alexmilburn.com

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.

I will christen this blog by posting about one of my absolute favourite vintage items – my top hat.

My wife, Emmie, bought the hat for me at a second hand shop for 150kr (£12.50 / $18). I wasn’t there at the time, but we share the same head size and she checked the hat on her, and felt it fit quite well. The hat came with a box, which was quite battered, and not a particularly good box for a top hat (Even inside the box, the hat is still held up by the base of the crown, rather than the brim, which means whenever you move the box the edge of the crown is knocked, which wears the hat down over time). However, I was thrilled.

When Emmie gave me the box and I took the hat out, I noticed that there was some newspaper at the bottom of the box, placed there I can only assume to prevent dust getting in through the holes in the hat box. A quick glance at the newspaper gave a date of the 22nd September, 1956. This immediately showed that the hat was not a modern creation, and I became even more excited. I noticed that the hat was made by “H.J. Olsson”, in a town quite near where I live.

For a while after that, however, I didn’t find much out about the hat. Nobody on the vintage forum I frequent, The Fedora Lounge, had any ideas regarding it, and I couldn’t find any information online from the names I had found on the hat’s lining.

One day, while looking at the hat, I noticed it was made in Eslöf. Until then I had read it as Eslöv, the name of a town quite near where I live, so I naturally assumed that the hat had come from there. A little bit of research revealed that Eslöf is the archaic name for Eslöv, so I thought it could assist with ageing the hat some more. I contacted the Eslöv library, asking if they would be able to provide any further information. I was quickly contacted by a librarian from Eslöv library, who, over a few e-mails, informed me that the hat shop was opened in 1890, and closed down in 1966, and for the last 20 years was not run by the Olsson family. She also informed me that the name of Eslöv was changed to Eslöf in 1927. This meant that the hat was created some time between 1890 and just before 1930 (Providing time for the linings with the old name of the town to be consumed).

I also checked the quality of the hat, the feel of the material used to create the hat, and the quality of the light reflection, and I am reasonably sure that the hat is made of silk plush. This makes the hat a much higher quality top hat, and makes the price Emmie bought it for even better! Once I have brushed and polished the hat, I will know for certain whether it is silk plush or melusine (felt).

I have recently aquired some hat brushes, so I can brush out the dust from the top hat. I am keeping my eye out for a velvet pad, which is required to polish the hat, so that it can get back the shine it deserves.