OK, folks. Here’s the first draft of the text for the brochure. I want to keep the prose as down to earth as possible. A custom hat is a premium purchase, but I want this to provide information, not the hard sell. The old modifier bop (“Luxurious, beautiful and elegant, this timeless classic of a hat resounds with luxury,�) gives me a toothache. The less this reads like a Neiman-Marcus catalog, the better.
It’s possible – likely, really – that I’ll want to cut the text when I start the illustrations. If done right, the illos should make some of the text redundant. But I want to make sure that what I’ve got now is at least accurate. I’m trying not to dwell on the negative (ie, I don’t want to write how greasy rabbit fur is) or waste time on the trivial (does anyone but me care that Sarah Bernhardt was the person who popularized the fedora?)
I’m worried that I’m spending too much space on the making of a hat. On the other hand, understanding how material- and labor-intensive hat-making is goes a long way toward justifying a $200-500 price-tag.
Incidentally, I’m not sure if I’m going to use the chapter titles I wrote in here; I just wanted something in place to identify the section breaks.
I’m also not so sure that I want to keep the page breaks as I’ve indicated. There’s no problem if you want to keep this on your website as a downloadable PDF, but if you want to print it and maybe use it as a mailer, page 12 should probably have nothing on it but room for address info and mailing labels. (With that in mind, I think the dimensions of the page should be 5.5� x 8.�) I’ll take your advice as to what you’d like to see cut.
If I’ve left anything out of importance -- or gotten anything wrong -- just post a comment.
“TK� means “To Come, � just an old bit of journalism-ese.
***************************************************************************************
Page 1. The fedora
[Illustration TK]
Pages 2 -3. Making the fedora
[Illustration TK]
A fedora – the name comes from an 1882 play by Victorian Sardou – is any soft-crowned hat with a snap brim. The strongest, longest-lasting felt fedoras are made from 100% fur felt. (Wool felt shrinks and discolors in the rain.) Beaver fur is the most desirable: because beavers live in cold weather and spend their lives in the water, their fur makes felt that is strong, dense and naturally water resistant. Other high-quality felts are made from nutria (a Latin American animal similar to beaver), wild hare and rabbit.
From start to finish, creating a fedora can take over seven months. First, fur is mulched and soaked in hot water to create a cone of felt. The felters dip this in scalding water, knead it like dough, wring it out and saturate it with steam again and again over several days. Then they dye it and leave it to dry in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room for several months. By the end, the three-foot tall felt cone has contracted into a tough, supple, water-resistant one-foot tall hat body. Only then is the felt ready to be sent to a master hatter. [Illustrations TK]
The hatter soaks the felt in hot water, stretches it taut over a hat block (a piece of solid wood created just for that purpose), clamps it to the block to create a crown, soaks it again, tacks down the loose felt at the bottom to form the brim, removes the clamp, steams away any marks and irons the brim flat. After pulling out the tacks, he mists the felt with alcohol and “singes� it, burning off any long hairs. Then the “pouncing� begins – the hatter sands and re-sands the inside and the outside of the felt with gradually finer grits until he’s perfected the surface. If necessary, the felt will be treated with stiffener at this point. [Illustrations TK]
It’s in the final steps that a hatter gives the fedora its distinctive look: he cuts and “flanges� (steams and shapes) the brim, sews in the sweatband and liner, “bashes� (creases) the crown, and attaches the ribbon and whipcord. All this is done by hand. [Illustrations TK]
4 -5. Signs of quality
A fedora’s felt should look and feel dense, rich and supple. No stray hairs should ever be visible (although some hats are intentionally left with a long-haired surface). [Illustration TK]
The flexible leather sweatband should just “bell� (flare) over the edge of the break between the crown and the brim. The sweatband is traditionally closed by a bow in back. Some hatters even create a “floating bow,� a bow held on with no visible stitching. The satin liner should be sewn in. [Illustration TK]
The crown of the hat, either bashed or unbashed, should be even and symmetrical. [Illustration TK]
The ribbon should be taut all the way around the base of the crown, resting right on the break, unless there is a windcord, which should sit precisely below the ribbon.
Quality hats should weather the rain well. The brims of cheaper hats may warp may wet, and their crowns may taper at the top, or the hat could shrink altogether. If this happens, don’t hesitate to return your hat to the vendor.
Master hatters may offer brims with a banded edge [Illustration TK], a welted edge [Illustration TK] or a whipstitch edge, although many fine hats are left with a raw (untreated) edge. [Illustration TK] (Note: I think I’d like to leave out the Cavanaugh edge here, since it’s only available on vintage hats.)
More in pt. 2...!
It’s possible – likely, really – that I’ll want to cut the text when I start the illustrations. If done right, the illos should make some of the text redundant. But I want to make sure that what I’ve got now is at least accurate. I’m trying not to dwell on the negative (ie, I don’t want to write how greasy rabbit fur is) or waste time on the trivial (does anyone but me care that Sarah Bernhardt was the person who popularized the fedora?)
I’m worried that I’m spending too much space on the making of a hat. On the other hand, understanding how material- and labor-intensive hat-making is goes a long way toward justifying a $200-500 price-tag.
Incidentally, I’m not sure if I’m going to use the chapter titles I wrote in here; I just wanted something in place to identify the section breaks.
I’m also not so sure that I want to keep the page breaks as I’ve indicated. There’s no problem if you want to keep this on your website as a downloadable PDF, but if you want to print it and maybe use it as a mailer, page 12 should probably have nothing on it but room for address info and mailing labels. (With that in mind, I think the dimensions of the page should be 5.5� x 8.�) I’ll take your advice as to what you’d like to see cut.
If I’ve left anything out of importance -- or gotten anything wrong -- just post a comment.
“TK� means “To Come, � just an old bit of journalism-ese.
***************************************************************************************
Page 1. The fedora
[Illustration TK]
Pages 2 -3. Making the fedora
[Illustration TK]
A fedora – the name comes from an 1882 play by Victorian Sardou – is any soft-crowned hat with a snap brim. The strongest, longest-lasting felt fedoras are made from 100% fur felt. (Wool felt shrinks and discolors in the rain.) Beaver fur is the most desirable: because beavers live in cold weather and spend their lives in the water, their fur makes felt that is strong, dense and naturally water resistant. Other high-quality felts are made from nutria (a Latin American animal similar to beaver), wild hare and rabbit.
From start to finish, creating a fedora can take over seven months. First, fur is mulched and soaked in hot water to create a cone of felt. The felters dip this in scalding water, knead it like dough, wring it out and saturate it with steam again and again over several days. Then they dye it and leave it to dry in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room for several months. By the end, the three-foot tall felt cone has contracted into a tough, supple, water-resistant one-foot tall hat body. Only then is the felt ready to be sent to a master hatter. [Illustrations TK]
The hatter soaks the felt in hot water, stretches it taut over a hat block (a piece of solid wood created just for that purpose), clamps it to the block to create a crown, soaks it again, tacks down the loose felt at the bottom to form the brim, removes the clamp, steams away any marks and irons the brim flat. After pulling out the tacks, he mists the felt with alcohol and “singes� it, burning off any long hairs. Then the “pouncing� begins – the hatter sands and re-sands the inside and the outside of the felt with gradually finer grits until he’s perfected the surface. If necessary, the felt will be treated with stiffener at this point. [Illustrations TK]
It’s in the final steps that a hatter gives the fedora its distinctive look: he cuts and “flanges� (steams and shapes) the brim, sews in the sweatband and liner, “bashes� (creases) the crown, and attaches the ribbon and whipcord. All this is done by hand. [Illustrations TK]
4 -5. Signs of quality
A fedora’s felt should look and feel dense, rich and supple. No stray hairs should ever be visible (although some hats are intentionally left with a long-haired surface). [Illustration TK]
The flexible leather sweatband should just “bell� (flare) over the edge of the break between the crown and the brim. The sweatband is traditionally closed by a bow in back. Some hatters even create a “floating bow,� a bow held on with no visible stitching. The satin liner should be sewn in. [Illustration TK]
The crown of the hat, either bashed or unbashed, should be even and symmetrical. [Illustration TK]
The ribbon should be taut all the way around the base of the crown, resting right on the break, unless there is a windcord, which should sit precisely below the ribbon.
Quality hats should weather the rain well. The brims of cheaper hats may warp may wet, and their crowns may taper at the top, or the hat could shrink altogether. If this happens, don’t hesitate to return your hat to the vendor.
Master hatters may offer brims with a banded edge [Illustration TK], a welted edge [Illustration TK] or a whipstitch edge, although many fine hats are left with a raw (untreated) edge. [Illustration TK] (Note: I think I’d like to leave out the Cavanaugh edge here, since it’s only available on vintage hats.)
More in pt. 2...!
