Fedora? Trilby? Homburg? Porkpie? Rancher?

[labricoleuse]

Terms for men's late 19th and 20th century hats can be confusing.

I mean, everybody knows what a top hat looks like, with its tall cylindrical crown and proportionally-narrower brim, and most people can identify the dome-crown/curly-brim shape of a bowler or derby. But all those pinched and divoted and dented hats...folks don't know what to call them! By default, it seems like the average person calls anything with a creased or pinched or divoted crown and a narrow brim a "fedora," and if it has a wide brim, a "cowboy hat." There's nothing really wrong with that, i guess, but i'm big on vocabulary and using specific rather than general terms; why just call it a cowboy hat, when you could more accurately describe it and differentiate whether it's a Rancher or a Cattleman? :)

I've recently reblocked a couple of fedoras for All My Sons, the show we've got going up Saturday, and thought, "I should write about this." Then, i bought a beautiful brand-new pinch-crown block on eBay from the vendor millineryezone, and that clinched it, hence this post.


These two pinch-crown hat blocks belong to my former student, Randy Handley (handyhatter).
The device in the middle is a pinch-tolliker Randy made from Wonderflex thermoplastic,
to help block the deep undercut pinches on the left-hand block.


An array of several pinch-crown blocks.
The 2nd from the right is a Poly-Block in the Pilbara style,
with a polymer clay press made by a former student/colleague, B. Daniel Weger.


Thumbnail of the character Jim Bayliss by Costume Designer Junghyun Georgia Lee.

This is the hat i had to make for work. We found a good felt hat in our stockroom that was a great color and brim width, but the crown had a Cattleman crease, which was definitely totally super-wrong. I reblocked the nice-colored Cattleman on the "Pilbara" poly block, and it turned out perfect. Here's the results, awaiting hatband confirmation:


Cattleman-turned-fedora, front view.


Reblocked hat, side view.


So, what are some other names for pinched and divot-crowned hats?

If you'd like to pull away from the current trend of just calling any pinch-crown hat with brim less than 3" wide a "fedora," whether it is or not, read up on the trilby and the homburg, two similar styles. Another popular variation is the pork-pie, so named because its signature crown-divot resembles the top of a pork pie. And Dave Brown's site has an excellent visual overview of all the types of Western crown and brim variations.

Want to quiz yourself? This 1918 street scene has a great array--i spy some peaked hats, a fedora, a homburg, a bowler, and maybe a trilby, too...!

And, I'd be remiss if i didn't highly recommend two great sources for new hatblocking tools, should you be interested in amassing the equipment to block felt and straw hats in these shapes:

• millineryezone's beautiful hat blocks, and
  
• Mark DeCou's band blocks, rounding jacks, and other hatblocking tools.

Both these woodworkers create top-quality hatmaking tools for the modern milliner/hatter, and both clearly work closely with accomplished hatblocking professionals to produce functional, durable, beautiful pieces that are invaluable additions to your studio!

Comments

[juniper200.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this! I'm going to spread these links around; I'm about to the point where I'm going to go on a killing spree the next time some douche tells me his trilby is a fedora.