bowlerman
I'll Lock Up
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also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."
The low cost fedoras are a stepping stone to nicer ones. Like any trend with my gen it starts cheap then everyone buys better becuase it becomes a status symbol. The walmart fedoras are a start to a trend. People buy and see what they look like. After awhile theyll get nicer. Like prada purses, Ed Hardy clothes, and such.
Really? I see the presence of cheap trilbies and fedoras at Walmart as a sign that a trend has reached or passed its peak. When Walmart clothes shoppers are buying fedoras, the trend setters figure out some other way to distinguish themselves. When they do, the trend followers stop wearing fedoras and wear whatever the trend setters were wearing last year.
also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."
also-- it seems to me that sometimes the media confuses "wide-brimmed hats" with just plain "brimmed hats."
So I don't get it...Are Fedoras ''out'' again?
Fedoras haven't really been "in" since the late 1950's. The current stingy brim thing is a fad for a small amount of tragically hip seeking young people.
While people can give definitions that will say a Stingy Brim is a Fedora, I simply don't believe that.
The fact that is as it has hit the extreme side of brim size makes it FINO as in Fedora In Name Only.
It's like an experiment that went wrong in a horror movie but the creature created from that bad experiment keeps coming back from the dead.
Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Maybe unproductive or maybe uninformed. This site is quite educational and with that in mind, anyone who has seen Daizawaguy or GWD (and others I may be missing) wear a narrow-brimmed hat with great elegance knows stingies hold their own in the world of fedoras.
Back on topic, the additional media coverage of wide-brimmed hats may indicate a trend or it may not. How will you measure it if it's legitimately a trend?
Basically, it seems that a fedora is a hat with a full brim, and a crown that can be pinched. Details such as materials and dimensions can be used to specify what type fedora a particular one is, as in, say, a classic forties (or decade of choice) -style fedora which would have a brim in the 2 1/2 inch range. A 'sixties-style might have a 2 inch brim and a smaller crown. A major difference in one of the fedoras of today that are associated with the 'hip' crowd is the material of choice which is cloth, as opposed to felt.
Today I'm wearing my dusky green Crofut & Knapp, which I've had for about 15 years and which was probably vintage even then. Its brim is about 2.25" -- which seems odd to me, after a couple of years now with brims like those of the Akubra Federation and the Resistol Open Road clones in the 2.75" range. A sharp hat it is; that hasn't changed. But my tastes have shifted, and I wonder if the brim is too short.I wore a stingy to work today, though I generally prefer brims of 2 1/2 " and out. I would hate to see the business of "define fedora" to come back into play on FL. Wear what you like !
By the way, the stingy drew an entirely positive reaction.
I'd rather see people wearing plaid stingy brim fedoras from Walmart than baseball caps. I hope it catches on. I reverse that opinion, though, if they start putting logos on the front of the stingy brims.