Quality Fedora

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Whit

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I'm almost as enamored with hats as with handguns. Maybe I'm just not searching in the correct places, but it seems that finding a quality fedora in the Houston area is almost as difficult as finding a live dinosaur. Anyone know of a department or hat store that Carrie's good fedoras…Lin long oval? If push comes to shove, I'd buy online. Just really prefer trying a hat on before buying. Oh yeah, I'm looking for felt and straw hats.

Yeah, I know, baseball type caps are the fashion of the day. Me, I'm old and old fashioned, put a nice hat on my old noggin!

Blessings,
Joel
 
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For my 25 years as a businessman, I wore fedoras, panamas, and double breasted suits. I got a fair amount of comments on the hats, most of them favorable. (Especially when it was raining or snowing, and everybody else was getting wet or freezing.)

Once a colleague said to me, in regard to my fedora, "You're eccentric."

I said, "Yep. True enough."

Favored a Burberry trench coat in winter, too.
 
I have a Pendleton wool hat given to me by a customer (now deceased) on a fishing trip back in 1988! He also tied and affixed the "fly".

This is my "winter" hat and worn all season long. It's been impossible to wear out.

It's also amazing how many compliments I get while wearing it.
 

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Rustyt1953 said:
When fashion peaked.

Click to expand...

My great great grand father dressed similar to that.

Story goes, he didn't play well with others or revenuers.

i-5sn27fC-XL.jpg
 
Whit said:
I'm almost as enamored with hats as with handguns. Maybe I'm just not searching in the correct places, but it seems that finding a quality fedora in the Houston area is almost as difficult as finding a live dinosaur. Anyone know of a department or hat store that Carrie's good fedoras…Lin long oval? If push comes to shove, I'd buy online. Just really prefer trying a hat on before buying. Oh yeah, I'm looking for felt and straw hats.

Yeah, I know, baseball type caps are the fashion of the day. Me, I'm old and old fashioned, put a nice hat on my old noggin!

Blessings,
Joel
Click to expand...
Houston has several places you can get a hand made hat from if you're willing to pony up what they're worth.
I have several fedoras, oldest being from between the 20's and 30's.
Christy's out of London made this 100% hare to order for me, so there's that option too. 1st hat.
I find all my old beaver fedoras in antique shops I frequent.
the owners know me by name and know what I'm looking for and usually save them for me to look at.
2nd hat Fedora Resistol 1920-1930.
The last hat is a Stetson Open Road in the Fedora bash that looks brand new, but it's from the 50's I believe.
It has a new hat pin, but the old trolley cord was still intact.
I have more, but these are some of my favorites.
IMG-20131111-173047-396.jpg

IMG-20140726-235612-031.jpg


IMG-1216.jpg
 
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MetalMan said:
I have a Pendleton wool hat given to me by a customer (now deceased) on a fishing trip back in 1988! He also tied and affixed the "fly".

This is my "winter" hat and worn all season long. It's been impossible to wear out.

It's also amazing how many compliments I get while wearing it.
Click to expand...

I have had that same hat for decades. It is great in the rain and snow. Too warm for summer time here in Missouri.
 
I have a unique fedora that I've had for more years than I can remember. Right after the first Indiana Jones movie, Lucasfilms licensed Stetson to make an official Indiana Jones fedora, with the Indiana Jones logo in a pin on the hatband, and inside the crown is a line drawing of indiana Jones. It looked so snazzy that I had to buy one. Years later I found another one on eBay that was missing the pin. Such is life.

My original fedora became my fishing hat that went on numerous fishing trips to Canada. It is now my walking hat since my hair now will allow the sun to come through. I checked the Stetson web site, and they have a pretty good selection of fedoras. The old movie related hats weren't listed but the basic hat seems to be still offered for sale.
 
Thanks guys. Never thought about shopping antique or resale shops. This place is a wealth of knowledge about things not firearms related. Glad to know I'm not the only one who favors the classic fedora. Just seems like all I see are ball caps.

Not exactly a fedora…nah, not a fedora at all, but I do like my Tilly hat, especially the winter hat with the "hidden" ear flaps.
 
To last a lifetime with style and class, Stetson "Open Road" model. 2-3/4" brim with stitched and bound edge. About 4-1/2" crown. Generally available in 3X, 4X, and 6X felt. Very durable and comfortable.

My 6X-Beaver Open Road is about 7 years old now. I use it only on cold and snowy days. The "rancher" crease has been remolded to a pinch-crease and the brim has been flattened out quite a bit, much less "western" and more "fedora".

When the temperature drops below freezing and the snow is blowing there is nothing better on your head.

Hot sunny weather is a different matter entirely. Past 38 years or so I have been well served with a good Resistol straw, tightly woven to deal with rain, about 3" brim. Very light weight and comfortable, good shade when I need it.

Between the two hats I have experienced just about everything from Florida to Washington State, Texas Gulf Coast to Minnesota Boundary Waters, and winter storms to tropical sunshine. Here in Colorado I don't get much of a challenge.
 
I ran across this years ago, and enjoyed it enough to save it.
From a phone by Hemmingway to a hat maker in Miami, Fl.

The proper Panama Hat: By Ernest Hemmingway

"I do NOT want one of those bright white Reginald-at-the-club-looking things. Hell, I don't even want it to look new. It should look like it's been somewhere, like it has stories to tell.
"Make it a fedora. Pinches in front. Teardrop-shaped Island in the top. When you block it, go easy. I don't want it all crisp and ironed looking. Don't worry about it. I want it to lose the shape you give it, as it takes the shape I give it. It should be shaped by life, by experience, by the occasional careless handling, by being too dumb to come in out of the rain once in a while, by a bottle of Havana Club and some rummy idea about what a brim should look like, maybe even by thoughtless idiots who don't know enough to keep their damn hands off another man's hat.
"Don't be stingy with the brim. Give me some shade. A proper Panama should have a brim that sticks out farther than the end of my nose, not as far as the end of my cigar. Turn it down in front. Drink, smoke, and cuss while you're making it.
"Don't make it until you're ready. If I'm not still around, make it anyway. There will always be men who need a good hat while they're getting on with getting on. And if women want one, too, so much the better. I can't think of one damn thing that doesn't look better on a woman than on a man."
He said goodbye and hung up.
Click to expand...
 
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