You can have ANY Fedora you want, as long as it's Black !!....

[monbla256]

.... I remembered my day's in NYC when going to Design school and going to the Crown Heights section of Broklyn and all the Hassidim in their Black fedoras so went in the net and found these pics taken a few years ago in Crown heights. Who say's no body wears Fedoras anymore

 

[ScionPI2005]

Dang! That is the most fedoras I have seen all day!

 

[Tango Yankee]

Dang! That is the most fedoras I have seen all day!

Beards, too, for that matter!

Great set of photographs...

Cheers,
Tom

 

[danofarlington]

.... I remembered my day's in NYC when going to Design school and going to the Crown Heights section of Broklyn and all the Hassidim in their Black fedoras

Actually they look good in the wide brims. Elegant hats, please note the formal clothes accompanying, which seem to go better with dress hats than anything else. But not just anybody can wear them. I ordered such a hat with open crown from EBay, thinking it was just a nice-looking black hat, but when it came it was clear it was for Hasidim. Fortunately it was too big so the seller was nice enough to take it back. Because I wouldn't have looked like anything other than a rabbi had I worn that, it had to go. Would've been fine were I in that community, of course.

 

[Tango Yankee]

...thinking it was just a nice-looking black hat, but when it came it was clear it was for Hasidim.

Dan,

What made it clear it was for Hasidim? They just look like nice black hats to me, similar to one I wore to a funeral recently.

Regards,
Tom

 

[danofarlington]

Dan,

What made it clear it was for Hasidim? They just look like nice black hats to me, similar to one I wore to a funeral recently.

Regards,
Tom

Well, the one I got seemed like it couldn't be for anything else. It wasn't shaped fedora-style like those in the picture are. Also in the picture they have thin ribbons, and the one I got was a wider ribbon. Anyway it was clearly religious-group specific. But you are right. If I had one of the hats those guys are wearing, in and of itself it would not denote a Hasidic group, and they do look good. But a lot of black religious hats do look group-specific.

 

[scottyrocks]

Actually, its something that is more apparent if you live here and see it often. The particular features of the hat they typically wear paint a definite picture.

 

[Mr E Train]

I still don't see how you could tell the hat was religion-specific. Did the liner have a star of David on it or something?

 

[scottyrocks]

I still don't see how you could tell the hat was religion-specific. Did the liner have a star of David on it or something?

Its the proportions and details. You have to kind of know what they look like.

 

[Mulceber]

Yeah, I've seen those types of hats up close several times, and while they might look like an average fedora to any lay person, to someone with an eye for hats like myself (or most of the people on the lounge) it looks very distinctive and not much like any other type of fedora. -M

 

[flat-top]

My town is about 2 miles from, they say, the largest Hasidic population in the US. I see those hats all day every day. They're not fedoras.
http://www.wernercohn.com/hats.html

 

[DRB]

I wish Episcopalians had hats we had to wear. White like an angel perhaps?

 

[monbla256]

I found another article w/ photos on this subject in a May 2009 edition of the NY Times . Open the link and check out the slideshow

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/nyregion/10hats.html

 

[The Good]

The Hassidim wear nice hats, even if they are mostly black. I like their conservative approach to dress, and these dark-colored fedoras reflect that. On another note, I think I notice a man wearing a brown fedora, in that crowd. Some of the hats appear more grey than black also. Does anyone know which brands these men typically purchase their hats from? Isn't it mainly Borsalino or Stetson?

 

[Mr E Train]

I seem to remember Steve from Bencraft saying that they mostly preferred Borsalinos.

 

[Pompidou]

Now there's a scene begging for someone to walk through the thick of it wearing a red or yellow hat. I think being in a sea of people who look (and maybe act? I don't know) exactly like me would be my worst nightmare.

 

[Torpedo]

Iin the above pics I see different ribbon widths and styles (even a boxed bow). There seem to be raw and "treated" edges; and creases and pinches are different too, even if being of the ones that give the crown a generally similar appearance (center dent with pinches, c- or teardrop- or diamond crown, all look similar, and I see more than one of these crease styles in the pics). The proportions seem to be more or less constant, and of course they are all black (the brown or grey shades could be attributed to fading).
What I want to express is that I see differences enough for me to being unable to reconigze, or set apart, one of these hats as religious per se.
This said, I can not claim to be near a Hassidim community - I have just seen, occassionally, one member of them, who lives in my district, so I am not familiar with the subject.

 

[Italian-wiseguy]

The Hassidim wear nice hats, even if they are mostly black. I like their conservative approach to dress, and these dark-colored fedoras reflect that. On another note, I think I notice a man wearing a brown fedora, in that crowd. Some of the hats appear more grey than black also. Does anyone know which brands these men typically purchase their hats from? Isn't it mainly Borsalino or Stetson?

In Italy "Cappellificio Cervo" has a "jewish line" specifically dedicated to Hassidim; comprising not only fedoras but also homburgs and maybe some kind of "semi-bowler hat" (don't know the real name, but you can see them in the first link).
As far as I know, hats tend to reflect group's affiliation, though not strictly; and "borsalinos" may be used as a generic term for "fedoras".

Btw, the former rabbi of my town (orthodox, but not hassidic) wore a homburg.

PS
I really like the way they dress! But may someone explain why they (at least someone) button their coats right-over-left, on the contrary of common male style?

 

[Edward]

In Japan, dressing with a Kimono to one side or the other (I forget which way round is which) is significant insofar as one is associated with the dead / afterlife. Is there some sort of Hassidic tradition that is similar? There's a big Hassidic community in part of North London (if you were to go up to Highgate Cemetary to see Karl Marx's grave, among others, you'll see a lot of those folks about; also there are always a fair few of them passing through Heathrow Airport); from what I have seen of them they seem for the most part to prefer to wear their hats open crown. Not sure whether that denotes a differing level of stricture of practices?

 

[Italian-wiseguy]

In Japan, dressing with a Kimono to one side or the other (I forget which way round is which) is significant insofar as one is associated with the dead / afterlife. Is there some sort of Hassidic tradition that is similar? There's a big Hassidic community in part of North London (if you were to go up to Highgate Cemetary to see Karl Marx's grave, among others, you'll see a lot of those folks about; also there are always a fair few of them passing through Heathrow Airport); from what I have seen of them they seem for the most part to prefer to wear their hats open crown. Not sure whether that denotes a differing level of stricture of practices?

Sorry for the off topic, but in Italy, at least in this part of Italy, there'a way to fold bed-sheets "for living people's sheets", and another, normally avoided for supersticious reasons, "for dead people's sheets";
probably reminiscent of when dead persons were put in shrouds.

In topic, I can see why a creased fedora is more "mundane" or dandified of an open crown hat