- Messages
- 15,077
- Location
- Buffalo, NY
Royal Stetsn Vita-Felt
I have five Vita-Felts all produced during the first half of the 1940s and no two are alike. When I get home later I will handle this new arrival with the others for a better comparison. The felt is firmer than the furry slippers feel of the similarly styled thin ribbon on the previous page of this thread. The sweatbands both use the fabric "reeding", but unlike the soft kid-like flexibility in the previous hat, this leather is very stiff (stiffest sweatband I have seen in a vintage Stetson) and the hat being almost unworn, I suspect just as it appeared when the hat was purchased. Perhaps the challenge of sourcing materials during the war accounts for these swings in finishing details?
5 1/2" crown, 2 3/4" brim, Block#102. I will take Lefty's advice and remove the odd petersham chinstrap - nicely matched and crafted, but not original. From a shop in East Aurora, 20 miles southeast of Buffalo.
I have five Vita-Felts all produced during the first half of the 1940s and no two are alike. When I get home later I will handle this new arrival with the others for a better comparison. The felt is firmer than the furry slippers feel of the similarly styled thin ribbon on the previous page of this thread. The sweatbands both use the fabric "reeding", but unlike the soft kid-like flexibility in the previous hat, this leather is very stiff (stiffest sweatband I have seen in a vintage Stetson) and the hat being almost unworn, I suspect just as it appeared when the hat was purchased. Perhaps the challenge of sourcing materials during the war accounts for these swings in finishing details?
5 1/2" crown, 2 3/4" brim, Block#102. I will take Lefty's advice and remove the odd petersham chinstrap - nicely matched and crafted, but not original. From a shop in East Aurora, 20 miles southeast of Buffalo.
Last edited: