I'm helping my son do research for a school project he is doing on La Cosa Nostra in the 1920s and 1930s and the origins of the modern Five Families and the Chicago Outfit. We've pulled tons of pics of famous mobsters and they are all wearing suits and fedoras and my son was like, "I wish people still wore those cool hats."

I remember when I was a kid that my grandfather never left the house without a fedora. Some things I wish we would go back to.

Here is Antonio "Joe Batters" Accardo, also known as the "Big Tuna", of the Chicago Outfit rocking a beautiful fedora. Those guys had style.

When I was a kid, every one of the men wore an identical hat to church. Upon exiting, they seemed to just grab one from the general area on the shelves over the coat racks where they had left theirs - maybe the next week they might even wind up with their own back again. Usually, there were one or two left over after everyone had gone. (Why anyone evern felt the need to buy a new bottle of Vitalis is beyond me - after a week or so, the hat would be pretty much self-sustaining in that regard.) They did the same musical chairs routine with zip-up overshoes in the winter.

I had forgotten all about zip-up overshoes. Growing up in Indiana everyone wore them in the winter.

JFK pretty much killed them in 1960. He wanted the ladies to see his hair.

True about JFK, but my Paternal Grandfather, being bald, wore a hat until about ten years ago. It was his 80th birthday, and after "Saving Private Ryan" came out. Along about that time, it became ok for WWII veterans to talk about their experiences. My aunt bought him a WWII veteran Baseball cap and he began wearing it. Still does. Just celebrated his 92nd birthday this year.

A baseball cap will never be as class as a hat, but when you have reached the age of 92, been through Kasserine Pass, Algeria, Tunisia, Rome and all other points in the Medeterranian during WWII, you get to wear whatever kind of headgear you darn well please.

Fedoras gave way to the pimp hat.

Only lesbians wear fedoras now, I think.

My Maternal Great Grandfather in Balkan, Kentucky. I have no idea what year this was, but I'd hazard a guess during the late 1920's or early 1930's. They lived in a coal camp and he dug coal for a living.

Could be.

Not for long. I discovered that Stetson still makes some nice ones, I'll be ordering a couple.

Great pic

HAve to agree fedora went away when pimps like Huggy Bear on Starsky and Hutch started wearing them. Fedora went ghetto

I just went down to Destin, FL for a couple days. managed to burn my nearly bald head so bad that it blistered. Kids, if you haven't burned your scalp that bad yet, let me emplore you. Don't.

I'd wear a Muslim Swami wrap to avoid that pain again.

I'd happily fist fight any lebanese chick over the right to wear a fedora.

Good luck, ColKlink in your quest to wear an Indiana Jones Fedora.

I've gotta' say, if I were to buy a Stetson, then I'd buy a STETSON.

The only people I see wearing Fedoras nowadays are 14 year old nerdy dudes and lezbyuns.

Be sweet if you could bring them back though....grin

In my opinion, style went out of the window when men stopped wearing hats.

It went to absolute schit when Crocs were invented (though they are still far from socially acceptable).

What happened to the Fedora ?
` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` ` `
It went the way of Ken Howell's Henschel ...

(Outdoor Aussie Hat)

What happened to fedoras?


Douchebags happened to fedoras.

Never saw my Gramps without his

I wore my Akubra Down Under until it basically fell apart. It took almost 20 yrs to kill it, the Aussies make a really nice hat.



I have my eye now on a Snowy River.

HERE they are.

I think Birkenstocks was the start of the downfall then came crocs and now we
Have "men" wearing skinny jeans

The scary thing is that there is an entire forum dedicated to hats. Although, why not, I guess....

Bet them aint real men Ribka.

Gunner

Apparently lots of hats qualify under the umbrella name fedora. But I wouldn't classify those as actual fedoras any more than this is a real cowboy hat.



This is a fedora.



This is a fedora.




This is a girl named Dora, but not a fedora.

I concede the technicality. But the douchebags remain as such. Dora is nice.

I think Tom Landry was the last gentleman to wear a fedora. Bear Bryant sported one too.

Hellsfire....LEO in most cities don't wear a cover anymore! Afraid they'll mess up their hair!!

In the winter I wear a Filson wool packer hat. Not a fedora, but close enough for me. I get quite a few compliments on it.

Your grandfather certainly has earned the right to wear whatever he pleases, and you deserve recognition for knowing the difference between a cap and a hat. (I have never seen a baseball hat, and I hope never to see one.)

Wasn't trying to argue against your post and hope mine did not come across that way. But to my mind a fedora is a dress hat meant to be worn with a suit. It will have a moderately wide brim and be made out of wool or felt with a wide band, a squared off crown and two deep creases in front where it is grabbed to be taken on or off. The color usually matches the color of the suit being worn.

My grandfather was a farmer in North Carolina and his daily wear was a sweat stained straw hat. But his church clothes consisted of a suit and a fedora. He died in the mid 1960's but I always remember him in a nice gray suit and matching gray fedora.

The douchebags seem to be wearing more of a porkpie style, which I believe is a lower class subspecies of fedora characterized by a slightly lower crown and much narrower brim and is not nearly as snazzy as a fedora.



Funny this post came up since I was thinking about hats earlier today after posting the pic of Bruce Willis in a Handgun thread. Everything old is new again and it seems like a real fedora, not a pimped out version and God forbid not a porkpie, would make a stylish addition to a real dress suit.

Might be on to something.

I have two flat caps and one fedora. I wear them around a good amount. Style never fades.

My Dad always wore a Fedora. Now that I'm approaching his expiration date I've been trying to find a decent one. No luck so far. Lots of places that say they sell Fedoras but few of them really are and so far haven't found one with that old Fedora look.

It became the ball cap. Stunning how many cannot live without.

The fedora resides here:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/forum.php?s=0528bac82a1ee6f872c3a9cecde8570e

Ball caps were given away as an advertising tool.

Why buy a high dollar fedora when you've got a shelf full of caps to wear, get dirty and throw away?

I know, it has to do with class which doesn't seem to have any meaning to the youngsters.

Never saw anyone wearing their fedora backwards!

I have several and still wear them. Like Fred Bear you have to wear one if you shoot longbows or recurves.


http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=7910



http://www.3riversarchery.com/Fred+Bear+Safari+Style+Hat_i8072X_baseitem.html


http://www.amazon.com/Indiana-Jones...p;ie=UTF8&qid=1365154644&sr=1-18

The baseball cap has resulted in a plague of skin cancer on farmers necks & ears.

Fred Bear wore a Borsalino hat with a turkey feather in it. I always thought it looked really good.

fedoras went the way of women's one piece shapewear with garters,cone shaped bra cups various other items that used to be worn by what was the "fairer" sex.Hidden away in closets and chests gone from current style and fashion.When men started to down dress to increased jeans and casual wear use the dress hat went to.The fedora was allways a stand up take notice type of hat, it gave the wearer an aura of someone to respect.Probably a liberal plot to take that away and put it back on Lesbo's.Just my 2cts worth. Magnum Man

I wear a sort of fedora all the time. I've had several per-cancerus growths removed from my ears and I want to protect them as much as possible.

It has not gone anywhere (atleast with me).... I am 44 and wear a fedora. Not every day but if it is raining or cold I wear one... When you have a head that is as gorgeous as my bald head, you protect it.

I have several fedoras, a couple of trilbys, an aussie hat, and a few more whose exact style name I can't recall. Here are a couple of the fedoras, two cowboy hats and a "Greg Norman" gold hat.



BTW, what those modern young snots are wearing are NOT fedoras, those are trilbys. Different brim and different crown than a fedora.

Not gone any where with me either. I wear a felt fedora in the winter and a pamana straw fedora in the summer when I am slightly dressed up. Work hat is a Dorfman Pacific wide brim. Casual hat is a Tilley. Caps only in the winter. I have had enough knots burned off the tops of my ears from sun cancers to go without a brimmed hat anymore.

I have an oil skin Aussie hat; best rain hat in existence. It�s been crushed a couple of times, I�d really like to find a way to un-crush it, and get it to stand up right.

Kevin, my guess is that it's actually a waxed hat, similar to British waxed raincoats.

Yeah I'm sure it is, but back when I bought it they called it oil-skin.

I own Fedora's and were them frequently.

Ball caps are for working outside in.

I think the modern automobile killed them off.

No headroom, have to take the hat off in the vehicle.

Not in my Durango.

(Note to self: Be sure to wear real hat when test-driving potential new truck.)

My Dad always wore a Fedora with a suit but my head sweats too much for one. I wear a open weave straw type hat in the summer and a summer baseball cap in the winter. The only exception is when I am sitting on a deer stand and not moving, then I want something warmer. When I start walking, I take it off. miles

Bite me!!!!

The fedora was a huge part of my childhood. I must have watched this movie 500 times. Whenever I see a fedora the theme music for Indiana Jones starts playing in my head!

The lezbo's or the 14 year olds?

Tanner, when I wear a hat in cooler weather it is a fur felt Akubra, I guess I'm a lesbian. You need to get out of the house more often .
pak

People dress like slobs, mostly, these days

And on the other side of the coin, if you change the l to an n, you have many of the others.

I have a Fedora 560 TD with both #63&72# sets of limbs. Sweet shooter but @60" requires a little extra limb clearance in a treestand, been back to my Bob Lee for that now though.Grin.

My granddad wore one a lot. When he passed in 1972, Grandma kept it in the backseat of her car to let people think there was still a man in her life.....I still have the hat...great memories involved.

There was.

My father wore a fedora, wouldn't by a car that didn't have room for him and the fedora, family drove big cars back in the day.

Fedora's are still worn by several folks that hunt elk near Promise, OR. Checked shirts, horses, Estwing hatchets and Winchester .375 H&H's too.

It is fun when you cross pass with them in the woods.

One of my best partner's used to wear pretty much the same outfit but hunted with a .300 Win Mag along toward the end.
He's been gone a while. I miss him.

All due respect, Hawk (and coaches depicted), all fedoras are hats, but not all hats are fedoras.

My version of a fedora

I've seen those hats before, an the top two still inspire envy. ;-{>8

Good looking hat Brent.

Thanks. I like it.

Good point.

Fedoras, white shirts, ties and suits. Now we have the Grunge look with chains, metal piercings and tattoos. The other day there was a kid in a T, nylon shorts, and flip-flops; mind you this is April in Iowa with temps in the 30s and the ever present praire wind of 20 mi per.

I wear a Stetson, or Resistol Fedora fairly frequently, but I am officially getting to be an old guy so people don't say anything to my Face.

What kind of hat is that? It looks good.

I wish my head was smaller, as we found dozens of them, all still in their hat boxes that my late uncle had from the 30s-late 60s, from fedoras to porkpies to Stetsons, when we cleaned out my aunt's estate a couple summers ago. Many were just badarsed lids, and I'll never forget the impression I took away from many of the old stuff they had from the 30s to 50s, just in terms of the manufacturing quality. Everything was overbuilt, and classy, and things the world wanted, as they were so damned well made...But I digress.

Anyway, none fit me, but some were perfect for my brother's dome, so her got them. Glad someone in the family appreciates them for what they are, and still wears them.

I don't know what, if any, style this is considered, but it's a Stetson product and I dig it. Now and then the urge'll grab me and I'll don it on the way out the door heading for town.

Thanks!

It is an Akubra, Banjo Patterson
http://hatsdirect.com/cgi-bin/products.cgi?group=Akubra+Hats

I like hats. Wear cowboy hats frequently. However have a big head, so they gotta be custom made.

Here is a fedora I'd like to order now that you all got me fired up: http://www.jaxonbilthats.com/hatshop/23_fedora.htm

Maybe see if it's available in 100x Sterling Beaver or 50x 100% Pure Beaver felt. Maybe a basic black, don't much care for brown.

one of my favorites,from times past...


My Dad used to wear one all the time after he retired from the Army. From a farm boy to 30 years military,then a carpenter,He said he felt it was something you did just like wearing shoes...

Can someone please explain the X designator? I think it means the higher the x factor, the higher the fur content - at least I thought it did, until I saw straw hats with x designators. I see designators of 200x? What is the scale? Thanks

Fedoras are squaresville man squaresville

according to wikipedia, it's felt with a creased crown and a brim roughly 2.5" wide or slightly wider. That leave a LOT of room for variations.

In my mind, the purpose of any hat is to protect the head. A pimp hat like this one might be called a fedora but it sure doesn't do much for shading the eyes & ears.

Back in the '50's and '60's,this type of hat was called a "STINGY BRIM".

Funny you mention that. I was taught that caps have bills and hats have brims.

From a practical standpoint I've always felt a brimmed hat made more sense than a ball cap most of the time. Although I have worn some sort of cap more often, especially during winter months.

I coached HS football for 30 years and spent thousands of hours out in the GA sun during August and Sept. I was pretty good about wearing a floppy cloth brimmed hat most of those years. Used one of the Tilley's a lot.

I've only recently found a felt hat that I liked, at a price I was willing to pay. My wife dragged me into an antique store a few weeks ago and I found one or the Akubra hats that fit perfectly for only $20. It looks to have only been worn enough to knock the brand new look off it.

$20 is a steal - even if it doesn't fit.

+1

New ones run from $150 to $200.

With the coming of the income tax the prosperous look of Americans was doomed.

Well hell, my grandson has got it going on..

Not being universal amongst makers is the problem, but generally speaking the higher the number of X's, the better the quality of the material.

In straw hats - the more Xs = tighter weave.

Handsome Grand young 'un, Barkoff.

I didn't know that, and I've wondered how straw was rated.

The last time I bought a really good hat (about 15 years ago), Stetsons and really good quality handmade western ones were going for around $15 per X. I don't know how it is now.

This thread has got me thinking again that I need a good crushable western style hat, but not as "bulky" or stiff as the ones I have now...shorter crown and narrower brim.

Somebody gave me a 100X Stetson straw for a gift. Nice hat, but can't get any ventilation in the heat.

A favorite of Francis Sell.


In the Pacific Northwest we have the crusher hat.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/69261?productId=1170840&subrnd=0&qs=3016887_pmd_google_pla