Felt hats are useful things and I would wear them more often if they were suited for travel in cold climes. Sadly, there is just no infrastructure around for their support. A felt hat placed in an airplane's overhead compartment is unlikely to survive the experience and hat boxes are a lot to lug around (the packable fur Astrakhan has a distinct advantage for winter travel, being formal enough to wear with a suit).
At home, felts are worn principally for shade while driving with the top open as well as to stay dry in a light rain. We do have plenty of rain here in the Bay area, heavy as well as light, and its time is just a month away. Even so, hat wearing is anything but a daily occurrence. Three felts seem to provide enough variety for once or twice a week donning: I rotate a porkpie, a small fedora that was supposed to be a cavalier and a homburg that is looking as though its best days are behind it.
And so I am thinking about a replacement, a lord's hat in black, or midnight blue beaver if Optimo Hat Company has the felt. The lord's hat, a version of the homburg with pinches and an unbound brim, looks like the hat on the right in the Fellow's illustration, one of his better-known works that helped popularize the wearing of a light sweater as a vest under a suit in this country.
The thing about the color is that midnight blue is more handsome in my opinion, but a black hat would better accompany the black and brown herringbone overcoat that Peter Harvey is making for me. On the other hand, the coat is too heavy to wear in California, and there is that question as to whether the hat would accompany us on trips (the coat and I, that is).
It remains a matter to be resolved.
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As a compromise between navy and black, how about charcoal grey? More versatile than stark black, but would go with the black/brown overcoat better than navy?
Dear Will,
You might see if a Borsalino Alessandra appeals to you. It's an unlined felt fedora, which makes it warm enough for any Bay Area winter,
but cooler, lighter, and more crushable than a lined hat.
Will, could you recommend or otherwise advice us to the best material or make for a truly travel-worthy hat? Must it be beaver, or nothing at all? I ask because of the often prohibitive price of beaver hats (speaking as an educator) as well as the generally more conservative styles of those better quality hats I have seen. (Speaking as a younger person, I am reasonably sure that I am not the main market for such hats, given the price point.)
Is there a way to have it all? Good for travel as well as less conservatively styled? I recall something vague about roll-up hats, but I cannot recall the material.
A good hat for travelling is Lock's Voyager, a medium brim Trilby that I bought with a tube as hat box for travelling, similar to the tube I am using for my Panama hats. The Voyager is soft felted, can be folded and rolled like a Panama and put into the tube. The tube is included in the price of Lock & Co. A Trilby is traditionally associated with country horse racing, but the navy, dark grey and black versions are wearable in town. The softness of the felt means that the hat is occasionally not keeping its shape as it should, but apart from very formal occasions I can cope with that.
I have a bit of experience traveling with proper hats, as I do wear one every day.
I have an unlined rabbit felt fedora with a matching ribbon. It is crushable/rollable, and has gone into suitcases. It needs steaming to be wearable after packing, but once it has been steamed, it looks great. It is, however, more casual than I prefer.
I have also traveled with proper fedoras (i.e., lined and comparatively rigid). Pace Will, I have had them survive overhead compartments, but that requires careful placement. The best spot is atop my own stuff in a narrow compartment, such as is found next to bulkheads, but I have also held them in my lap on puddlejumpers with teeny compartments.
Yes, the infrastructure for hats is lacking, but a little perseverance is all you need to make traveling with a proper hat a reality.
Felt hats do get knocked about travelling but that can lend character to them which is why when appropriate I take mine with me. As to color, felt hats should only be in brown or grey and not black or you take the risk of looking like Jack Abramoff. Blue felt hats belong with blue shoes.
If the Duke of Windsor were still alive I would pass on your advice so he could correct himself Joe.
:-)
"If the Duke of Windsor were still alive"
Just because he was fairly good at it doesn't mean you have to be a slavish imitator Will. I don't share his enthusiasm for DB glen check suits or bow ties with DB suits either...unless you want to be mistaken for a bookie.
My point was that for every absolute I can think of there is a well-dressed exception floating around somewehre. I agree with you regarding checked DBs, for example, and disagree re black hats and bow ties with DBs. If I wear to give up the latter, for example, I'd have to stop wearing my DB dinner jacket.
We agree on the main points but not on details again, Joe. One of my daily hats is navy blue, and, if I could find one I liked in a mid-blue, I would definitely add it to the collection.
I agree that a black hat is of limited utility, but a black Hombourg really is the only choice for wearing with a tuxedo, so it could also be pressed into service with a suit, especially when that suit is covered by an overcoat.
My only DB at this point is a semi-sharkskin number with a low gorge, and I cannot imagine wearing a bow tie with it--but I do like some of Will's DBs with bow tie outfits (I'm thinking particularly of the gray chalk stripe with the pink bow tie).
Isn't this variety one of the wonderful things about not dressing like a slob?
I second Richard's recommedation of the Voyager, which I have travelled with frequently over the past couple of years.
The rambler is also a great casual option, though of wool not felt. I prefer it to a cap.
Simon
"I'd have to stop wearing my DB dinner jacket."
"but a black Hombourg really is the only choice for wearing with a tuxedo,"
Will/Horatio:obviously I'm not talking about evening dress. Clearly clothes are a very personal thing and we all do our own thing but personally I have a bit of a horror of overdoing it. If you wear smart clothes you are by definition going to get noticed in a way you wouldn't have 75 years ago so it behooves one to avoid looking "flashy." You yourself Will often make the same point (remember that debate we had about whether the upper body can handle two patterns!). I often "deduct" something when wearing a more formal clothes if it looks too much (on the other hand you can go more crazy with casual clothes). It's personal but I avoid perceived excess which includes garments which are essentially obsolete like I'm sorry to say the Homburg. So no db check suits, bowties with db, bowties with button downs (sorry trads), pocket squares with blazers and blue hats. I'm sure it's all irrational but there it is.
Joe,
That all sounds good. You know what you're comfortable wearing, and I have no doubt we would be impressed with your impeccable, yet subdued, attire.
I choose to wear a hat everyday, because I'm more comfortable that way. I do stand out, of course, but I stand out simply because I wear a necktie. If I'm going to stand out anyway, I may as well do so in a way that makes me comfortable and content. "In for a penny, in for a pound" and all that. Which is not to say anything against your approach, of course.
May I ask why you don't put a pocket square in your blazer pocket? Please don't misconstrue this as an attack or anything silly like that; I'm genuinely curious.
"May I ask why you don't put a pocket square in your blazer pocket? Please don't misconstrue this as an attack or anything silly like that;"
Horatio:No I take all comments in the spirit they're intended. On blazers and pocket squares all I can say is it's all in the mind. Maybe it's because the blazer is derived from military wear. You already have flashy buttons and probably a strong tie with stripes or those devices Will hates and it just seems to much to add a pocket hankerchief. I'm not averse to loudness if it works without looking eccentric (sometimes inc cap five patterns on upper body or a loud scarf with chesterfield or covert coat). But you don't want to end up looking too eccentric because as you point out dressing well is already a mild eccentricity. About three months ago I was having a beer outside a pub just off Jermyn street around five and various suits walked by most of them looking very good (even the ones with Hermes ties!) and then some guy came by who was completely over dressed and the effect wasn't good. Sorry if this went on bit.
Joe,
Thank you for the explanation. Now I know why you think that way.
The other day I went "over the top" by wearing a charcoal gray suit, blue shirt with French cuffs, black Oxford brogues, navy fedora, and my sole pattern: a navy tie with white pindots. It was over the top because I was the only one wearing a tie, much less a suit.
On the other hand, I sometimes go over the top by having five patterns: tweed jacket, patterned shirt, patterned tie, patterned pocket square peeking out (all contrasting patterns, of course), and patterned socks. Yet I'm still overdressed! Yep, you guessed it: it's the tie.
Well, we have chosen this route; let us travel it as best we can, mistakes and all, learning all the while. Thanks again, Joe--and Will.
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