Are fedoras dorky?

I’ve noticed fedoras have been kind of co opted into the nerd crowd, and as such their dork factor has increased significantly. It seems like a lot of nerds see fedora clad icons like Humphrey Bogart or Indiana Jones, and try to emulate the look.

I’m reminded of a scene in the Hangover where fellow revelers are teasing Alan about his 'purse"; “Its a Satchel! Indiana Jones had a satchel!” :mad: he says defensively.

Fedoras - no.

Lots of the people who wear fedoras - yes.

I wear hats. I’ve always wanted a fedora, so I’ll vote No. I could be wrong, but I’ll be stylin’.

I wear one. I think they look timeless and rather dapper. This is just my opinion, but I think it’s about confidence. Like with a lot of styles, if you look like you’re unsure about what you’re wearing, you’ll blow the whole look. It helps that I wear a coat and tie for work and only wear the hat outside (like you’re supposed to).

As an aside, I’m puzzled by your condescending view of nerds/dorks/what-have-you. It comes across rather high schoolish, to me. I’m not sure if that’s how you meant to sound. This day and age, the geeks have inherited the earth, so I don’t see how looking nerdy is a bad thing.

What many guys think are fedoras are actually trilbys. The width of the brim is a defining factor. I own two fedoras, and a couple of panama hats in fedora style. My wide face does not fit properly under a trilby.

Are you asking about nerds, or dorks?

If you are 70 or older you can wear a fedora without looking dorky. If you’re 60-69 you have a 50/50 chance of looking dorky. If you post a picture we can tell you right away, but statistically speaking 50% of fedora wearing sexagenarians look dorky.

50-59 is even worse. A full 4 out of 5 look dorky.

If you’re under 50 it’s almost certain you won’t look good in a fedora. There’s about 100 men on the planet under 50 who look good in fedoras and they all are movie stars or in bands or models.

*All these statistics are for men. Sorry for being so gender biased but I’ve never read any serious research into women wearing fedoras.

Hell no.

Fedora or trilby?

Bluesman John Lee Hooker if you don’t recognize him

If you do an image search for fedoras, one of the categories that comes up is “neckbeard”. If you dress anything like the people featured there, yes, your hat is dorky, but your outfit would be pretty bad even without it.

I consider myself well above average in nerdiness but there’s something about neckbeards that give me the willies–in fact any beard sans mustache.

I was rather surprised to see that this wasn’t a zombie thread. I’m not particularly hip or fashionable, but I’d say that fedoras were already strongly associated with nerds and hipster doofuses a decade ago. I can’t cite that, but this Urban Dictionary entry on fedora guy (“The dumb guy down the hall who wears a fedora every day because he thinks it looks cool or something”) is dated almost exactly five years ago.

I don’t object to fedoras and to be honest if I were a guy it’s very likely I’d own and wear one myself, but I agree with Fuzzy Dunlop that if you’re under 60 and wearing a fedora the odds are quite high that many people will think it looks dorky.

You might be able to get away with it if you’re an elderly man playing chess in the park.

I realize I’m in the minority here, but I think any hat that doesn’t actually serve a purpose – like keeping your head warm, or protection from rain, sun, or falling bricks – looks pretentious at best, dorky at worst. That being said, there are many occasions where deliberately looking pretentious or dorky is perfectly acceptable.

I can’t stand wearing a hat if I don’t need it for warmth, and in this part of the country I almost never do. This is why I have a fedora reposing quietly in a corner of my wardrobe, and I almost never wear it.

ETA: Just go for it, Incubus and wear your fedora; who cares what anyone else thinks. They’re just jealous.

I have to agree with the ageist position above. The younger you get, the less likely you are to pull off a fedora.

OTOH, there’s nothing more dorky than caring what other people think of your clothes. I wear a straw cowboy hat if it’s sunny or raining and I’m out. I’m sure people think I look like a dipshit. Who cares? It’s the only hat that I feel comfy in.

Actually, the problem is they don’t try to emulate the look - they just put on a hat. So yeah, they look dorky or pretentious. I’ve got a couple of fedoras and I get compliments on them all the time, but like Bogie and others, I’m wearing a jacket, tie, often a topcoat, and dress shoes, rather than trying to make a trilby or Panama work with jeans and Chuck Taylors like some hipster doofus in a soda commercial.

I’ll concede some guys can make a trilby work with, say, casual slacks and a button-up shirt, and casual leather shoes. And an old boss of mine could even make the Indy-style leather fedora work on casual days with corduroys or khakis and bomber jacket during the cooler months. But typically, people seem to see an image and think “Hats are cool, I’ll get one!” without realizing their was context to the image, or that a professional picked out the hat taking into account head shape, coloring, height, and so on.

Like with everything else, if you look like a fashion model slash rockstar, then no. Nothing will look dorky on you.

If you look like Hurley from Lost, then it will amplify your dork factor by around 300%

[redacted]

I bought a new style fedora, everybody thinks I look great in it.

Similar one:
http://www.hatnwear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=212&zenid=dvus9al1ml5hvpmq5ck1ehcpq6