A few questions about hats!

[Fink]

OK, I hope some one here can help me sort this out:

What’s the difference between a fedora and a trilby?
How can you tell them apart from each other?
Witch one is the finest?

On the other hand...

Is Indy’s dad a “bucket hat”?
How old are this hats?
Were are they from?
In 1939s LC who’s more updated or outdated, Henry or Junior?

[WalkingEye]

i've often seen people use fedora and trilby for the same type of hats. whether or not this is correct, i don't know. i think it may be a geographical difference. again i could be wrong...

bucket hats? just think of the kangols that LL cool J wore in the 80's lol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucket_hat

[Fink]

Sorry, I meant “Indy’s dad hat”!!!

[eazybox]

I think Prof. Jones Sr.'s hat is called an Irish Walker.

Jack

[JPdesign]

Yes, jones sr's hat could be either an irish or english walker.

a trilby is a type of fedora. originally worn by the englich to the country races. usually brown, 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 inch brim, raw edge, approx 1 inch ribbon, and generally worn about a half to one size small, so it sits higher on the head, don't know why, one theory is that is started wiith just grabbing dads old hat out of the closet.

That is the original definition for trilby. now days people generally us it as a term for a walker, not knowing any better.

Jimmy

[Fink]

So we should assume wearing a real full size fedora is fancier?
A true old fashion gentleman shouldn’t wear a trilby?

[YARVTON]

Henry Jones, Sr. is certainly meant to be seen as dressed in out-of-fashion or old-fashioned attire. Check Rex Harrison's hat in "My Fair Lady" for another example of that Edwardian country "look". Of course Indy's fedora is a modified classic from the 1890's. But this hat is timeless -- certainly one definition of "classic".

[YARVTON]

Indy's Dad is a Professor and is dressed like the stereotypical "tweedy" Prof. of today. Indy is a guy with more "style" than his father, even though he's also on a university payroll -- part-time, though.

[Long John Tinfoil]

From Fashion & Merchandising Fads by Frank W. Hoffman, William G. Bailey

The trilby is a slightly rumpled fedora accented by a tapered crown. Due to its usually being unlined and constructed of very lightweight felt, the trilby is not as stiff as the traditional fedora. It can me molded into any shape or even rolled up and stuffed into a small pocket.

The name came from George Du Maurier's novel, Trilby, which was dramatized in 1895. The play set into motion an enormous Trilby craze. As a result many things - soaps, taffy, cigars, societies, etc. - were named Trilby. Countless baby girls were christened Trilby, and pets, particularly cats, were named for her hypnotizing husband-mentor, Svengali...

The origin of the hat itself was explained by a reporter for the Bradford Daily Argus in November 1895.

'I have been puzzling my head to account for the reason of so many soft hats being worn at present, and at last hit it. It is another phase of the "Trilby" complaint. In one of the illustrations of the book, "Trilby" wears a hat of this desciption, so it has been seized upon by those worshippers at the shrine of Trilby whom nature will not assist in the cultivation of a Svengali beard.'

The trilby is supposed to have a deeper psychological significance as well. Historian James Laver attributed a sexual symbolism to men's hats, noting that men have worn high hats during periods of male dominance whereas:

'With the advent of the New Woman in the 1880s many men adopted the boater, which might be thought of as a very truncated top hat. And toward the end of the century men began to wear, so to speak, the very symbol of their bashed-in authority: the trilby hat.'

Others have stuck to a more aesthetic perspective regarding the hat's virtues. "The trilby is the most expressive hat a man can wear. It can be jaunty, sedate, or sporty," noted Arthur Grodd of Paul Stuart, which had continued to sell hundreds of trilbies annually through the late 1980's.

[YARVTON]

All Trilbies are Fedoras, though not all Fedoras are Trilbies.

[MustangLoverMex]

"To be or not to be... That's the question"...

[binkmeisterRick]

All Trilbies are Fedoras, though not all Fedoras are Trilbies.

That's the "Trouble with Trilbies."

[Fink]

So saying my trilbie isn’t a trilbie a hundred times won’t make it a fedora?

Not that I really have any, right?