Great stuff, Ash! The difference between a sub £100 Fedora, one costing £400, and one costing £800 comes down to the materials used to make the felt. The best quality felt hats are made from beaver fur. Felt is a non-woven fabric, and relies on very fine natural fibres, with microscopic "scales" (found on all mammal hair) to lock the fibres together. A Beaver felt hat will be virtually waterproof, and can be re-blocked and reshaped almost indefinitely. It will also have a luxuriously soft and smooth finish. Slightly down from Beaver felt is that sourced from rabbit or coney. Not quite as fine as Beaver, it still retains a high level of durability and water resistance. Lowest on the list is wool. Woolen felt has very little natural water resistance, and cannot really be re-blocked or reshaped without falling apart. Woolen felt is fine for billiard tables, which rarely get rained on or reshaped. It's not such a good choice for hats. If you want a great felt hat (be it Fedora, Homburg, Stetson, etc.) make sure you understand what goes into the material, and how it will affect the durability, look, and performance of your purchase.
Had the opportunity to buy my first hat while visiting London. I went to Lock and Co, what an awesome place. They steered me into that Haydock. Literally get stopped on the street asking me about it.
@@mattstringer5828 I've always thought hats were cool but thought I looked stupid in them. I needed the best to help me decide what looked good on me and was lucky enough to visit London this Christmas.
One of my favourite hats is the Stetson grey fur felt fedora I purchased online from the Village Hat Shop in San Francisco. This particular hat is available up to a size 7&7/8ths, which fits my large head perfectly, and they will also make a custom size 8 in this model if desired. I have also purchased a genuine made in Ecuador Panama hat in fedora style from The Village Hat Shop, and I can attest to the quality and range of their offerings and the excellence of their customer service. In my opinion, for any man with a larger size head, a trilby is less flattering that the fedora with its wider brim and slightly higher crown. Wearing a fedora will instantly elevate your sense of style and ensure that you stand out from the crowd.
The fedora is my favorite style of hat and I own several. I also have a very large head and although that can limit some options, it by no means makes it impossible to get what you want. Video suggestion for Ash: Explain the differences between the fedora and trilby hats, I'm often amazed at how few people actually know this.
Especially since we have da the abysmal "fedora-trope" cruising through the loads of memetic humour which is... well actually rightly so if it where but named correctly... kicking the textile-ultra-small-useless type of trilby parody... But it has tainted the Fedora somewhat (as has the "pickup artist", pardon me, *BS* )... thankfully we have Dr. Jones Jr. on the other side of the reputation influence^^. I, of course, second the notion - getting a Fedora would be a nice reason. Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
@@RaoulKunz1 Indeed, Somebody once chastised me for being a 'fedora wearing Discord admin' when I was wearing a top hat in the profile pic. Even though the 'tips fedora' meme is always a trilby not a fedora, some people just think all hats are fedoras LOL
@@MexieMex "Fedoras wearing Discord admin"...wow... now there's a new insult. I'll admit I thought you'd be wearing a player hat or, judging from the small display, a pork pie until I checked it out in full in the profile and I have to say... we share tastes - that's a top hat, a waxed beard and a trench coat, right? But I have to say I'm slightly depressed by people throwing all dress hats in one kettle and call them Fedoras.. heck the Fedora isn't even all that old... the bowler was invented in the 1840s and it's still around!🙄 Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
Sorry Ash, the top maker of men's hats is now Optimo out of Chicago, also prices well over $1,000 USD. I have several Lock & Co hats, trilby, and flat caps. Out of NYC Worth & Worth is a reasonably priced choice, I have two fedoras, black and brown. The other London hat maker worth looking at is Herbert Johnson, the maker of the original Indiana Jones style fedoras. Keep up the excellent work
I have two Fedoras. One is for cold weather made out of felt, and the Spring/Summer hat made out of straw. Since I live in the States, I went with Stetson
Well now we have to know about the Lodge behind you in your intro! Edit: I have a huge head: 7 7/8 or 62-63. I buy my hats from Smithbilt Hats in Calgary, but I own several Bailey's of Hollywood fedoras and trilbys and their XL and XXL hats fit me well.
I own a palm tree straw fedora made by Stetson. It's waterproof as I'm paranoid about rain because I live in the southern U.S. I'm planning on getting an brown western crossover hat called the Open road for my next hat purchase, but also want a tweed newsboy cap as they look cozy with sweaters
Ash I have been wearing a fedora since I was 18 years old. My first one was given to me by my grandfather he purchased it in 1948. It's a Stetson and is still in good shape after all these years. It does need a new sweatband though. I have some inexpensive ones that I wear that I purchased from orvis. I never fail to get compliments when I wear them. Especially from the ladies which drives my wife crazy 🤣. Cheers Ron
Hi Ash. I'm enjoying these daily short clips. As a lifelong hat wearer I would advise any newcomer to the fedora to plump for a medium brim. It's more dressy and will go well with siuts, overcoats and the like. The broader brim is fine if you're looking for the outdoors Indiana Jones look which is best suited to leather, denim or wax jackets. BTW, Jackson and James make a pretty decent boater for the price.
Oh I should have made this point in my post, but yours is there to redeem it, yes I completely agree, the broader that brim the lesser the dressiness^^ . Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
I bought a homburg on sale from Lock & co to go with evening wear. The quality of the hat is top notched and the crown came uncreased. I don’t care for a pre-creased hat. And chances are I’ll pick up a fedora from Lock & co.
Sounds like a great deal! And remember that with the combination of dampness and heat you can crease or re-crease or even de-crease (😉) any hat made from natural felt. Just recently I talked to a gent I meet on the commute every day who also wears classic menswear about a hat he was wearing I first thought might be a Homburg or some sort of pork pie until I realized that it actually was a creased Bowler to achieve a less formal "Homburg look" while not risking expensive Homburgs at work. Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
Another Great Video. Will it ever stop? Never I hope,as always your videos are educational from a normal person without the commercial hype! Like this video is _sponsored by..._ not interested!
I recently got a couple of fedoras from Amazon. The latest style fedora has a stiff and flat brim which I think looks very good. A bit different. I take a size 7.75, so my head is rather large also.
First comment! Great video Ash. I am planning on going out and search for a good fedora hat. I will take my time and not rush. I want to be happy with my purchase.
I like my Stetson, mostly the temple fedora. I struggle to find any vintage hat that fits my head since everybody back then had smaller head. Our heads got bigger but our brains didn’t. I sure hats back then are probably more higher quality then modern hats but I find Stetson( made in USA ones)to be still good although I don’t like that they comes with feather detail which I took them off my fedora and bowler for a more classic look but I did leave the hat pin in which I find to a cool detail. If I were ever in London I would like to visit lock & co just to try that head measuring device.
Ah, the Fedora - that's the hat I started with decades ago. I'd advice against staring out with the "Indy look" brown Fedora (of any manufacturer, I own one of course - but it was number four fedora) because it limits you to a "less dressy" use. I'd say start with a grey one, it's the most versatile and I'd advice, depending on availability and preferences, a Mayser or a Stetson Fedora, they offer the greatest range in price and material (if you are willing to go from ~100£/€/$ up [very roughly equal]) as well as size, a good friend of mine has a hat size of 64 (my own changed from 58 to 57 courtesy of a lorry at 50km/h - bang! - smaller hat size!🤣) and managed to get a Mayser Panama that large. I'd also advice starting out with wool felt which offers the best balance between natural material, toughness, isolation (it's pretty water resistant *if* treated) and look. If you feel spiffy you could go with the vastly more expensive (beaver) fur felt which I personally have (for the most part) reserved for Homburgs and the one light grey top hat I own. By all means avoid *any* felt that's from artificial fibre - it's for carnival costumes and will generally look *abysmal* on *anyone* . Keep in mind that there also are many, honestly, *crappy* kinds of wool felt, so I'd keep to a known manufacturer. Oh and I'd avoid black Fedoras for a couple of hats until you feel you need one for an occasion because to me the Fedora isn't actually sufficiently formal enough for most instances you'd wear a black hat with a dark suit, only a funeral comes to mind, as well as the fact that you might be mistaken (by the underinformed...🙄) for an orthodox Ashkenazim or a fan of "goth-look". (Ironically the first Fedora I was given as a present at the ripe age of 15 [a Mayser Athos and it's still kicking 20 years of wear later^^] was a black one, but back then I was a pretty close to the whole goth scene anyway so it was appropriate.^^) Have fun getting the hat Ian! Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
Hi Ash, Chaps I actually own a Fedora. I bought it to go with my Indiana Jones impression. However, it isn't tal enough in the crown for accuracy. I cannot, unfortunately, stretch to the price of a Poet hat which is much taller in the crown. I have seldom worn my fedora, but it's there when I need it. *salutes
No mention of Christy's of London? I was able to get one for $25 ner over here on clearance, in a nice grey, sadly no brown ones in my size. I suggest going cheap in the style you desire for your first hat so you can see if it is for you. Another good idea if you are unsure is to wear it in the house, you'll get used to seeing yourself in one in the mirror and may grow to like it. it can be quite the step up if all you've ever worn is basemall caps.
I am blessed by having an excellent hat shop(s) in the Boston Massachusetts area, SALMAGUNDI (they actually have TWO shops, I will place their info below). I have purchased several hats there, including three Fedoras. There are a few other excellent hat shops in the area. The measuring device is called a 'conformiteur', and is used mostly for custom shaping of a hat. It uses a number of small parts that are adjusted to fit your head, and that is transferred (by way of punches) to a stiff paper card. Thus, if you have a preferred hatter, they can find the correct hat block and shape a hat to your requirements. I myself have a very large head, over 59 CM, or in USA size 7-3/4 or 7-7/8. I have an additional requirement, as I am one of those square-headed types, so a more common round/oval hat shape will ride on front and rear, but leave space on the sides. This adjustment can be accommodated by inserting pads inside the interior hat band. A good hatter can also do cleaning and adjustments to requirements, and can change bands, reshape, reline, apply edge ribbon and even trim the edges for a smaller brim. Which reminds me, I need my brown bowler reshaped a bit... I suggest a book called THE BRIM AND THE CROWN, "A Field Guide to Custom Hatters in the US and Abroad", by Mark Elliott. It covers replicas ( hats from film, stage and screen), women-owned hatters, Panamas, period accurate caps and berets, re-enactor/living history headgear, "hats you won' find just anywhere", international hatters, even hat making workshops and classes. Should you find a hatter that is not included in the book, I recommend you contact the author to get it included in subsequent editions. My only criticism is it lacks an index, but I am currently typing up one to send Mr. Elliott. salmagundiboston.com IIRC Trilby and Fedora were the names of characters in stage plays, and the hats were named for the roles that WOMEN played and wore those styles.
