Style-Question: Hat and Leather Jacket?

[rauhfell_kid]

Hi, this is my first post in this forum & I like to introduce myself. I´m from Germany and my Username here is the german translation of a popular comic strip: rawhide kid. You will probably know it, if you were raised in the 60s, which I definitely was. The strip´s title always struck me, because it´s the direct translation into german - and that way it doesn´t exist in our language and actually sounds somewhat cruel. Like raw meat or something. Correct translation would have been "Rohleder", which means leather in an untreated, unmanufactured condition - anyhow it was and still is a fascinating Neologism and a good name for a cowboy. Though the comic, rereading it, isn´t that fascinating anymore, at least for me gaining age. (Can you say that: gaining age?) So - second of all - English is not my mothertongue and I apologize for all my forthcoming mistakes in spelling and grammar that will certainly come up.
So, coming into medias res I have a style question about combining a hat, let´s say a white borsalino or a sand-coloured Akubra-hat (Lawson) with a black Leather-Jacket from Aero (Highwayman). My girlfriend, who is uncorruptibe, thinks it looks too geeky-coxcomby, which in fact I acknowledge in case of the borsalino. (A superior hat, which quality is outstanding - despite the criticism I read in this forum somewhere. Though it´s truly made a bit more for posing-reasons, I confess.) The Akubra combined with the jacket on the other hand makes me a bit too much looking like an Indiana-Jones-Clone - in the wrong jacket. (It´s black). So I need your support. Do you combine your hats with black leather jackets - I mean in public? What kind of hats in which colors do you combine with this kind of clothes? Thx for your advices.

 

[Mr_Misanthropy]

Welcome to the Lounge!!!

I personally prefer brown leather over black, and wearing any sort of hat with a brown leather jacket brings a barrage of Indy comments. With a black leather jacket I'd recommend a white, silver, or gray colored fedora. I'd stay away from the brown, as brown with black never looks right in my opinion. You could get away with a light sand color, or a light tan as well.

As for the style of the hat, that depends on the type of jacket you've got, and the cut. is it a bomber jacket, a motorcycle style jacket? Is it long or short cut? Ya know, the basics.

Good luck!

 

[BellyTank]

Hej rauhfell_kid!- nice to see another European joining the ranks of the FL.

I agree with Mr_Misanthropy here. A Fedora and a Leather jacket is a classic look indeed- but I think the hat has to be 'right' to pull it off- maybe a less dressy hat(or colour). I prefer brown leathers nowadays too- just seems richer and more leather-ey to me. A brown jacket and a brown, taupe, fawn or olive hat looks great in my opinion- less dressy colours. But with a black leather- I'd have to go with a 'colder', less earth-toned hat.

And as Mr_Misanthropy mentions, the Indy look is really unavoidable when you combine a leather jacket and Fedora- from the observer's point of view, anyway.

B
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[Pilgrim]

If the jacket is black, go for a gray hat. If it's brown, a tan to brown hat, and just smile quietly when you find yourself humming the Indy theme music. Happens to me all the time.

 

[rauhfell_kid]

Thank you guys for your profund replies! Let´s see what we´ve got: I got your advices and obviously either the wrong hats or the wrong leather jacket. Given the fact, that I can live with the Indy-look and the jokes of my girl friend, I need another hat - because another "Highwayman" I can´t afford. So - what I am trying to get hands on is an original Panama hat or even information about prices. Ok you can buy fake-ones, but here in good ol´ Germany it´s far easier to buy borsalinos. (That´s at least my experience.) Any suggestions how to buy an original Panama-Hat from the United States? Is there a customs-handicap like on some other goods that one imports from the US to Europe. Any experiences? Ooops, by the way: what to wear best with a Panama hat - I mean on a day-to-day-basis?

 

[SHARPETOYS]

For a fine Panama at a fair price...

Our Panamabob is a member here and has excellent Montecristi and Cuenca Panama hats. His hats are real and not some knock off!

Send him a pm or email and he will take good care of you... He ships Panama hats all over the world.:eusa_clap

http://www.panamas.biz/

"Buy the hat not the story"

 

[shoeshineboy]

I will back him up on this one...and many others will chime right in there, too.

Robert is great to work with and have Art Fawcett to block it fo ryou, makes it even better for you.

Mark the shoeshine boy

 

[Absinthe_1900]

Howard Hughes in 1947, with black leather jacket & new brown fedora. (Getting back to flying after the XF-11 crash)

http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=2671

 

[johnnycanuck]

All I wear are leather jackets. I don't always wear a fedora, sometimes one of my outback hats, but I still wear a hat with it. My latest "good" jacket is a Wested Indy Jacket. I just liked the idea of a tailored jacket the same price as ones you buy off the rack. I also do have a Akubra Federation Deluxe. Do I wear them together? Yes. But I do not wear brown pants and a safari shirt with them. I have got the Indiana Jones comment once, from a young manager at MacDonald's so I did not take it to seriously. Matching the jacket with the hat is personal preference. I have a light brown leather jacket I would not wear with my Federation because they are very close in colour and I think it looks a bit odd. I prefer a bit more contrast. Strangely enough I get more Crocodile Dundee comments more then Indiana Jones. But people like that don't bother me much I prefer to be comfortable and sunburn free, then fashionably fitting in. But that's just me.
Johnny

 

[BellyTank]

Howard Hughes in 1947, with black leather jacket & new brown fedora. (Getting back to flying after the XF-11 crash)

http://www.nytstore.com/ProdDetail.aspx?prodId=2671

I've never seen a colour version of that image...
Have you..?

B
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[Aerol]

Match

I wear a black leather jacket from Burberry (in a strap-collar style) with a grey fedora from Optimo. It's his Manhattan style.

http://www.optimohats.com/

It's almost identical to the one shown on the site, but it's been made to fit me; brim, crown, edge binding, etc. are all to my specs.

 

[silhouette53]

.................... and wearing any sort of hat with a brown leather jacket brings a barrage of Indy comments.....

Yes, and what a pity this is so ! I don't wear hats at all but A) I wish I had the courage to and B) I really wish that hat wearing for men would come 'back into fashion' Actually, I use that term reluctantly because I can't agree more with that oft-used quote "fashion is fleeting but style is forever"
Hats becoming 'fashionable' would allow people who otherwise might be reluctant to wear one for reasons such as that in the quote to feel less self conscious. Also it would allow the ones with style to show the 'fashion followers' just how it should be done !

With regard to the leather jacket / hat combo, I personally think it looks great ! I imagine a long half belt - a pair of 30s / 40s styled pants - a good pair of two colour shoes ( spectator they're known as ? ) Appropriate shirt and tie - top that with a suitable hat and IMHO that would look simultaneously ultra cool/casual and DAMN SMART !! Thats just my opinion though

Colin

BTW I find that you are lucky in the US in that people seem in the main to be more accepting of a far broader range of styles than here in the UK.

People seem now to be so sloppy in their dress - God how I hate to see the baggy denim jeans on kids with the ass almost behind the knees !! Whats that all about ???? Imagine having to run for a bus / taxi in those !!lol lol lol

Why doesn't everyone just SMARTEN UP ????

 

[Bargepole]

Browbeaten in Brum

Silhouette, the trouble is hats WON'T "come back" to be a mainstream item, not ever. So the only way to wear one is not to bother about the comments of the great unwashed. Do you really care what people who can't keep their own trousers up, think of your style of dressing?

A hat is always going to have some element of a fantasy subtext these days, simply because it's *not* in the mainstream. The exact fantasy is your secret...

I started to wear a hat (again; we used to have to wear them at school) when I was 18. It felt odd at first but what the hell. Later, when I started off as a journalist, I wore a velours Herbert Johnson or Fischer fedora. People noticed it the first time I went anywhere; but thereafter I could walk in unchallenged. They just thought "Oh, it's the kid with the hat" and waved me through. The fantasy then was that I was some hard-bitten old hack from His Girl Friday or The Front Page. (I'd have gone for Five Star Final but I couldn't carry off a Homburg.)

I've been wearing them so long now that I don't know what the underlying fantasy is. But I do know that I'm still having one -- and anyone who says otherwise is being economical with the truth.

So: just wear one. Get on that train down to London and go to Bates or Herbert Johnson or Lock. Buy one on eBay. Order one from one of the Good Guys here. But... Just Do It. And, you know, you could always deliberately pretend to be Indiana Jones. Then when some spotty dweeb without the wits to get his trousers on properly shouts "Indie!!" you can just smile, murmur "Yup, son," and snap the idiot baseball cap from his tiny, bulb-like "head" with one crack of your trusty 12' 16-plait roo-hide bullwhip.

 

[silhouette53]

So: just wear one. Get on that train down to London and go to Bates or Herbert Johnson or Lock. Buy one on eBay. Order one from one of the Good Guys here. But... Just Do It. And, you know, you could always deliberately pretend to be Indiana Jones. Then when some spotty dweeb without the wits to get his trousers on properly shouts "Indie!!" you can just smile, murmur "Yup, son," and snap the idiot baseball cap from his tiny, bulb-like "head" with one crack of your trusty 12' 16-plait roo-hide bullwhip.

THANKYOU !!! Not for the 'go buy a hat' suggestion ( though that does appeal !! ) but for that marvelous fantasy scenario involving a bullwhip and your PERFECT description of a typical example of mainstream British youth. Priceless !lol lol lol

Colin

 

[Mr_Misanthropy]

And, you know, you could always deliberately pretend to be Indian Jones. Then when some spotty dweeb without the wits to get his trousers on properly shouts "Indie!!" you can just smile, murmur "Yup, son," and snap the idiot baseball cap from his tiny, bulb-like "head" with one crack of your trusty 12' 16-plait roo-hide bullwhip.

Hey, I like that idea!! Yet another entertaining post from Bargepole :eusa_clap

I never thought of it as a "personal fantasy" sort of thing. I guess I sort of do that too, depending on what hat I'm wearing. But then again, being a misanthropist sort of comes hand in hand with something of a superiority complex, so, when someone "comments" on my hat, they've usually been dismissed before even opening their mouth.

But anyway, I agree with the majority here in saying, if you like it, WEAR IT! It doesn't matter what these heathens think of the way you look!!

 

[rauhfell_kid]

... I don't wear hats at all but A) I wish I had the courage to ...

This is a pretty good point, silhouette! I don´t know how it is in the UK or Canada or the US - but here in Germany it´s not that easy to wear a hat. I mean, of course it´s easy - you just put it on - but people react on a man wearing a hat - and I always need some guts to put the white borsalino on. (And I live in Munich, the capitol of show-offs!) When I put it on, I know this will become a wonderful day - mostly not because I have put it on, but because I had the guts and decided to do that before. And fact is, I don´t put it on that often I like to. How are the common experiences abroad?

 

[RedPop4]

Those who laugh, or think one is stupid, lame, foolish, or whatever for wearing a hat, be damned.

That's my opinion. FrauRedPop4 doesn't like me in my hats, but I wear them anyway. I get many good comments from other people when I wear my hats. I like them so I wear them. I get an occasional Indiana Jones comment, but that's because one of my every day hats IS an Indiana Jones.lol lol lol lol

 

[Ben Lee]

There is nothing wrong in wearing a fine hat when out and about. I encourage it.

 

[scotrace]

How are the common experiences abroad?

People have gotten used to seeing me in a hat and I have gotten used to it as well. Now people tell me they always look to see which hat I will be wearing.

Sometimes I go without. Just to be contrary and to make sure people don't think that my hat is to cover baldness.

 

[BellyTank]

Sometimes I go without. Just to be contrary and to make sure people don't think that my hat is to cover baldness.

...or this month's Perm gone titsup...

B
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