Sunday 1 April 2012

Cats in Hats

Now, I thought I knew hats, but a quick blog about the differences between certain types have hat has turned into an education.  Firstly, here's a pic of what we sell...


Pretty impressive if we say so ourselves with caps, trilbys, fedoras, pork-pies, homburgs all ready to go.  So, whats the differences between all these?  Caps can have a blog all to themselves but what makes a trilby a trilby and a homburg a homburg?
Firstly, they're both fedoras. I'd always thought that a fedora was a wide-brimmed felt hat with a pinched front, as expertly modelled by Paul Simenon of The Clash


But it seems that, technically at least, fedora is a generic term for any hat of this basic shape so trilbys and homburgs are fedoras of a particular style.
Homburgs are the more formal solid hats with a fixed brim and a centre dent, occasionally called a 'Godfather' hat and here's why....

Not for the faint-hearted these as its harder to counteract the size and formality with the right clothes and attitude, much easier is the trilby, easily the most common hat around today. For those poor souls not brave enough to wear vintage there are plenty of cheap (and not always nasty) copies in Topshop and Primark.  For a masterclass in how to wear a trilby, or pretty much any hat, just look to the master, ol' blue eyes


And for those taking it to the next level, the pork-pie hat with its short brim and flat top,  beloved of jazz dancers, rudeboys and immortalised by Gene Hackman as 'popeye' Doyle


The key to all these, of course, is to wear with confidence and never forget that 'jaunty' angle.
Lastly, it's not just men that aren't wearing enough hats, don't forget that a masculine hat can look stunning on a woman too. Here's Faye Dunaway (who defined wearing a beret in Bonnie & Clyde) in funky, floppy fedora.




Heres a great site dedicated to hats for any wanting to delve deeper....Headstart