Post New Hats Here!

[Pellie]

Last 2 pics of the Brummel's......

 

[Judgmentalist]

I bought this hat from V&D (Vroom & Dreesmann). V&D is a very well-known department store in the Netherlands that went bankrupt a few years ago. Unfortunately, the hat was sold as size 58, but the label clearly says 56. So it’s way too small for me. It's an oldie, maybe made by Mayser or Hückel. Really like the form and color combination.This hat is going to @steur Stefan.
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Nice - too bad it wasn’t sized properly.

 

[Judgmentalist]

In

Close shots.

Close up shots. I find it interesting that the ribbon is sewn with that little tail kicked up on purpose. I looked it up.

can’t figure out why my images aren’t displaying inline properly.

 

[Judgmentalist]

This one fits.....
An old Brummel's homburg lordshat in black. I really like the cool sweatband!
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Love this one

 

[Pellie]

Love this one

Thanks, me too... ;-)

 

[Judgmentalist]

Here is my Peschel. In one of the photos you can see where the sweatband is separated. There is a tiny little mule kick in the back right now. Fairly stubborn; doesn't want to come out. I don't mind it. The hat wasn't squished during shipping. Let me know what you think.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

In

can’t figure out why my images aren’t displaying inline properly.

At 5 & 6MB your files are too big.

 

[Judgmentalist]

At 5 & 6MB your files are too big.

Ah. Thank you. When I didn’t get an error message I assumed it was reducing them automatically. Is there a preferred size?

 

[Judgmentalist]

Close shots.

Close up shots. I find it interesting that the ribbon is sewn with that little tail kicked up on purpose. I looked it up.

Aight - just in case you guys couldn't be bothered to click the links when I had them supersized - I deleted those and uploaded smaller ones. Particularly, if there are any hat nerds with strong opinions about what I should do with shaping the hat or wearing it so that it fits my giant watermelon head better, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Got a couple more hats coming this week - can't wait to post them here.

Funny enough; my wife was the one that turned me onto the classic fedora style. It's growing on me. I was pretty well set on Homburg. Then the fedoras show up and she doesn't care for it lol. "Some people just aren't hat people". I find this consternating.

 

[Judgmentalist]

I bought this hat from V&D (Vroom & Dreesmann). V&D is a very well-known department store in the Netherlands that went bankrupt a few years ago. Unfortunately, the hat was sold as size 58, but the label clearly says 56. So it’s way too small for me. It's an oldie, maybe made by Mayser or Hückel. Really like the form and color combination.This hat is going to @steur Stefan.
View attachment 781611 View attachment 781612 View attachment 781613 View attachment 781614 View attachment 781615 View attachment 781616 View attachment 781617 View attachment 781618 View attachment 781619 View attachment 781620

The V+D insert under the crown - it looks like it was trimmed tightly around the logo and attached somehow. Is this correct? Is there any historical reason as to why this was done this way? I find it interesting.

 

[The Lost kansan]

Aight - just in case you guys couldn't be bothered to click the links when I had them supersized - I deleted those and uploaded smaller ones. Particularly, if there are any hat nerds with strong opinions about what I should do with shaping the hat or wearing it so that it fits my giant watermelon head better, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Got a couple more hats coming this week - can't wait to post them here.

Funny enough; my wife was the one that turned me onto the classic fedora style. It's growing on me. I was pretty well set on Homburg. Then the fedoras show up and she doesn't care for it lol. "Some people just aren't hat people". I find this consternating.

Just entirely my opinion and feel free to disregard but with your frame and height I think you ought to try a slightly wider brim. Try out a vintage Stratoliner or Ooen Road or something like a new camp draft
I think you definitely are a hat person but I think you should expand the brim size just a bit

 

[Judgmentalist]

Just entirely my opinion and feel free to disregard but with your frame and height I think you ought to try a slightly wider brim. Try out a vintage Stratoliner or Ooen Road or something like a new camp draft
I think you definitely are a hat person but I think you should expand the brim size just a bit

Thanks for the tip. I'm still struggling with this. We shall see.

 

[Pellie]

The V+D insert under the crown - it looks like it was trimmed tightly around the logo and attached somehow. Is this correct? Is there any historical reason as to why this was done this way? I find it interesting.

I don't know exactly what you mean, but the logo inside (under the crown) is glued in i think.

 

[blewnote]

Aight - just in case you guys couldn't be bothered to click the links when I had them supersized - I deleted those and uploaded smaller ones. Particularly, if there are any hat nerds with strong opinions about what I should do with shaping the hat or wearing it so that it fits my giant watermelon head better, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Got a couple more hats coming this week - can't wait to post them here.

Funny enough; my wife was the one that turned me onto the classic fedora style. It's growing on me. I was pretty well set on Homburg. Then the fedoras show up and she doesn't care for it lol. "Some people just aren't hat people". I find this consternating.

I had checked them out already. Optimo makes a good looking hat. The thing about hats that are easy to get back to open crown is you can really do whatever you want with them. Try it with just a center dent, try it with a diamond, try it with a teardrop, add/remove pinches and just play with it until *you* like it.

Personally, I'd find a black fedora pretty hard to wear... Black is for bowlers or homburgs in my mind and I would gravitate towards some shade of grey/green/brown/tan for a fedora. I'd add that oddly enough, my first hat purchase was a black fedora from Meyer the Hatter here in New Orleans and I found that I didn't feel comfortable wearing it with anything other than the black suit we were wearing for the band I play with.

I think Mark Cho (who I believe is one of the founders of the Armoury) talked about having to pay "school dues" on your fashion journey...meaning that you're going to buy some things that feel like a waste of money because they don't fit or don't look good or don't have the quality you decide you want, but after some time you'll start to really understand what it is you're looking for.

I've bought a bunch of different hats over the years now and have learned what quality I want in one, but am continually refining what I like seeing myself wearing. Finding good hats to go with suits/tailored clothing was fairly easy once I started getting some vintage lids, but it wasn't until I bought a few Open Road style hats recently that I discovered the style that I had wanted to have to be feel good about how it looked with casual clothes. And although I have a couple I've kept in the cattleman's crease, I actually style them like a Stratoliner with a rough teardrop crease. For me, the small ribbon and profile of the hat just look great casually.

We all have our own opinions of what looks good too... As I mentioned in another post, I personally don't want to wear something formal like a homburg with casual clothes because it just doesn't look right to me, but other people here chimed in about how they like to wear theirs with jeans and a shirt (or whatever it was). I wouldn't do that because*to me* it doesn't look fashionable, but that's the thing about fashion... It's personal.

I guess all that is to say, this site is a wealth of information about the history and quality of hats, but when it comes to wearing em you just gotta put it on and look in the mirror and decide for yourself!

And one more thing about "quality"... One of my friends that is into vintage clothing and hats and who was sort of my gateway into this world has taught me the value of even the "lacking in quality" hat. He is happy to wear hats with sweatbands falling out of them, with a tear in the crease, with moth holes, etc. because it's just part of the story of an item that is 80 plus years old. I've been learning to appreciate the things that aren't perfect on my journey and it's growing on me.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

The V+D insert under the crown - it looks like it was trimmed tightly around the logo and attached somehow. Is this correct? Is there any historical reason as to why this was done this way?

It’s commonly called a tip protector & is glued in on light weight hats or hats made without liners.

Thanks for the tip. I'm still struggling with this. We shall see.

As Randy advised, avail yourself to the knowledge here on FL. Perhaps this will help:

HAT LIFE Yearbook 1946

www.thefedoralounge.com

 

[Judgmentalist]

I had checked them out already. Optimo makes a good looking hat. The thing about hats that are easy to get back to open crown is you can really do whatever you want with them. Try it with just a center dent, try it with a diamond, try it with a teardrop, add/remove pinches and just play with it until *you* like it.

Personally, I'd find a black fedora pretty hard to wear... Black is for bowlers or homburgs in my mind and I would gravitate towards some shade of grey/green/brown/tan for a fedora. I'd add that oddly enough, my first hat purchase was a black fedora from Meyer the Hatter here in New Orleans and I found that I didn't feel comfortable wearing it with anything other than the black suit we were wearing for the band I play with.

I think Mark Cho (who I believe is one of the founders of the Armoury) talked about having to pay "school dues" on your fashion journey...meaning that you're going to buy some things that feel like a waste of money because they don't fit or don't look good or don't have the quality you decide you want, but after some time you'll start to really understand what it is you're looking for.

I've bought a bunch of different hats over the years now and have learned what quality I want in one, but am continually refining what I like seeing myself wearing. Finding good hats to go with suits/tailored clothing was fairly easy once I started getting some vintage lids, but it wasn't until I bought a few Open Road style hats recently that I discovered the style that I had wanted to have to be feel good about how it looked with casual clothes. And although I have a couple I've kept in the cattleman's crease, I actually style them like a Stratoliner with a rough teardrop crease. For me, the small ribbon and profile of the hat just look great casually.

We all have our own opinions of what looks good too... As I mentioned in another post, I personally don't want to wear something formal like a homburg with casual clothes because it just doesn't look right to me, but other people here chimed in about how they like to wear theirs with jeans and a shirt (or whatever it was). I wouldn't do that because*to me* it doesn't look fashionable, but that's the thing about fashion... It's personal.

I guess all that is to say, this site is a wealth of information about the history and quality of hats, but when it comes to wearing em you just gotta put it on and look in the mirror and decide for yourself!

And one more thing about "quality"... One of my friends that is into vintage clothing and hats and who was sort of my gateway into this world has taught me the value of even the "lacking in quality" hat. He is happy to wear hats with sweatbands falling out of them, with a tear in the crease, with moth holes, etc. because it's just part of the story of an item that is 80 plus years old. I've been learning to appreciate the things that aren't perfect on my journey and it's growing on me.

Thank you. Lots of good info here. I also feel the severity of the black dress finish hat. We shall see how often I wear it.

I also deliberately put it with my most “gangster-y” suit, knowing that it would push me toward costume-y, which I will have a hard time wearing (at the moment). I haven’t tried putting together an outfit for real. It may be next winter with an overcoat, gloves, etc. before I am bold enough to try it lol.

And in the meantime people will get used to me wearing hats.

I’m happy to have it. I wanted a prime example of modern dress finish for comparison and it’s doing its job. I doubt I will need another hat from Optimo specifically, unless I stumble over a Homburg that fits me, which I thoroughly doubt will happen.

I bought a Stetson straw open road. I love the look of that hat. I didn’t like the Stetson straw, and that bloc was too round for me. We will revisit the cattleman’s crease at a later date. I love the structure to that crown.

So far I have two hats. One cost me about ten times what the other cost. I like them both. now I know I like them both. Do I like one 10 times as much? Probably not. The next experiment will be to compare the hats I have (including some other vintage ones on the way) with (forgive me if I don’t know the correct terminology) small modern custom hat(s). I suspect this will be where I will generally live, but we shall see.

I’m very family with the cost of acquired knowledge via my recent suit acquisitions. I lost a bunch of weight and built a new dress wardrobe from scratch. The pile of stuff I don’t need anymore could buy a used car, and will take me a small eternity to unload, but I don’t know how to get from there to here without them. I’m fairly philosophical about it since I have limited choice in the matter given the lack of nearby time machines.

 

[Blare]

I've been delinquent in posting a bevy of new hats, but this one came in the other day and was so nice that I felt compelled to snap some pics and post it. Of course then the site decided to stop functioning and I haven't been able to until today.

It's a Dobbs from the early 40s, based on the roundel in the liner and the embossment on the sweatband. Marked size 7 on the re-order tag but 7 1/8 on the sweatband and measures as such. Unreeded, lightweight felt in a beautiful tan color with brown ribbon and a cavanaugh edge, 2 3/8" brim, 5 5/8" crown.

I'm just under a 7 1/4 in size and I may try to stretch it up to fit, although it's in such beautiful shape it seems like it might be best to just sell it on to someone who it would fit perfectly to begin with.



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Fantastic

 

[blewnote]

As Randy advised, avail yourself to the knowledge here on FL. Perhaps this will help:

http://[URL]https://www.thefedoralounge.com/threads/hat-life-yearbook-1946.86490/

[/URL]

Oooh! I have been looking for something like this. I've seen a few that are in this vein in the old Esquire archives but this is much more detailed!

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Oooh! I have been looking for something like this. I've seen a few that are in this vein in the old Esquire archives but this is much more detailed!

Thanks to Vic @carouselvic for all his ephemera & catalog posts.

 

[Judgmentalist]

Here is my Peschel. In one of the photos you can see where the sweatband is separated. There is a tiny little mule kick in the back right now. Fairly stubborn; doesn't want to come out. I don't mind it. The hat wasn't squished during shipping. Let me know what you think.



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So, in these pics I had a pot holder in the crown to get it up off my head a little bit, because even though it’s vintage and supposedly 7 1/2, it’s loose on my head. Go figure. The Optimo 7 1/2 fits well. I think. More on that another time maybe.

I got my cork strips in the mail today, and I added two on each side and one in the front AND back, and it still feels like it either sits a little low or just barely fits tight enough.

I guess these strips are 1/8” thick, so that reduces the opening by what, a half inch left to right an a quarter inch front to back?

Is this weird? For a vintage hat to be advertised as that much smaller than it actually is? Normally I’ve been running into people fudging on the high side, e.g., they will say 7 1/2 and the tag will say 7 1/4.

Also, is this thing sitting up high enough off of my head?