

It is fur felt, and has the pinched front and and crown features of a Fedora. So is it one?

 

[jimmy the lid]

I think the poll needs one more category:

"I know one when I see one"...

 

[Lefty]

That's two guys to bring a porn analysis to the thread.

Hats,


they're just


hats.


Let's not get worked up.

 

[metropd]

I think the poll needs one more category:

"I know one when I see one"...

+100

 

[RBH]

:deadhorse

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

the band

Panda, I think that leather hat band instead of a ribbon says "western" to me instead of "fedora."

 

[Panda Moanium]

Panda, I think that leather hat band instead of a ribbon says "western" to me instead of "fedora."

I agree with you....but it does demonstrate how impossible a task it is to reach a definition of a fedora.

I think I'll leave it to those more expert than I. Good luck guys!

 

[rlk]

It is not possible to create a definition broad enough to include all hats sometimes described as Fedoras but is specific enough to exclude any hats which would never be called Fedoras.

If you exclude the crease, all soft(ish) hat bodies with a brim break may perhaps be Fedoras.

 

[Mr. Gardner]

This is bordering on philosophical debate! I have only a few guidelines that I use. First I agree that a fedora is a "style" of hat. The material doesn't necessarily concern me as I think a Panama hat can be had in a fedora style. I would put porkpies in a sort of hybrid category as I feel that some sort of crease is important to a fedora look. I think a snap is required as well as a brim width within certain dimensions (2-3 inches or so). And finally my enemy, the stingy brim. About a year ago I began buying and wearing wide brim fedora type hats. This was my stylistic response to the gigantic trend (still going on) of the "California hat", "stingy brim", "trilby", or whatever. It's not that this style can't be worn well (see Leonard Cohen) but the predominance of them and the fact that there are now so many cheap ones being made, drove me nuts. So I have mounted a one man war (here in Austin TX at least) against the "Hipster hat" or "stingy brim" which in my mind is NOT a fedora.

 

[Yeps]

This is bordering on philosophical debate! I have only a few guidelines that I use. First I agree that a fedora is a "style" of hat. The material doesn't necessarily concern me as I think a Panama hat can be had in a fedora style. I would put porkpies in a sort of hybrid category as I feel that some sort of crease is important to a fedora look. I think a snap is required as well as a brim width within certain dimensions (2-3 inches or so). And finally my enemy, the stingy brim. About a year ago I began buying and wearing wide brim fedora type hats. This was my stylistic response to the gigantic trend (still going on) of the "California hat", "stingy brim", "trilby", or whatever. It's not that this style can't be worn well (see Leonard Cohen) but the predominance of them and the fact that there are now so many cheap ones being made, drove me nuts. So I have mounted a one man war (here in Austin TX at least) against the "Hipster hat" or "stingy brim" which in my mind is NOT a fedora.

If you poke around here, there are some fantastic stingy fedoras, and I don't think anyone would debate them taking the name. I don't think that the cloth ones should be called fedoras (not sure why, but the distinction hast to be drawn somewhere). I think it has to be made of felt (although I would refer to a straw fedora, but not a cloth one), wool or fur. Well, theoretically you could make a synthetic, but I would rather not think about that.

 

[DAJE]

Actually, if one may be permitted to say it, there is some merit in DAJE's definitions.

Well, they weren't my personal definitions, I was saying that if you were to say the word "fedora" to most people, what they would think would be one or both of those definitions: wannabe-hipster hat or olden-days hat.

Any better definition than those may be of interest to hat-lovers like us, but - in my experience - enthusiasts are given to arguing about fine details that are invisible to everyone else.

There aren't really any definitive answers to "what is a Fedora?" A Fedora is in the eyes of the observer. There isn't any hat-DNA, there's no scientific test to establish exactly what is or isn't a Fedora. So any debate is going to remain unresolved, and opinion is all we have.

 

[Mobile Vulgus]

SLOWLY I TURN

Me and my ilk? I have an ilk now?

Ooohhhh, you guys and your ilks! Why, it makes me scream, I tells ya. SLOWLY I turn... STEP BY STEP...