It was just a week ago that I wrote that I needed (wanted?) another felt hat. I was thinking about a creamy silver colored wide brimmed model that had graced the late Duke of Windsor's closet. That did not last long. First, several men more knowledgeable than I told me that the hat I was admiring from a top view appeared to be a silverbelly colored Stetson Open Road. Well, I turned my nose up at that as soon as I saw a photo of an Open Road taken from the side. It is a Western hat and I am not a Western kind of guy. And then about the same time that realization arrived so did a small firestorm about silverbelly.
It turns out you see that silverbelly is not only the light silverish color I admired but also the undyed belly fur of the beaver. The skin, not the color, is the rarest of the rare - so rare that two hatmakers of my acquaintance told me that their supplier told them that the stuff has not existed for 150 years, and Stetson's claim to offer hats made from it was mere marketing hype. Of course, Graham at Optimo Hats in Chicago also claims to offer the felt for his very finest Optimo 1000 hats and he is a pretty credible guy. But hey, I wouldn't know silverbelly if the beaver bit me. I just want the color.
That decided, consideration of the shape remained. And since I knew I wanted a planter's hat in straw, and dimly recalled a photo of Sir Winston Churchill wearing a felt version on holiday on Aristotle Onassis' yacht or somewhere similar, I thought to request a felt planter's (the shape of the hat in the photo but in the aforementioned silverbelly rather than blue) with a bound edge for myself. Of course, it is not a fedora and so not something made every day, but we are closer to the end game now. I will keep you informed.
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3 comments:
That is a very lovelt hat. And, your choice of colour most distinguisged. Let me know if you find someone competant to make it as I would not hesitate to order one myself. The last time I spoke to Stephen Temkin (before he went to Europe), he was not equipped to finish the brim with ribbon. I hope he will be able to soon.
It is interesting that you shied away from the Open Road for being western, but went for the planters hat, which I would associate even stronger with being western.
By the way, the Borsalino Allesandria has the exact same thin ribbon/wide brim set up as the Open Road, and vintage Open Roads take more city/fedora style shapes beautifully and were often advertized as being perfectly applicable east/west.
For a brief moment when I saw only the photo, I thought you had taken upon your head a chapeau worthy of Quentin Crisp.
I'm not certain what the hatters meant when discussing beaver fur and silverbelly. The amount of actual beaver in fur felt hats is a matter of some major, and highly secretive, variation among manufacturers. It used to be that the X denoted the percentage of beaver in the felt mix, and in my grandfather's day a 20X hat was 100% beaver (and of the finest quality that was closest to the skin). Today, as you note for Stetson, it is all marketing- and just as well given human history's ruthless savaging of wildlife for hats and coats. Hat felt is composed of many furs such as beaver, rabbit, mink, hare, and/or chichilla. For the better hat companies one can presume that if the price of one's hat verges towards USD1,000 or even more, then a higher quantity of beaver fur is used in its felted construction.
Silverbelly is the fur closest to the beaver's belly, and is light grey, or silver, color. Today any hat that is not white is called silverbelly. I have a good work Stetson which is just that color. I am not aware that silverbelly ever referred to the beaver's skin.
Stetson's Open Road model was quite popular for gentlemen ranchers and businessmen. You will have seen the pictures U.S. Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Johnson wearing it. Nikita Khrushchev also enjoyed one for himself. I do synpathize if your own head does not quite take after such wearers.
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