Daniele Tanto
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 4,621
- Location
- Verona - Italia
The Borsalinos "buried" in a balsa-wood coffin were hats produced especially for tourists who visited the Italian cities of art, especially Rome and Florence, as you can see from the shops from which they come. A normal hat would have taken up space by plane or ship, therefore Borsalino had put artisan technology into making hats that took up little space. They were the souvenir of Italy. It is clear that the hat had to have special requirements to "sleep" in the coffin and then be ready for use with little work and a puff of steam. For Borsalino in the golden years, let's say from after the Second War until the end of the seventies, the question of selling hats of great value was a constant, on the other hand Giuseppe Borsalino had imposed this standard since the beginning of the activity. This is, in summary, the story of the "folding" hats that have crossed the oceans. Your "lobbia" is quite young, let's say it is about fifty years old more or less and to tell you that it was buried in a coffin I should have had it in my hands, even if some elements such as the lack of the lining and, I think, one light and very elastic sweatband make it think. However Randall is all about felt (produced in Italy in the heyday of hats) and "primary" shape (tracks) given by the hatter. For all those who have hats that come from Naples: a good part of them arrived in the United States because they were bought by the military and staff of the large air base near the Neapolitan city.
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