Any plan vhere hyu lose hyu hat eez a bad plan.

[madbaker]

I like my hat. We found this in a vintage clothing store - it fit, and it only took a bit of time wearing it for the wife to persuade me to buy it. I often wear it to the farmer's market; it keeps the sun off, and I occasionally get stopped and complimented.

vintage Lee fedora

The couple who owned the store retired and moved to rural Oregon, where he now makes custom hats. I took the plunge and ordered a new one, similar in style to my vintage but in a midnight-blue beaver felt, like this one from his store:

It'll take a bit, but not that long, and his prices are amazingly reasonable. The only downside is that I'm mailing my fedora to him so he can copy it without my doubtless-inaccurate descriptions and measurements.
It'll be nice when it's done. And then I'll really need the violin case to go with my navy pinstripe suit.

Comments

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

That's completely *Awesome*.

Could you send contact information for the custom-hat guy? (Assuming you like his work once you get it.)

I used to wear a Fedora all the freaking time. I moved out here from Buffalo, and ... well, nobody wore them, and I started feeling dumb wearing one. So... I stopped, and put it away.

I figure now I'm mature, er, 'confident in myself' enough to not care what the kids are doing.

And, well, I need a hat.

Hair-loss jokes aside, I wear a ball cap because I have a dozen or so of the grey promotional 'Altamar Networks' caps -- they were free, and (most importantly) a dull, non-flashy color.

Of course, that's why I wear a specific ball cap. I wear a hat in general not because I'm trying to conceal the baldness (minuscule, and otherwise unnoticeable though it may be), but because sunburn on the scalp *HURTS*.

My old fedora got crushed a couple of moves ago, and I think it's a lost cause in terms of re-forming the felt. It wasn't a well-made one, but I did wear it for a number of years on a daily basis.

You're getting a custom hat. That is totally cool.

[fionnbharro.livejournal.com]

Oops; sorry. I didn't notice the link to his online store the first time I read your entry.

Neat site.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

A proper fedora is hard to find. I went hat shopping in Oakland a few years ago with my spouse to a "good" hat shop, and the only fedoras there had the brim going down all the way around. A proper fedora (IMO) looks like the first image you posted. While I like my Stetson straw "fedora", the brim wasn't set right. I used to have an old beat up one but it got trashed in the props box for a play ... sigh.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

My modern Stetson fedora is a snap-brim like the vintage above. The style is called "Temple", because it's what they made for Indiana Jones. It's not as nice as the vintage but quite wearable - I wore it for event setup for a while. You should try Berkeley Hats; they have a good selection.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

I intend to get a snap brim at some point. I don't need the beaver fur felt <g>, but I would like a nice felt proper fedora. Thanks for the info on Berkeley Hats, wasn't aware of them.

In the unlikely event you hadn't already Googled them

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

http://www.berkeleyhat.com/

Re: In the unlikely event you hadn't already Googled them

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I hadn't actually googled them, will check it out at some point soon.