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Dressing for the wrong genre.


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Well, I got a vintage Stetson today. I found it while cleaning my neighbor's house and he let me keep it because I wore it throughout the time I was there. He said it was $200, years ago. It fits me better than it looks in the picture, it stays on very well, even in windy conditions (the walk home). I can't wait to wear this with my red suit, that'd just be completely dapper. Anyways, don't judge the picture, I spent about 6 hours moving heavy things in and out of this guy's yard and garage. [lol]

 

I look completely out of place wearing this hat, but I love it.

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It's not as good as it looks in the pictures. The leather braid around the actual part that rests on your head is a bit worn and stiff. the feathers are a bit ruffled and the brass clip on the leather is tarnished. Is there any way to actually date them?

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It's not as good as it looks in the pictures. The leather braid around the actual part that rests on your head is a bit worn and stiff. the feathers are a bit ruffled and the brass clip on the leather is tarnished. Is there any way to actually date them?

Follow your own Muse and the heck with what anyone else says.

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I agree with billybob.

 

The hat looks to me more like a novelty hat that has been made here and there. Ain't what guys wear for daily work or going to church. <grin>

 

But a good felt hat is most comfortable in borderline weather from, say, 0F up to 80 or 90F.

 

Out here usually guys wear felt on good winter days, spring and fall, and switch to straw in summer. Bad winter days often it's something like a lumberjack cap with ear flaps - or a scarf over the felt hat - or the felt hat and some sorta earmuffs. Colder than that, a parka and the cap are pretty common.

 

m

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Yeah, Stetson, Bailey, Resistol, Serratelli...

 

Decent hats, but not nearly as good as 50 years ago. My this-summer Bailey "straw" technically is made outa paper. Go figure.

 

Bender, I've got a cupla Stetsons. Decent hats; not as good as in the old days when they could use processes that aren't currently politically correct.

 

My best hats have been made by area hat makers like the Star of the West Hat Company in Rapid City. Only have two "Star" hats, both nearly 25 years old. Don't usually drive down to the store in Rapid. The regular style older one is super for wearing to the local high school football games regardless of weather. It's had the sweatband and liner replaced twice.

 

The other one is the old-style one you see on my profile pix. (The mountains are the Bighorns, home of the Johnson County Cattle War, btw.)

 

Mostly my hats are pretty much shaped like what you'll see rodeo guys using on TV.

 

Star of the West hatmaker Brad Montague is PRCA bareback rider Scott's brother. Brad'll make a hat from anywhere around $250 up, depending on overall quality of materials used and how fancy. Old style, new style... whatever. It's best if you get the hat custom shaped to your head, but Brad figures things for mail order pretty well, I'm told.

 

Dunno if this will work for everybody, but:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Star-of-the-West-Hat-Company/138481216212948?sk=photos

 

For what it's worth... you can get anything from Indiana Jones or a bowler to just a nice current standard western shape or an old or buckaroo style hat.

 

m

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On dating your hat, much can be gained from the band (the leather inside) and it's markings, the liner and the size tag. You'll find a number of threads in the hat section of The Fedora Lounge on dating vintage Stetsons (I collect fedoras, vintage and modern, and have a number of Stetsons from the early 30s through the 80s or 90s, the majority of mine being from the 1950s).

 

Guessing this one isn't what would be called "vintage" by collectors, but probably 70s or 80s (just a guess based on the one shot, and could be way off). If you'll post pics of any of the above mentioned things, I can get you close (also look for a union label, possibly on the back of the size tag if it is the squared type, and try to see which union if so, there were changes there that help dating).

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I like the hat. And I like people being the way they want to be, and looking the way they want to.

Individualism is cool! [thumbup]

Anybody can look like the "crowd". I sometimes like those that stand out from the crowd. [biggrin]

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One problem with labels, hat sweatband, etc., is that when a hat is restored, a new sweatband and often even the liner and hatband can be changed, too, so that only the original felt remains.

 

I've even seen the brim binding replaced if there originally or added.

 

m

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I think in terms of wearing/looking as one might wish to, in order to extend knowledge of one's personality, it can at times go a bit far.

 

I know that when I lived in Memphis, Tenn., I never wore either the hat or boots I was brought up wearing. There were a number of reasons...

 

Never understood snakeskin boots either. Looks to me as if it'd be a horrid task to clean them after being a while in a feedlot.

 

m

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On dating your hat, much can be gained from the band (the leather inside) and it's markings, the liner and the size tag. You'll find a number of threads in the hat section of The Fedora Lounge on dating vintage Stetsons (I collect fedoras, vintage and modern, and have a number of Stetsons from the early 30s through the 80s or 90s, the majority of mine being from the 1950s).

 

Guessing this one isn't what would be called "vintage" by collectors, but probably 70s or 80s (just a guess based on the one shot, and could be way off). If you'll post pics of any of the above mentioned things, I can get you close (also look for a union label, possibly on the back of the size tag if it is the squared type, and try to see which union if so, there were changes there that help dating).

 

 

I do not have the hat with me at the moment. I dropped it off with my great grandpa. He's going to remove the tarnish from the brass and give the leather braid a bit of an adjustment. (Part of it in the front had come un-glued, and the tips were just a tiny bit frayed) I'll post the inner leather band specs when I pick it up from him. From what I remember, it came from a shop in AZ, and it is beaver (as defined by a stamp in the actual band)

 

(Sorry for not responding for a few days)

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I do not have the hat with me at the moment. I dropped it off with my great grandpa. He's going to remove the tarnish from the brass and give the leather braid a bit of an adjustment. (Part of it in the front had come un-glued, and the tips were just a tiny bit frayed) I'll post the inner leather band specs when I pick it up from him. From what I remember, it came from a shop in AZ, and it is beaver (as defined by a stamp in the actual band)

 

(Sorry for not responding for a few days)

 

 

Probably Saba's men's wear - Arizona is big on hat's obviously when it 110 in the shade you need to make you own shade and the cowboy hat is the norm usually straw and everything from a few dollars to pretty close to a grand can be found here.

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