NEWBIE: I need help finding a fedora

[Landman]

Nyah,

I really think the Fedora is more of what you are looking for than the Fed IV. I have one and I don't think the crown is 5 1/2". I have never measured it but it is definitely shorter than the Fed or Campdraft. The Fed is a dimensional brim too and would be more difficult to trim. The Fedora is also very soft and easily dry bashed so you could experiment easier with the bash than a Fed or Campdraft which I have found to need steam or water to bash. Once you get it I would recommend wearing it for awhile before you trim it. The brim on it feels very short to me as it is.

The vintage route as some have suggested may be a good way to go depending on your size. If you are a smaller size you can find some very nice hats for a lot less.

 

[TheDane]

Ebay has problems that I'd rather avoid. Also, the self-bashed look is what I'm after. I really don't want the look of most hats from the 60s, which is when the majority of them under 2&3/8" brim on Ebay seem to be from.

But the advice: "Look for hats from the mid/late 50's and 60's on EBay" is probably the best, you'll get. That's the era when the crowns had the silhouette you like - and there were lots of brims between 2 and 2 1/2". Furthermore, dealing on EBay will allow you to experiment, which you will most likely need. No matter how much advice you get, you should expect errors - an very possible some shift in interest/taste in style as you start wearing felt fedoras

 

[Wolfwood]

You can do an interesting little test: When meeting a friend who doesn't wear hats, conversate the person for a minute or two. Then ask the person to turn the back to you, and describe your hat from memory. He or she will be lucky to get the color right. The crease, crown-height, brim-width, brim-treatment, brim-snap, ribbon-color and -width will probably be wrong on most counts. He or she may love the fact, that you are wearing a hat - but the question is, what the person actually see(?)

This is very true. People who do not wear hats cannot make out the difference between a cowboy hat and a fedora, for example. I've had to correct several of my co-workers on the issue (they thought that since I spent a year in Canada, the hat that I had begun wearing must be a cowboy hat). Even total strangers make the same mistake and I've had to inform them about different brim widths, shapes and crown heights. But they usually just smile back at me with an absent expression on their faces. The same expression I see when I try to educate them about the difference between 1950's and the medieval era. Or the renaissance and the middle ages if they are slightly more knowledgeable than my father-in-law and his wife. I've even seen the same expression on my wife's face when I try to educate her about computers and why her computer just crashed.

 

[xbeatles4x]

Well I guess I am no longer a noobie here. I also picked up a fed 4 from this very forum. Here I am with it. It is heritage fawn.

 

[ManofKent]

^ Looks good