Marcus Brody
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 68
- Location
- San Francisco
Hi, I'm a new poster here and relatively new reader. I'm a longtime Indy Gear vet (although I took nearly a 4 year hiatus) so I have heard of this site, but it didn't really apply 'til recently. I've been into fedoras since I was a kid. I grew up on Indiana Jones, Michael Jackson, The Shadow, Dick Tracy, James Bond (Sean Connery wore some in the earlier ones) and The Phantom of the Opera musical so fedoras have always interested me. I wore a really crappy one throughout elementary school.
Try to ignore the colors in the after pics. I didn't redye the hats. My room just has awful lighting and I used a camera phone with lame white balance features, and then I did some auto color in photoshop which did a little good. The original picture made the hats look brown when they were gray
.
My favorite has to be this brand new 7 1/8 Emerson homburg that came with its box, which I converted into a fedora (shock!) with some light ironing on the brim and a cold bash on the crown. Don't know about the brand or age. About a 2 3/4" brim all around. The crown is a tall one about 5 1/2" bashed.
As it was:
As it is:
Then I got this size 7 Barrister fedora, another brand I've never heard of. The ribbon didn't suit my taste in color or width (a little short). 2.5" snap brim all around. About a 5" crown bashed. It also hat a diamond crease, but I change it to a center dent.
As it was:
As it is:
Lastly, I received this size 6 7/8 Dobbs fedora. This one I did a bit of work on too, but more so than the Barrister. For this hat I did a ghetto reblock because it was just too tapered and I didn't like the bash it came with. I also removed the feather and replaced the ribbon which was just way too short. The brim was dimensionally cut from the get go as 2.5" front and 2 1/8" side. I also hat to do the brim manually since it came flat. Also about a 5" crown bashed. It apparently costed 65 dollars originally and comes in a style called Alair.
As it was:
As it is:
As for the ribbon replacements, I used some really cheap polyester 1.5 " (really 36mm) grosgrain I got off of ebay. I would have preferred a rayon/cotton blend but that stuff is much harder to come by and more expensive. Luckily they're not too shiny and I was still able to work them onto the hats by ironing a curve into them. The part that will shock you though is that I used liquid stitch to attach everything.
The homburg conversion might shock you, but I didn't think it made a very good homburg in the first place. The thing was a giant with a 6" crown and a 2.75" brim. It did have a pencil roll brim and still does for the most part, but I've eased it up a bit.
Look at this and tell me it didn't make a perfect fedora instead?
Besides just showing off my new collection (I have a 2 brown fedoras from Burlington Coat Factory and a Akubra Federation as well) here. I'd really like some input as to the backgrounds of these hats. I've never heard of Emerson (which apparently has been around since 1888) or Barrister.
If anyone's wondering what exactly a ghetto reblock is...basically I took a large cylindrical plastic container and molded a dome on it out of paper towels. I've done this before and it has worked very well.
Try to ignore the colors in the after pics. I didn't redye the hats. My room just has awful lighting and I used a camera phone with lame white balance features, and then I did some auto color in photoshop which did a little good. The original picture made the hats look brown when they were gray
. My favorite has to be this brand new 7 1/8 Emerson homburg that came with its box, which I converted into a fedora (shock!) with some light ironing on the brim and a cold bash on the crown. Don't know about the brand or age. About a 2 3/4" brim all around. The crown is a tall one about 5 1/2" bashed.
As it was:
As it is:
Then I got this size 7 Barrister fedora, another brand I've never heard of. The ribbon didn't suit my taste in color or width (a little short). 2.5" snap brim all around. About a 5" crown bashed. It also hat a diamond crease, but I change it to a center dent.
As it was:
As it is:
Lastly, I received this size 6 7/8 Dobbs fedora. This one I did a bit of work on too, but more so than the Barrister. For this hat I did a ghetto reblock because it was just too tapered and I didn't like the bash it came with. I also removed the feather and replaced the ribbon which was just way too short. The brim was dimensionally cut from the get go as 2.5" front and 2 1/8" side. I also hat to do the brim manually since it came flat. Also about a 5" crown bashed. It apparently costed 65 dollars originally and comes in a style called Alair.
As it was:
As it is:
As for the ribbon replacements, I used some really cheap polyester 1.5 " (really 36mm) grosgrain I got off of ebay. I would have preferred a rayon/cotton blend but that stuff is much harder to come by and more expensive. Luckily they're not too shiny and I was still able to work them onto the hats by ironing a curve into them. The part that will shock you though is that I used liquid stitch to attach everything.
The homburg conversion might shock you, but I didn't think it made a very good homburg in the first place. The thing was a giant with a 6" crown and a 2.75" brim. It did have a pencil roll brim and still does for the most part, but I've eased it up a bit.
Look at this and tell me it didn't make a perfect fedora instead?
Besides just showing off my new collection (I have a 2 brown fedoras from Burlington Coat Factory and a Akubra Federation as well) here. I'd really like some input as to the backgrounds of these hats. I've never heard of Emerson (which apparently has been around since 1888) or Barrister.
If anyone's wondering what exactly a ghetto reblock is...basically I took a large cylindrical plastic container and molded a dome on it out of paper towels. I've done this before and it has worked very well.
