I’m a hat man myself. I love them. Nothing beats a fine brim to wear outside when the sun is shining. Fedoras, cowboy hats, berets, I’ve got them all.
Let us digress momentarily to determine for once and all that a baseball cap is just that, a cap. It is not, has never been and will never be a hat.
Now that we have that out of the way, let us discuss the real article. My personal favorites are Stetsons and the Australian brand Akubra. My first really good hat was an Akubra Dunberkeley Army Officer’s hat in standard issue green and one side folded up a la Ned Kelly. When I lost that hat five years later (1973) I nearly cried. It was one of the finest I have ever owned.
I currently alternate between some beater Dorfman Pacific Fedoras and a truly fine Akubra “Drover”, seeing as how my Akubra “Snowy River” finally wore out after seven years of hard use.
There is nothing like a fine hat, It serves as windbreak, sunscreen, umbrella and myriad other functions. It also gives a gentleman something to remove in the presence of a lady and many’s the time a woman has mentioned feeling flattered when I have doffed my heargear as she entered the room. I also attribute the fact that I look ten years younger than my current age to the fact that I have worn a hat for most of my adult life.
So, let’s hear about hats. Ladies, you too, what are your favorites and when do you like to wear them? Guys, what are your favorite types and when did you first start wearing a hat?
My next purchase will probably be a Borsalino Fedora. Boy howdy, is that one going to hurt (they are not cheap). But I’ll finally have a real Fedora to wear.
I have no idea what the thing is called, but a friend gave me a hat…hmmmm…how to describe it? I believe Henry Higgens wore one in “My Fair Lady” and I’m pretty sure Tom Landry used to wear one.
Lookit this link. Imagine the material to very soft tan courderoy(sp) and make the whole thing floppier.
It’s damned comfortable, keeps my bald spot dry and warm and looks good. Plus the thing can be wadded up and crammed into a pocket with no ill effects.
Great hat. I even bought a second one, just in case.
I own two cowboy hats, a black felt that’s far too large for me (my parents bought it for me at the county fair, and it’s probably going to end up atop a snowman next winter), and a straw one from K-Mart that fits ok. I also have an Australian-style hat that I bought yesterday at a flea market because I needed to shade my eyes somehow. I only wear hats when I’m going to be outside in the sun for a long time, and even then only when i remember. I just don’t usually look good in hats.
I have a red calico sunbonnet I sewed myself, somewhere.
My first boyfriend wore a fedora. I liked it then but ever since then fedoras have had negative connotations.
Mr Kiffa wears two types: a cowboy style hat with a leather band around it [he would probably snort in distain at my description, but I don’t know what type it is] and, once in a while, he wears a grey “Englishman driving his old Morris sports car” type of hat. He looks much better in the cowboy hat as he peeks under the rim…
I like wearing Africa foulards [headwraps] especially on bad hair days. It’s fun being creative as you wrap a two to three yardlong material around your head. Unfortunately I don’t really look good in hats persay. Maybe that’s not too bad because I would probably spend outrageous amounts of money to match shoes and hats.
One of my sons likes to wear his West African hat made out of bogalon material along with his cowerie shell necklace. It’s interesting to see how he has developed his style over the years. He doesn’t mind looking a bit different from everyone else at middle school. Must be the musician in him. Oh god, if he only stays away from that awful goth style!
I have Resistol straw with a horsehair band that I wear when I two-step with tall cowboys. I have a winter white wool beret that is warm and adorable on me, a perfect contrast to my inky black, shoulder-length curls. And several baseball caps to thread my ponytail through. Men in hats: YES. Black felt Stetsons, brown fedora Stetsons, Panama straws. Yes, fitted ballcaps are cool, but a Stetson is a grown-up, real-man hat!
I wear a baseball cap 90% of the time. My “real” hats are a cheap camo outback style (with the botton-up sides), a tiger stripe-camo boonie hat (that’s getting too small), and a black Resistol cowboy hat I inherited from my grandfather (who worked at the Resistol factory for 40-some years) that my mom will only let me wear on the dressiest of dress-up occasions. Something to do with beaver fur…
I need a cheap black cowboy or outback-style hat for everyday wear. Any recommendations? I’m thinking a Resistol outback crushable…
I like hats…actually they are of great help to me outside in sunlight
However, I have a size 8 head.
The “one size fits all” hats don’t.
It’s even tough for me to find fitted baseball hats in my size. There is a store at the mall called “The Hat Store” which sells nothing but baseball hats…You would think this kind of place would carry a hat in my size…but noooo…
Occasionally I’ll come across a hat that fits me…I tend to snap them up pronto.
I haven’t found a hat for me that seems appropriate – I’m not a Stetson kind of guy, or a Fedora, or a Bowler, or anything else. Not even a baseball cap. So I go without any hat.
I always envied my father’s fine collection of hats. He had quite an assortment of various dress hats, in various styles and colors, to match the various business suits he wore. I always thought it was a shame that men’s dress hats went out of style, even he stopped wearing them sometime in the 70s.
I have searched for many years, and I have never found a hat that made me look like anything other than a complete idiot. Surely this is due to the decrease in availability of styles. And the few styles that remain are generally ugly, particularly baseball caps. I have news for everyone who wears baseball caps: you all look stupid. The only baseball cap I own is a Hugo Boss cap I got free when I bought a $1200 suit. Even that cap looks stupid. Baseball caps are for one purpose only, to keep the sun out of your eyes, they are not a fashion statement, except to say that you have no fashion sense whatsoever.
Anyway, if there is anyone in the Chicago area who knows of a proper haberdasher, I would love to hear about it. I go in for shopping occasionally, and I’d make a special trip if I thought it would end my quest for just ONE proper had that made me look good.
I’ve always felt I was “not a hat person” believing that such a creature existed and that some of us could not join their ranks. I’ve bought a few hats, but then never worn them.
A new friend of mine, however, who owns over 80 hats, says I’m full of it, that EVERYONE is a hat person. So I got the guts up to wear a hat to a wedding recently, and I got so many compliments. So I guess deep down inside of me was a hat person waiting to make herself known.
But if we’re not counting baseball caps, I’ve only got two or three hats. Nothing like a perfect nicely-finished flat-top straw hat, though; goes with everything.
Canadians have known for quite some time that the finest, most comfortable, and versatile hat made is the Tilley.
Mine has travelled tens of thousands of miles and protected me from the blistering sun of Mexico and the torrential rains of the Bahamas. I once forgot my hat in the air terminal in Freeport and the pilot held the flight until an attendant retrieved it. It could have been me saying something about it being my good luck charm and the superstitious nature of pilots.
I once had an American tourist offer me $100.00 US for my hat. I had to decline his offer but did tell him where he could order his own.
One of the best features of the hat is it’s durability and the fact the warranty is good for as long as I have my head. You can’t beat that.
A good snap brim, ala Bogart, is as comfortable and as protective as any hat needs to be and it gives you something to tip to the ladies when necessary. And personally, I think it goes with virtually any male clothing style (well, probably not teen baggy).
I also have a good panama and a felt fedora. I even have a straw boater, but seldom seem to find a chance to wear it.
I wear a straw cap, patterned after a baseball cap. I have tried to wear hats that have full brims, but I’ve never been able to drive with the back of the brim hitting the headrest, and I DO need to shade my eyes to drive. So I wear a cap, since I’m reluctant to remove the headrest from the seat. I’ve put a bandanna around the cap, in a band. I’ve threaded a leather thong around it so that I won’t lose the cap when it blows off my head, and I put beads on the thong. I’ve got the same sort of beads and thong on my walking stick. And occasionally I will clip a barette that has three brilliant blue feathers along one side of my cap. I’ve had people try to buy this thing off of me. I ain’t selling.
Of course, this all embarasses my daughter to no end.
I have a white banana fibre hat with a very wide brim. Unfortunately, it got damp, and has since lost its shape. I need a replacement. I also have a cheap black straw hat with a wide flat brim. My other summer hat is petrol blue grosgrain with a blue slub silk band.
For winter, I have a brown felt Paddington Bear hat, a pinkish brown bowler that I rarely wear, and a black felt flowerpot cloche.
Unfortunately, hats make me look like Boy George. I’ve had to turn away from some beautiful hats because I couldn’t face the prospect of all my friends singing Karma Chameleon at me every time I wore them. I’d be interested to hear about any other unintentional George lookie-likies.
Feynn - I’d forgotten all about Tilly hats. One of my close friends bought one before his trip to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. My boyfriend and I were very taken with it. Even though it made my boyfriend look like a chump, I’m going to get him one as a present. Thank you for reminding me.
