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What to wear with a fedora....

Seb Lucas

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,562
Location
Australia
It's the wearing of the basest form of casual dress at all times and the derision of anyone that makes an effort to be neat and tidy. If I have a shower and put on an inexpensive button up shirt and a pair of cleans jeans and go down to the pub, people ask me why I am dressed up. Apparently, how dirty and filthy you are is a mark of how hard you work, but in my fathers era - the forties and fifties - men in rural areas worked harder than they do now, but if they went to town or went out, they would clean themselves up and wear good clothes. The wearing of thongs (flip flops), wife beaters, baseball caps and flannos is considered the true Australian way to dress, but now with all these white guys wearing tribal tattoos on the top of their arms, and with the baseball cap thing, they don't look that different to Rap Gangsters. It is basically dressing like a slob. I'm a bogan myself, but trying to reform myself :p The reason that bogans don't dress that well is basically because they prefer to spend their money on grog and cars.

It depends on where in Aus you are and what class you belong to. I certainly don't know anyone who wears flip flops or a flannel check shirt.
 

1930artdeco

Practically Family
Messages
672
Location
oakland
What hat to wear?

Hi all,

If this is the wrong place to put this please move it.

But, I the suit that I bought NEEDS a contrasting hat color. It has been suggested that for the Fedora style a 'silver belly' (I assume this is a color). What about a newsboy cap or a straw boater? The suit is from the 40's and I know boaters were out of style by then. If a cap, then who makes a correct one (style, panels, dimensions etc.)? I will try on some different fedoras when I get home but I am not sure I will look that good in one vs. the cap. If I order one, how do I make sure it will fill fit me correctly?

Thanks,

Mike
 
Messages
10,524
Location
DnD Ranch, Cherokee County, GA
There is the "Ask a question, get an answer" sticky at the top of the page.
Also, it is recommended to do some reading to get the basics like validating your assumption that Silverbelly is a hat color.
Lots of threads on caps available too as well as measuring your head to get the right size.
 

Monte

Practically Family
Messages
600
Location
North Dakota
First off, nice gray suit. They were/are popular because they really go with anything. Sometimes I wear a white shirt, dark tie, and fedora if i want to look dressed up.
If I want to go with a more casual look, I might where a checked shirt or a little layer between my shirt and jacket with a little difference in texture, color, etc. A flat cap with the latter would be nice and casual but still great. I sometimes think to myself that when I arrive somewhere indoors, the hat's coming off anyways. ...unless your in a lobby area or say an auction where other men leave there hats on indoors. Then I'm happy to show it off in style! Oh yeah, charcoal, being a darker shade of gray, would be cool in the way of contrast. I have moved in the direction of contrast versus color combo's and it has helped me dress more sharply. It's no accident that you see so many white shirts and dark suits...great contrast. Great suit, again. Love the broad lapel.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/herringbonekid/cooper_DB_cap.jpg
 
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carldelo

One Too Many
Messages
1,568
Location
Astoria, NYC
Monte:

I tried to get that photo to load in-line, but couldn't. Anyway, it's an amazing combo of a flat cap and a dark, double-breasted suit - thanks for linking to it.
 

Monte

Practically Family
Messages
600
Location
North Dakota
You are welcome. This photo popped in my mind as an example, albeit less cool than the link to Mr. Cooper.
flatcap_zps9226f3b8.jpeg
 

1961MJS

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,370
Location
Norman Oklahoma
Me three!

I just wear whatever I want (usually casual) and stick a hat on my head.

The guy that wrote the hat rules is very unlikely to come back to life and complain and even if he does, I really don't care!

Holy Batdoody Batman, THERE'S RULES!!!!!!!

And all of this time I never knew. Learns somptin every day I does.

Later :eeek:
 

Dick Ireland

Familiar Face
Messages
71
Location
The Land of Pleasant Living
What Hat Would You Wear with a Blazer?

Hi Gents,

Every since I picked up a nice, traditional-looking two-button, SB navy blazer with gilt buttons I have found it hard to pair with headwear.

I think it naturally goes with a straw boater hat, since its been paired with that hat for about 200 years (navy boat crews, later college rowing teams).

But when the boater doesn't fit the occasion I feel lost at sea. Usually I end up wearing a light gray linen newsboy cap, but it doesn't feel totally right.

Any suggestions?
 

Rick Blaine

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,958
Location
Saskatoon, SK CANADA
In this weather? As nice a Monti as you can swing. Add a Club band or Pugarree if casual, a more traditional black if a more formal event.
Bear in mind this advice come from a man who has never owned a proper suit.
 

The Good

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,361
Location
California, USA
A straw boater, Panama, or Milan hat would be good, but I think most fedoras and newsboy/flat caps could look fine with a normal navy blazer. Just about any grey hat, black, or even earth tones like brown or tan could look nice.
 

mikepara

Practically Family
Messages
565
Location
Scottish Borders
It's funny how many people at least before wearing or at the very start of wearing Hat's on a regular basis consider it a bit like dressing up. Can I wear this or that with this or that?
You don't have to delve far on this site before you realise most hats can be worn with most things. Granted some look better with suits. But Hell both the Clash and Indy show us they look great with Leathers too, and the Westerns show us they look great with jeans. However I'm yet to be convinced Sneakers look good with anything not made for sport.
 

cchgn

One of the Regulars
Messages
159
Location
Florida Panhandle
well, it helps to actually have been alive back when folks wore hats all the time. The truth is, I've seen my Grandpa and Great Grandpa wear a Fedora with overalls. The thing is, folks wore hats. No matter what they were wearing, they had a hat for it. If they's out in the field, it's be a wide brimmed hat. when they went to church, it'd be a nicer Fedora with a suit.

I'm a gentleman farmer and have a vintage Stetson Playboy that I wear on the farm. When I go into town to the local Tractor Supply for feed or supplies, I wear that Playboy. I like to maintain the vintage look, so I wear Redhead canvass jeans with big red Craftsman suspenders and Field and Stream worsted wool jacket and Danner boots, etc.

I also have nicer Stetson and Adams Fedoras for when I want to dress up in a suit.
 
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TheDane

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,670
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
well, it helps to actually have been alive back when folks wore hats all the time. The truth is, I've seen my Grandpa and Great Grandpa wear a Fedora with overalls. The thing is, folks wore hats. No matter what they were wearing, they had a hat for it.

+1

I absolutely agree! A pair of shoes is not stylish or classy per definition - neither is a fedora. The most appropriate one can wear with shoes or fedora is just "clothes". Of course most of us would like to ballance our other clothes with the hat and vice versa - but we do that all the time with all our clothes. In that sense, the fedora is not different. Just wear it ;)
 

APP Adrian

A-List Customer
Messages
364
Location
Toronto
Should a fedora be lighter or darker than your suit or overcoat.

I have a FED IV moonstone. I wear this hat with my medium grey pinstripe suit, the hat is lighter than the suit.

When it's cold outside, I have a dark grey overcoat. Again the hat is lighter than the overcoat.

This overcoat is very similar to mine.
Gilbert-Blythe-Fashionabluh-Compressed.jpg

I'm asking whether a darker hat like dark grey or even black would work better. Especially during the darker/colder months.

For example the FED IV in Carbon and in Black.
 

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