Business has been good of late, so I thought I'd play Santa (to myself) and pick up a few 'new' vintage hats. I wanted to share them with you fine folks.
I got myself a grey Royal Stetson, which feels amazingly close to what I recall the Optimo felt like. Very thin, dense felt, floppy. the crown pops out of shape disturbingly easily, but it holds pretty well. It's much thinner than my PBBM, but way heavier. Anyway, I'd love to share some photos (I need another couple of days to figure out the digital camera).
Today I received a brown Cavanagh fedora. I almost cried when I opened it. The color is...well, I think it's kind of like an HJ. Similar to my Akubra, but with a little more yellow in it, and maybe less red. It has a great bound edge and a weird ribbon that seems to be sort of ragged on the edge.
The felt is the thinnest and densest felt I'd ever examined. The crown won't really hold any kind of a shape right now, and the hat smells pretty crummy right now. I like the smell of old stuff generally, but the interior of this hat reeks of mildew and straight-up mold. Pretty gross. I'm airing it out over the next couple of days. There's also a TINY hole in the crown, where the front pinch was. Character!
In the Cavanagh box under the hat were a couple of cool Cavanagh brochures and an old order card. While I can't get the hang of my camera just yet, I was able to manuever my new scanner, and I've emailed MK some scans of the booklet and order card which I hope he will be kind enough to post for me here. I thought some of you would be as intrigued by the booklet as I was.
I took some photos of both hats, but they're not on my computer yet. When I get them, I'll see if MK can accomodate yet another request to post them for me.
Man, that Cavanagh is going to be great (provided I can ever get it to hold a bash!).
I got myself a grey Royal Stetson, which feels amazingly close to what I recall the Optimo felt like. Very thin, dense felt, floppy. the crown pops out of shape disturbingly easily, but it holds pretty well. It's much thinner than my PBBM, but way heavier. Anyway, I'd love to share some photos (I need another couple of days to figure out the digital camera).
Today I received a brown Cavanagh fedora. I almost cried when I opened it. The color is...well, I think it's kind of like an HJ. Similar to my Akubra, but with a little more yellow in it, and maybe less red. It has a great bound edge and a weird ribbon that seems to be sort of ragged on the edge.
The felt is the thinnest and densest felt I'd ever examined. The crown won't really hold any kind of a shape right now, and the hat smells pretty crummy right now. I like the smell of old stuff generally, but the interior of this hat reeks of mildew and straight-up mold. Pretty gross. I'm airing it out over the next couple of days. There's also a TINY hole in the crown, where the front pinch was. Character!
In the Cavanagh box under the hat were a couple of cool Cavanagh brochures and an old order card. While I can't get the hang of my camera just yet, I was able to manuever my new scanner, and I've emailed MK some scans of the booklet and order card which I hope he will be kind enough to post for me here. I thought some of you would be as intrigued by the booklet as I was.
I took some photos of both hats, but they're not on my computer yet. When I get them, I'll see if MK can accomodate yet another request to post them for me.
Man, that Cavanagh is going to be great (provided I can ever get it to hold a bash!).
