Cowboy Hats and More

For all of the older gentlemen out there who are looking for a way to feel young again, here are a few holiday gift ideas designed to make them look or feel like the years haven’t taken their toll.

~Custom Fedora Hats – feel like Indiana Jones or Eliot Ness with the classic fedora hat, soon they’ll want a bull whip or a stiff drink to go with it! 

~IPod Touch – these simple music and media devices are great for people of all ages.  With a touch screen, it’s easy to figure out what you want to do, most of the interface is just touch-and-go.

~Multi-Tools – having the latest and coolest multi tool for jobs around the house, camping, or opening a sealed package makes a guy feel valued.

When you want to step out on the town you have several choices.
First find your personal style and then pick your hat.

- Humphrey Bogart and Indiana Jones: The Fedora:
Made of warm felt with a wide brim and a deep indentation in the crown, or top part of the hat.

- Sean Connery or Rex Harrison (very British, very scholarly: The Trilby
Similar to the fedora, but with a narrower brim and more compact shape.

- Alex de Large in A Clockwork Orange: The Derby (a.k.a.  a Bowler)
The derby has a hard felt crown and rounded brim.
Los Angeles’ famous Brown Derby restaurant, built to resemble a giant derby hat.

- Old Florida and the Caribbean relaxed style: The Panama
Made from straw, it is light and breezy enough for tropical climates.
It is also frequently seen worn by salsa, swing, and samba musicians.

- Barbershop Quartets: The Boater
Another straw hat, with a hard shape and silk band around the crown.

- Abraham Lincoln: The Top Hat
A large vertical crown and narrow brim.

Information Provided by Ezine Articles

Movies impact  a wide variety of styles around the world. Whether it’s a hat, a dress or a car, the decision to buy is often impacted by what is seen as cool in the movies. With the release of the first Indiana Jones movie in 1981, the hat industry has never been the same. Instantly the fedora was popularized.

The only thing that has had a greater impact on the hat industry is the realization that hats serve to protect us from skin cancer. Cowboy hats, western hats, outback hats, fedoras or any hat with a brim of at least 2 3/8” meet the requirements set by the American Academy of Dermatology as part of a total sun protection regimen to help prevent skin cancer and premature aging. Now we find out that we can have good looks that are good for us, what could be better? But even that fact has come in to second to the impact of a movie series on fedora sales!

Indy’s hat is such an icon that it is even in the Smithsonian.  Indiana Jones style hats are safari style fedoras with a medium-to-large brim that is turned down in the front and back. This hat style has come to embody the character of the man: strong, adventurous, a bit unconventional and … well, handsome. With a boost from this image, sales of all fedora styles skyrocketed.

Derby’s are one of the most recognized styles of hats in history. It was the first rounded crown hat. Their beginings strectch back to 1850 when the Bowler Family of Southwark (England) designed it for William Coke of Norfolk. In the tradition of the time, the hat was originally named for the person for whom it was designed and, therefore, called a Coke hat. As the hat’s popularity grew, however, it became known as a Bowler hat. In the United States it became known as the “derby hat” and was worn by all classes of tradesmen and artisans. Now there are several varieties of derbies, including the popular Homburg style.

The term fedora is derived from a play by Victorien Sardou.  In the play, a heroine princess named Fedora wore a hat similar to the fedora hat.  The hat was being called fedora in the late nineteenth century, characterized by its front pinched on both sides, its wide brim, and often a hat band.  In the 1920s and 1930s, the hat was thought common to mobsters and gangsters running illegal alcohol and moonshine due to the prohibition.  Modern films like The Untouchables featured several characters wearing fedora style hats, including the main characters of Andy Garcia and Kevin Costner. 

Fedoras are still popular today, though fortunately not often associated with crime or mob activity.

Few hats invoke the same image of suavity and coolness as the fedora. Who didn’t feel a surge of emotion when Indiana Jones peered out from under his trademark brown one, or when Humphrey Bogart quietly wore the hat in a sea of fog? Even Freddy Krueger had enough fashion sense to don one. But the charming hat has been around a lot longer than these World War era icons would lead us to believe.Its roots are planted in an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou titled “Princess Fedora.” The title character wore a hat similar to the modern-day fedora, and lent it her name. The hat gained a stronghold in the early 20th century when it became a favorite accessory among the upper classes, and a staple of many Orthodox Jews. The hat took on another personality when it got involved with Prohibition-era gangsters and detectives, and became a symbol of scoundrels and rogues.
 
But as the century reached the ‘50s and ‘60s and progressed into middle-age, the hat fell out of favor and became a symbol of an older generation. It has been surging back in popularity in recent years, due in part to Hollywood’s use of fedora hats, and partly due to teenage fascination with the trendy felt hat.

Building your own cowboy or Western, fedora, or Outback (Aussie) hat is a special treat for someone who wears a hat often.  Cowboy Hats and More allows you to choose your style and color, give your head measurements, and choose the brim style, crown height, or fabric finish of the hat if applicable.  The inner hat band can also be personalized free of charge if you prefer.

A custom cowboy hat is the perfect way to get a hat that really fits you and suits your style and your needs.  Whether it is a dress hat you need or an everyday hat, Cowboy Hats and More can provide the perfect accent to your ensemble.

In the United States and England, this hat is also known as a derby hat (which, in itself, is derived from a style of outback hats), after Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby, founder in 1780 of the Epsom Derby. The cultural significance in the United States was slightly different. Though certainly not exclusively so, the derby tended to be associated with urban culture, and particularly with the well-to-do that had risen from the working class. Hence, it was often seen on the heads of “machine politicians”, urban Irish-descended “ward heelers” and others, and so often appears in movies, comic books and comic strips of the 1930s and 1940s as a silent signal that the wearer is of this group.

Al Smith, who exemplified the urban Tammany politician of the 1920s, was often seen in his distinctive derby: typically, men’s full-sized derbies are black, but Al Smith always wore a brown derby.

The fedora is a soft felt hat that is creased lengthwise down the crown and pinched in the front on both sides. Similar hats with a C-crown (with an indentation for the head in the top of the crown) are occasionally called fedoras. The term fedora was in use as early as 1891.

Beginning in the 20th century, the fedora came into use as an upper-class clothing accessory. Hats that resemble the soft felt version are often called fedoras even if they are made of straw or twill.

Fedoras did not start to become widespread until the late 1910s. Its popularity soared and eventually it eclipsed the similar-looking Homburg by the 1930s.