Vintage Silhouettes Custom Hats - Official Affiliate Thread

[TheDane]

These must be very time consuming to make.

Not necessarily. It depends on experience and skills, but it took the man 20 years to get there

 

[Art Fawcett]

WOW!!!! What talent on display in that video Ole, very impressive. I'm still trying to get it under an hour and still have the quality that is expected. I'm workin on it!!
Here is my newest "fancy"
what do you think guys?



Pecan brim, 2 1/2" with complimentary ribbon over Milan straw

 

[DJH]

That's a super Milan Dualist, Art!

 

[mikespens]

My favorite one by far (so far).

 

[Landman]

Amazing video. Thanks for the link Dane.

Art, after watching that video, if you can do that in under an hour I'm in awe. Beautiful Dualist!

 

[Rabbit]

WOW!!!! What talent on display in that video Ole, very impressive. I'm still trying to get it under an hour and still have the quality that is expected. I'm workin on it!!
Here is my newest "fancy"
what do you think guys?

I like it, Art - both the idea of doing a Milan dualist and the color combinations. Eliminates the possibility of drooping brim on Milans, doesn't it?

Ole, thanks for posting the video.

 

[kaosharper1]

I'm not a fan of the contrasting brim, but a grey milan/grey felt brim condo would be one I'd be really interested in.

 

[DJH]

Art, do you have different colours available for the Milan straw, or is it always natural?

 

[Art Fawcett]

Art, do you have different colours available for the Milan straw, or is it always natural?

Right now I have 5 black skeins ( 3 hats) and 10 bleached. The rest are natural David. I am experimenting with dying the straw, thinking black cherry but haven't gotten there yet.

 

[Art Fawcett]

Thanks for the comments Guys, I never really know if I'm on the right track without feedback. If this is something that you want then I can keep playing with color combo's.

 

[Rabbit]

Right now I have 5 black skeins ( 3 hats) and 10 bleached. The rest are natural David. I am experimenting with dying the straw, thinking black cherry but haven't gotten there yet.

Black cherry Milan sounds a bit daring to me, or any other "colored" Milan, for that matter. I like the new black cherry felt very much, but on Milan straw... Check interest first, perhaps? Colored Milans may or may not sell... The traditional earthtones would already provide some variety, after all.

 

[DJH]

Nik, I can see your point, but I rather take the opposite view.

For me, one of the things I wish is that there was a wider choice of colours for straw hats. After getting through the the summer, it is always great to get into the colour diversity of the felts.

If Art (or any custom hatmaker) is going to tempt me to invest in a straw hat it would need to be something different to the usual natural Monte/Milan look. I'd get a black one for sure and black cherry sounds good to me as well.

Of course, my "not buying another natural straw hat" idea will probably only last until I see a nice Montecristi at a good price on eBay

 

[jlee562]

Black cherry straw piques my interest!

 

[Rabbit]

Interesting to know, David and Jared. I'm fully aware of course that my view on straw colors is conservative, perhaps too conservative.

By the way, I have a new VS Panama in transit. I went for a black ribbon like I always did, would you believe it? Boring to some, perhaps, but I couldn't picture myself wearing anything else with that beautiful ivory Montecristi. It only goes to show...

 

[DJH]

Nik, what would be boring would be if we all liked the same things. The diversity of preference has certainly ensured that custom hatmakers such as Art have such a wide range of offerings for us to choose from. While I'd say I go a little more extreme than you with the colours (I still prefer the original version of the Black Cherry, for example), a lot of my favorite hats are certainly some of the more traditional - some previously owned by your good self of course

Looking forward to seeing photos of your new Montecristi - have a great New Year!

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

I hope Art can do colors. Most of my vintage ones are colored. I do have a couple of naturals. But I have green, black blue aqua and a silverbelly colored one. Black Cherry sounds cool Art a grey color and green color would be good too.

 

[DJH]

I agree Ed. I have a grey Portis Milan and it is one of my favorite summer hats.

Don't think it's appropriate to post a photo in this thread (not a VS after all), but you can check it out here if you want.

 

[TheDane]

WOW!!!! What talent on display in that video Ole, very impressive. I'm still trying to get it under an hour and still have the quality that is expected.

Well Art, it was in no ways my intention to compare your skills/experience/speed in the field. The link was more or less meant as a joke. The man's speed (and level of relaxation) is super-natural, but as said: It took him 20 years to get there. Anyway, it's always a feast to watch really skilled craftsmen make magic in their field of trade

PS: Another very important point is, that speed and quality rarely come packed together in a combo. He's stunningly fast - but will the hat hold up to a closer inspection? Quality is a very important parameter in this context!

When it comes to colors, my approach is a bit different. Basically I like both natural and colored hats. That said, I think colored hats (straw as well as felt) most often loose some of the features, that make natural hats so interesting/beautiful.

A natural straw or felt hat is like an impressionist oil-painting. At a first (distant) glance it will look solid colored. Yet the closer you get, the more colors emerge within the overall color. Getting real close, it becomes obvious, that the color is not solid but made up by a myriad of multicolored "pixels". The fact, that the color is made up by a lot of "sub-hues", makes it very vivid ... never dull or flat.

Of course these specks will show through a dyeing to a certain degree, but they become less pronounced. Sometimes the material is even bleached before dyeing, which makes the specks even more blurred/weakened.

In all respect, The Good Lord was quite conservative when coloring the rodents, grasses and palms, so the variations are quite limited. Fortunately he also shared tons of different colorants, making it possible to dye our hats according to our current likings or fashion.

Both natural and colored hats are great, but their visual features are not directly comparable, in my mind. I would hate to miss any of them

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

Updated the Hat Block page of the website today.
VS Hat Block

 

[Dr. Lucky]

I keep going back to the first page of this thread to look at the hat called "Kid Row"

I've just never seen a shape quite like that - it is fantastic! I'm totally enamored with it.