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Matt Deckard said:They really need people like us working for them... people who have a passion for dress hats, though I think they prefer to recreate the hat and do so by seeing it as a costume rather than a piece of clothing.
You got that right, Matt. Sad truth is that for most moderns, a dress hat IS a costume. I see plenty of fedora-ish hats out here in rain country, but they're mostly of the casual variety. The fur felts are usually cheap. You can tell they're low quality from 10 feet away, but at least they're fur felt. I fear that the poor guy who buys a wool felt will be so soured by it that he'll never get a decent lid. And then there's the leather hats--not caps, but hats with crowns and brims made of thick cowhide. The things must weigh five pounds dry, and they look like (expletive deleted).
I saw one of the new all-beaver Borsalinos at the local retailer several months ago and was decidedly unimpressed by it. I was initially put off by the style of it, and then by the $450 price. I just can't imagine that the big manufacturers couldn't make a hat that rivals what they offered 50 years ago. They're apparently unconvinced that there's a market for it.