Club Obi Wan

A week ago i went to a large shopping center wearing my Fed. And keep in mind fedora in Russia is something out of this world. There are some people her who wear cowboy hats but fedora?
I had a lot of impressed looks, and no remarks whatsoever. One girl even winked at me.
I guess it is in additude, if you feel comfortable wearing a hat then it looks great and organic, but if you are shy of your image in fedora, then nothing can help you.

I spent the last week of Nov and the first week of Dec at Disney World. I wore my fedora every day, and most days my Todd's Standard. A few cast members referred to me as Dr. Jones, all in good sport of course. Those members of the public who commented on my attire were all positive! A few asked where they could get a fedora like mine. All and all I think none should fear to sport their fedoras on a regular basis! Me? I've been wearing fedoras since the 1970's and have a hat on every day!

I'm one to wear what I want to wear, and will do so. Still, I can't help but wondering if people genuinely think it is a nice hat, or are making fun of me, or both. Either way, I'm still going to wear the hat, but I think that no matter how much we think they are complimenting us, they really are also making fun of us, which is fine with me.

I wear a hat except at work from newsboys to fedoras and cowboy hats. I like hats. I collect them, I wear them and enjoy them.

I usually wear what we call here in Boston a scully cap, what many call an Irish tweed, but often switch to one of my 3 fedoras. I was just thinking that when I first got the scully, I got plenty of comments, but now I don't get them anymore at all. Maybe I'm just not listening anymore.

I constantly get either compliments or those tell tale looks that those around me like my hats.. But even if they didn't I could care less.

The funniest instances from the last few weeks:

I was grocery shopping while wearing my Keppler and a little girl saw me pointed and started going "yee haww yee haww" he dad said something to her about it being the wrong type of hat.

And 2 days ago, I was getting out of my suv when the mailman came up and handed me my mail calling me Indiana Jones. I think it was the first time he saw me in it.

I really enjoy being a bit out of step with the other "fedoras" you see.. those straw or wool stingy brim junky ones. And you get many compliments from older men, probably thinking how folks don't wear hats anymore.

Randy

you know.....I'm so used to wearing mine now, I don't even look for "looks"

Hey All,

I used to wear a Greek fisherman's cap, and people would always ask me, "Say, do you own a boat?" So I started replying, "Say, do you own a baseball team?" because they often had on caps (you know the ones, they have those one size fits all plastic thingies in the back) with sports logos or fertilizer companies or whatever. It made them think.

Dan S

I do get anoyed by the thousanth time someone says hey look its Indiana Jones (though one kid at my moms school is convinced that I am). Last night at downtown disney I went with my brother and his best friend and we all were wearing Indy hats and we got some interesting looks, one person said something to the effect of "Dr. Jones" three times. One person even asked if we were going to see watchmen. So I can understand how you feel especialy when you cant tell if someone is making fun of you or not or points out the obvious AGAIN.

darthbish wrote:you know.....I'm so used to wearing mine now, I don't even look for "looks"

Sometimes they're so obvious you see them even if you're not looking.

R

In the United States you tend to see more fedoras being worn on a day to day basis than you might see in the U.K.
I've been an owner now for about nine months and it's taken alot of courage to wear my lid in public, nothing to do with Indy mickey taking but nowadays in England you simply don't often see men sporting hats,
especially a fine felt fedora.
At the end of the 1940's many of the classic European styles were successfully adopted by people in the U.S. and over the years that identity has remained to a degree. I'm affraid that in England you will only see this type of attire in certain areas.
These days members of the general population seem to prefer spending £150 on a pair of plastic sport shoes made in some far eastern sweat shop than a pair of hand made leather shoes of the classic style, so when they see someone wearing a beautifully crafted hat, it's the equal to seeing someone walking down the street butt naked.
Maybe one day things will change, if there are enough of us buying and wearing the classic styles.
Cheers,
JTW.

darthbish wrote:you know.....I'm so used to wearing mine now, I don't even look for "looks"

Good on ya mate! THAT'S the attitude!

at this point in time, the public would feel weird if i ever went out without my fedora ;-)

I have to agree about hats in general in the UK. I work with BT so I've been over there several times to work for weeks at a time, and I've noticed that nobody wears hats, even baseball caps (obviously), and I also noticed that men don't wear tshirts under their dress shirts like many of us do here in the US.

maboot38 wrote: and I also noticed that men don't wear tshirts under their dress shirts like many of us do here in the US.

They must have watched "It Happened One Night"

Randy

These days it's a head turner just to see someone wearing a half decent suit.
My wife jokes with me, when I'm chosing my clothes in the morning, she says "Just put your hand in the closet and pick anything, you'll still be the best dressed man on view".
JTW.

jones the whip wrote:These days it's a head turner just to see someone wearing a half decent suit.
My wife jokes with me, when I'm chosing my clothes in the morning, she says "Just put your hand in the closet and pick anything, you'll still be the best dressed man on view".
JTW.

This put a smile on my face, because this is very much what happens to me, too, when looking for the appropriate combination of shirt, necktie (or bowtie), jacket (sports suit jackets mostly) and hat. And I only wear suits occasionally - would wear them more had I more chance.

Wear the hat, don't let the hat wear you.

s.

Indeed. It's been repeated many times around here but is very true.

R

There's no way at all I feel embarassed about wearing any of my gear in public, my hat is literally on my head from the time I wake up until I go to bed. I go to school alot in full gear, and it's surprisingly accepted by the majority of the other students, I havn't had anyone make fun of me or anything, and I'm not a loner either. I wear full gear around town alot, usually what I hear or see the most is father leaning down telling their little boys to look and Indy, or people will say "hello Dr.Jones" or something along those lines, I've even had quite a bit of female attention with me gear ;-)

But I do not dress in my gear to impress anyone, ro to get any attention, I dress like it because I love the style, I love the way my favorite hero dresses, I tihnk it looks fantastic and I love to wear it.

Indiana G wrote:at this point in time, the public would feel weird if i ever went out without my fedora ;-)

Thats me as well. If people saw me without a hat. they would ask if I'm alright or feeling sick.

Never had anybody locally say anything. But I have a two-fold reputation:
1) I'm the town clown (like the class clown, but a grown up)

2) I have been in the martial arts since 1990.

So either people look at me and think Yep. He's a goofball.
OR
Yep. He's a goofball.

I wear my Fed IV Deluxe to work, and my co-workers always crack wise when I walk down the aisle. I'm a software engineer at a gaming company so we've got a pretty loose atmosphere. One of my cubemates always says "Dr. Jones! Dr. Jones!" in a poor imitation accent. They do it all in good fun so I just play along.

In public, I notice people give me smirks from time to time, but I never let it get to me. I enjoy the look of a nice hat, which seems to have been lost by most of our society over time. I think I was born in the wrong generation with my tastes.

As an aside, I was wearing an Indiana Jones T-shirt this past weekend with his hat and whip on it. I asked my two and a half year old what was on my shirt. He responded that it was a hat to which I said, "It's Indiana Jones hat." He then countered with, "No! That daddy hat." Pretty sweet.

basilbakerst

basilbakerst wrote: I think I was born in the wrong generation with my tastes.

Oh yeah brother, I empathize with you there!

Mike

WORD!

It is so sad that people care more about looking "cool" than looking good, and not realizing that you can do both. I can't get over how people associate Fedoras with the likes of Kevin Federline or Justin Timberlake, as if they are the only people ever to wear a bashed lid!

maboot38 wrote: I can't get over how people associate Fedoras with the likes of Kevin Federline or Justin Timberlake, as if they are the only people ever to wear a bashed lid!

Who?

Guess I'm showing my age and my lack of contact with "pop culture."

No, "who?" is exactly right. Justin Timberlake is a singer/dancer/actor, and Keven Federline is Brittney Spears ex-husband. Of all people to associate fedoras with......

....I just don't get it.

I don't have a choice when it comes to attire at work, its business and thats that, shirt and tie, and generally conservative. I have several hats that i pick off the shelf that morning, whatever hits my mood right. I feel naked without a lid on my head, and find myself often looking for it when i don't have it with me, which is rare, but it does happen.

I have never had anything but compliments from people at work about the hats, and most people are mostly curious about the hats. They're an older crowd and like i mentioned in another post they're law enforcment and its not like others don't wear them.

Plus here in DC there is a great deal of men that wear hats, not just fedoras, but babushkas (Russian fur hat) and porkpies and so on. I guess if you're the only guy or gal wearing one you really stickout because its not a common sight. But never fear there are many a hat lover still left on this planet, look at all of the people who congregate here or at the Fedora lounge.

The only thing I dont like about wearing my Fedora? Musses up my hair. I cant take the thing off unless I can comb my hair. I wonder if this is why most men wore hair wax and a hat, because it kept the hair still.

Shave it all off already Joyce. Experience the joy of leather and felt on your freshly shorn dome, there's nothing like it. Take it from me.

I have a hair style just like Indy's and my hat never usually messes it up too bad, sometimes it just messes up the part or pulls it back where it kind of looks like Mutts hair but I can easily fix that. ;-)

I don't mind it at all when I hear Indiana jones comments about my hats and my leather jacket. I welcome them.

Like one day here at my horse ranch, when two stallions broke the fence to their part of the field and were chasing after one of our customers mares. to make a long story short, i had to step in front of two charging stallions and crack my whip a couple of times to get them away long enough to get the mare out of there. for a while after that the customers were calling me either indy, or indiana jones. they don't say it so often anymore, but anytime i have to do something similiar to that, is when the comments get started again.

other than that, my hats aren't noticed so much. its more when i don't wear them that people usually say something

BendingOak wrote:

Indiana G wrote:at this point in time, the public would feel weird if i ever went out without my fedora ;-)

Thats me as well. If people saw me without a hat. they would ask if I'm alright or feeling sick.

I was out to dinner with a group of friends last week and I happened to not put on a hat before I left. I did it purposely...you know...so that my scalp can breath...for the first time in months. Anyway, a friend of mine looked at me and said "Dave, whats wrong with you, you look so serious." Mind you, I'd been myself, laughing and craking jokes. When I pointed that out, she said "Yeah. Its your hat, man. Its throwing me off." Its crazy how people identify me with the hat.

An even better story. Yesterday, I wore a black Bailey's that my best friend gave me. Its got a crown that I think is just too small and a crown that is just too narrow. I usually wear somethig similar to the Indy specs. Someone asked me "Why aren't you wearing your hat?" I responded with a " " and pointed to the hat on my head. They then said "Yeah, but that doesn't count, where are your usual hats?"

Dave

lazarus_arkane wrote:i had to step in front of two charging stallions and crack my whip a couple of times to get them away long enough to get the mare out of there.

Did it look something similar to Mississippi jumping in front of the bad guy's horses in El Dorado?

Cool story, sounds like an exciting time!

Randy

i'm not sure what it looked like, all i could think about was hoping the whip would be enough to get them to run in the other direction and not run over me.

I've been away from COW for awhile as winter and family issues got in the way. It's been too cold to wear my fedoras here in Chicago but of late I've put them on again and in the past few weeks (finally) got two comments, both positive.

The first one was regarding the Akubra Carbon Grey FedIV I wore with my "formal" wear to a large corporate "holiday" party in mid-January. A guy spotted me picking it up at the coat-check at the end of the night and said, "Wow, that's a nice fedora." and asked where I'd gotten it.

The second comment came today as I was leaving for lunch and a man in the elevator remarked how cool my Keppler was. I explained where Id gotten it and he was so interested that he asked me to send him info on how to find Indy gear. and he said that he thought the style captured to Indy look perfectly (good job, Lee).

Now all I need is some comments from those of the feminine persuasion ...

By the way, does anyone know what's up with Lee's long-down website?

I wear my Federation to university pretty much all the time. There are a couple of moments when I feel a little self-conscious about wearing the thing, especially when I enter a lecture hall full of twenty-something, hatless, appallingly dressed students. (I won't go into a rant about modern fashion, you won't get me to stop!)

I've had about four (yes, I count them!) compliments about the hat in the nearly five years I've owned it. I am related, in some way shape or form, to two or three of them. I've had one derogatory remark, where a twenty-something guy (drunk at the time) cite the hat as Exhibit A to prove that I was a homosexual (that's not the word he used, so I'll leave it up to you to work it out). Mostly though, I've had silent looks of "what the h--l are you wearing on your head?"-kind of looks.

(Pretty weird, if you ask me. They're Australians, I'm Australian. Akubras are a national icon. You think that they would have some pride in an Aussie wearing a national symbol on his head!)

No real problem, though. It's a beautiful, excellent hat, and I will continue to wear it. Which reminds me, it's back to campus next Monday!

Mostly I don't feel weird. I've gotten compliments and also some negative reactions, but strangely enough they all feature the words "cowboy hat"

Regards, Geert

i continue to wear my dorfman fedora everywhere i go --- i went to the local drug store last weekeand and had my baseball cap on and the girl at the counter asked "no hat today?" i i smiled and replied " no just my indy baseball cap" she laughed and said she likes to see me in my hat, now if i was 10 yr younger and not married ...

You'll get used to it. But it takes longer for the bullwhip...

I occsionally get sarky comments, but they are usually from people whose opinions I couldn't care less about.

Hello - this is my first post.

I don't feel weird wearing a fedora in public or to work. And, because of my age (60) and salt & pepper shoulder length pony tailed hair and matching beard, I've been called "Monet", "Arlo" or "Neil" more than "Indy", and it's always with a smile or a wave.
I didn't buy a fedora because of Indy Jones, but to replace a hat I wore just about constantly this past summer. This fall I picked up a DP wool felt fedora from Delmonico Hatters to replace my well worn Tilley TM10. It was cheap, and I could take the Indy pin off.

Searching the Internet for the care and feeding of a felt fedora lead me to here and several other hat boards, where I have learned more than I could have hoped! I'm hoping to buy a Federation IV in the near future. I don't have any other Indy gear, but I still enjoy being here, and I would say that if you like wearing the hat (or any of the other gear) then do it...and don't worry what people think; they're probably just jealous!!
Mike

mikey517 wrote: I didn't buy a fedora because of Indy Jones, but to replace a hat I wore just about constantly this past summer. This fall I picked up a DP wool felt fedora from Delmonico Hatters to replace my well worn Tilley TM10. It was cheap, and I could take the Indy pin off.

Welcome aboard, Mike! Is that by chance Del Monico Hatters in New Haven, CT? I got a brown Stetson Sovereign fedora from them about 6 years ago while at school there that I wore until it tapered quite bad. Their service was top notch.

best wishes,
Nebraska Schulte

For anyone who might feel a little shy about wearing a fedora in public... here's something a bit more unusual. Yes, I wore this all day. Today. Running errands.

Is that by chance Del Monico Hatters in New Haven, CT?

Yup..that's the one. Did it online and couldn't be happier. The DP accomplished it's mission; an inexpensive way to learn if I liked wearing a more "formal" hat, and I do.

I have to admit that since hanging here and at other hat forums, I've become addicted. Along with the Fed, I'm also shopping for a newsboy cap.

Thanks for the warm welcome and all the great information here...

regards / Mike

mikey517 wrote:I have to admit that since hanging here and at other hat forums, I've become addicted. Along with the Fed, I'm also shopping for a newsboy cap.

The best newsboys for the money that I've found (so far) are from Hat People (in the U.S.) and Hanna (in Ireland). The exchange rate right now has the Hanna's only a little more expensive than Hat People. Hat People have no snap on the brim, but Hanna does.

Welcome to the madness!

an excellent cure to such awkwardness is to wear a dearstalker about town for one day. After that the fedora will feel like an old friend!

Russian Raider wrote:fedora in Russia is something out of this world

Man that old Akubra was tapered.

Indy35 wrote: Plus here in DC there is a great deal of men that wear hats, not just fedoras, but babushkas (Russian fur hat).

Hah, you made my day. I never laughed so hard. It is not babushkas (which means granma) it is ushanka (goes from word ushi - ears).

VP oh man, fantastic pic!