Edward
Bartender
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- London, UK
Whew, that took a lot of digging to find this post, however.... I wanted, just about a year on, to cross-reference this to a second hat of the same model, from the same source. I was sufficiently pleased with my navy blue in this hat last year to order another from the Hat Centre just last week. And here it is:
The hat centre refer to this one as Russet, which is bang on in person. It's a glorious, reddish cinnamony mid brown, which sits very nicely between the golden hue of my Fed in Tawny Fawn and the Fed DLX in dark brown. This is a hat that will work nicely with something like a deep brown suit in a way that the dark brown fed would do less well, imo. It's a colour I've had in mind for a while, and I am very well pleased with it.
The felt is, again, thicker and softer than the Akubra, with a nice hand to it. I wouldn't say it is better or worse than the Fed, but certainly different. Out of the box, this iteration is very much softer than the Akubra, but - in contrast to the navy - just stiff enough that it needed a little steam to bash. This is what I've done with it for now - a simple centre dent and pinch. I'll probably keep it that way - I like the proportions it has with this, and it lets the colour speak for itself.
I think this side view, at least on my monitor, best captures the colour.
As with the navy blue, it's very much a case of "equally great, just different" up against the Akubra. The open crown shape is the same as before, so very slightly more rounded on the crown than the Fed, but I wouldn't call it tapered - once bashed, the difference really has to be looked for. The one aspect where there is a clear winner between the two, and even that is subjective, is the ribbon. I love the slightly deeper ribbon here, and though I'm not especially likely to use it in anger, the wind trolley is a lovely detail. The 57 is a good fit, ready to go without worry that it'll snug up too much with wear, and the height, bashed, leaves just a nice amount of room between my scalp and the top of the crown (afaik this was deliberately designed to accommodate a Yarmulke). Really chuffed with this one. It'll get an airing in Paris week after next; hopefully a chance for my traditional selfie at the Eiffel with a new hat. My sole criticism really is that they - as is the case with the Fed, and so many others - use a white liner rather than a black or other dark colour. Purely something I'm aware of because for me (rocking the Yul Brynner look since '06) a white liner can show signs of being grubby more over time, can yellow a little, which a black or other dark liner hides somewhat.
I expect I will pick up more of these - one of the other bonuses comparing this with the Fed is that the two come in quite a different set of colours. Black aside (and I have already four very nice black fedoras including an Optimo in similar design, so no call for black in either this or the Fed), there's only the grey that is at all close the the Fed, and even that is more like Moonstone taken down several shades, a much more iron grey without the hint of blue I see in a Carbon grey (your mileage - and eyesight - may differ!). I do have my eye on the green (it'll be interesting to compare it to the newer olive when they get photos on the website), and the French Navy (a markedly lighter blue than the Navy, somewhere between a traditional navy and a royal blue. What I'd call an 'airforce blue'). They're all here if you're interested- the model is the "Antelope Felt Hat". https://www.hatcentre.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=153 I have zero connection with the business other than being a satisfied customer.
