OT - Hats?

OT - Hats?

  • I love them, and not just for fishing or bad weather.

    Votes: 101 66.9%

  • I like them, but don't own any really that I wear much...

    Votes: 29 19.2%

  • Can it, you sound like a disgruntled old fogey.

    Votes: 21 13.9%
  • Total voters
    151
visiondr said:
Dude,
Now that's good taste!
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Hope so, I got married in it! I paid more for my suit than I have subsequently paid for good used cars. But those were different times. Family man's salary while a bachelor. Ah, memories.
 
bmattock said:
Oh, but what about a wristwatch? Makes the man, they say. My favorites run to the classics, just like cameras. My best watch, wear it with anything, is a 1953 Omega Seamaster bumper wind in stainless steel. Dress watch, Oris City (a modern, but mechanical movement). Love my Hamilton's and Elgin's too. If I wore a waistcoat, it would have a proper watch pocket and my grandfather's 1903 Elgin pocket watch in it.
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Same deal. I like mechanical watches... but I'm not married to brand. I wear a Seiko 5 series because its a trustworthy, robust, accurate movement and it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Would I upgrade to another movement/brand had I spare money? Probably, but it would have to be truly spare. I like the function and the aesthetic, not the brand. :)

edit:
Getting into some of these arena's now - Pens/Watches/Hats/Bespoke suits - are hitting them when society has deemed them luxury - rather than necessary. So I have to be more careful with my choices than perhaps I would had I started 20 or 40 years ago - Certainly from a cost perspective.
 
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rogue_designer said:
Same deal. I like mechanical watches... but I'm not married to brand. I wear a Seiko 5 series because its a trustworthy, robust, accurate movement and it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Would I upgrade to another movement/brand had I spare money? Probably, but it would have to be truly spare. I like the function and the aesthetic, not the brand. :)

edit:
Getting into some of these arena's now - Pens/Watches/Hats/Bespoke suits - are hitting them when society has deemed them luxury - rather than necessary. So I have to be more careful with my choices than perhaps I would had I started 20 or 40 years ago - Certainly from a cost perspective.
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Wow, great minds think alike! This is my daily wear watch - just took it off, in fact.

2278635518_10d570e18c.jpg
 
Aside from bad photography made with relic cameras, I LOVE to make my very own DIY "gentleman's chapeau" is what I call them...

... from ordinary household items.

For example, if one finds - say, an old ashtray around collecting dust, one merely has to fashion some fancy ribbons with a little apoxy to its underside, and tie it underneath the chin to secure your ashtray/chapeau. If you want to get fancy, you can add some lovely bows to the ashtry/chapeau.

Old beer cans, old cameras that don't work or you don't use - most anything can be made into a gentleman's chapeau! Alls you need is a little ribbon and your imagination!
 
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NickTrop said:
Aside from bad photograph, I LOVE to make my very own DIY "gentleman's chapeau" is what I call them...

... from ordinary household items.

For example, if one finds - say, an old ashtray around collecting dust, one merely has to fashion some fancy ribbons with a little apoxy to its underside, and use it to tie your ashtray/chapeau underneat the chin. If you want to get fancy, you can as some lovely bows to the ashtry/chapeau.

Old beer cans, old cameras that don't work or you don't use - most anything can be made into a gentleman's chapeau! Alls you need is a little ribbon and your imagination!
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I find that old sweat socks can be hung imaginatively from my ears, held on by the stems of my glasses, which makes quite a fetching sight. And if there is a box, bag, or item of apparel I have not worn on my head like a hat at one time or another, I'm not aware of it. My wife had to explain to me - legholes, dear, not eyeholes. Hey, I was Spaceman Spiff for a moment there.
 
You get it! bmattock! I bet you were QUITE fetching - "Spaceman Spiff" (not that I'm qualified to judge such things, and not that there's anything wrong with that... you know what I'm attempting to articulate, none too well)

Alls you need is your imagination!
 
NickTrop said:
You get it! bmattock! I bet you were QUITE fetching - "Spaceman Spiff" (not that I'm qualified to judge such things, and not that there's anything wrong with that... you know what I'm attempting to articulate, none too well)

Alls you need is your imagination!
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My only job is to delight Mrs. Mattocks, and she says I do OK. Shame we are 800 miles apart at the moment....sigh.
 
bmattock said:
I find that old sweat socks can be hung imaginatively from my ears, held on by the stems of my glasses, which makes quite a fetching sight. And if there is a box, bag, or item of apparel I have not worn on my head like a hat at one time or another, I'm not aware of it. My wife had to explain to me - legholes, dear, not eyeholes. Hey, I was Spaceman Spiff for a moment there.
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Don't be a tease. Show us a pic of the those socks hung from the ears.

If your wife has half the patience mine does with my own brand of nonsense, she deserves elevation to something like sainthood.
 
They never made a hat that looked okay on my head :( However, given where I live, I occasionally where a black fisherman's toque. Oddly enough, I just recently listened to Michel Enright on CBC's Sunday Edition talk about hats and hat movies. You can hear him if you scroll down a bit and press play on 'Hour One'. It's right at the beginning of the show - after the intros at about 4:10 mark:

http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/shows/201002/20100214.html

Cheers...
 
bmattock said:
They say that American men quit wearing hats as normal business attire when JFK took office - he notoriously took the Oath of Office sans chapeau.

The same was said about men wearing undershirts (as undershirts and not 't-shirts') - noticed to have dropped in popularity after Clark Gable removed his dress shirt in 1934's movie "It Happened One Night," and was revealed to be wearing nothing underneath.

Since the 1960's, beards on men outside of religious or academic circles has variously been seen as eccentric, revolutionary, or outlandish. Most polls indicate that people who wear beards are 'trusted less' by the general public. The British have a movement known as the "Beard Liberation Front." Of course.

Interestingly, the last time men commonly wore hats with suits as daily business attire, the most common hat style was the Trilby. These are hats not commonly seen today - the fedora is, but that wasn't popular in the '50s and '60s in the USA.
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You are a wealth of knowledge. I learned quite a few things in this thread. Thanks!
 
Moi in my favorite summer hat / a mans hat 'The Mare Panama'
from J.J. Hat Center NYC...
 

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Helen, Great hat. Is JJ still in business or did they close their doors for good? Weren't they on the block where the new NY Times Bldg is now or do I have the wrong store?

My new favorite hat store is in New Orleans, Meyer, the Hatter. Wonderful place. Family business forever. The world of hats is not what it once was. Most of my favorites are vintage because it's hard to find a good men's hat at reasonable price anymore and the quality of some the best makers is not what it once was.

This is a hat from Meyer, nice rabbit fur felt. My favorites are Borsalino's from the 1940's. Nothing quite like them. I've also got some very cool Stetson's from that period and a little later. Nothing like a good hat.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2639/4220338541_2afd7dbea5.jpg

helenhill said:
Moi in my favorite summer hat / a mans hat 'The Mare Panama'
from J.J. Hat Center NYC...
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Somewhere, I have an RFF hat, from the prior owner's time. I have an Indian Jones type fedora, and a pair of Panama hats for summer.

Daily use is usually a free vendor hat from my computer days. Currently a "The Computer Is Personal Again", provided by HP while I was in Queens a while back.

I do need to get a cowboy hat, as I don't have one yet...
 
i sport a 2-inch snap-brim huckel, bought by my daughter in austria 14 years ago. it is a wreck from many days in the deer woods, yet still well worth wearing on cold days; very soft hand. i also have a woolrich crusher with 3-inch brim and a couple of crow feathers that gets a lot of wear.
oh yeah, both are brown. the huckel sort of a deer brown; the woolrich has almost an olive tinge ...
 
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