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As much as I like Victorian head wear, bowlers and top hats have truly entered the realm of costume and are not something I feel I could wear on a regular basis. However, I do still love hats, so, some time ago,  I decided I would make the obvious step to wearing slightly more modern hats – homburgs, fedoras & panamas, the hats of the 30s and 40s.

I currently, as of this entry, own one homburg and two fedoras, and no panama hats. I plan to buy a panama after my holiday to England in September. Today, however, I will be writing about my fedoras, and save the homburg and future panama for another day.

As with so many of my vintage items, my two fedoras were bought by my wife, Emmie, at an outdoor flea market. There’s an older gentleman who sells things at a flea market every Saturday. He often has two or three hats, usually in quite small sizes. One Saturday, however, he had two hats in my size, and Emmie managed to purchase both for 120kr (£9.50 / $15.50). Both hats have the same head size, but one hat has a low, tapered crown, and a small brim, while the other hat has a high, untapered crown and a regular sized brim.

The smaller hat, which I usually refer to as a trilby to help distinguish between the two, was in perfect condition. The front of the brim snapped down very well, the crown was bashed nicely and the hat was clean and didn’t have strong smell. The crown is 5″ (13cm) high, and the brim is 1.75″ (4.25cm) wide.

The larger hat, however, was not in as good condition. The crown was badly creased, the brim had no snap, and the hat smelled distinctly of cigarette smoke. The hat was also exceptionally soft to the touch, and just touching the crown distorted the crown. The crown itself is very tall, a full 5.5″ (14cm) high, and the brim is 2″ wide (5cm). It looked awful on me, and I was a little sad. I opened up the crown and steamed it, to try and remove some of the memory of the bad crease the hat had.

After I had given the hat a good steaming, the brim got a snap back! It wasn’t perfect, and it had a concave curve rather than convex, but I felt that at least I was getting somewhere. Steaming the hat also helped with the smell, and hardened the felt in general. I tried giving the hat a diamond crease, but it didn’t suit me at all. I therefore decided to put in a centre crease, with two front dents, and it worked very well. I also steamed the brim, folded it down, and formed it into the shape it should be. I then left it to dry, and it dried perfectly. The brim now snaps very well indeed.

I would prefer the hat if the crown was a little shorter, as it is somewhat overbearing, yet despite that, it is an excellent hat and I will give the hat much use over winter. Unfortunately, I received both of these hats just in time for the heat of late spring and summer to arrive, and they are far too hot to wear. Once autumn arrives, I will most certaintly start wearing these fantastic hats, however. Hopefully, by next summer, I will have a nice panama hat to wear.