Club Obi Wan

This is from a fedora at least 20 years old, possibly even vintage?

Does anyone recognise the makers label inside -Designer Collection?



Thanks

Al

Not much of a help, but it sounds very Department Store-ish.

Yup. It's the Bollman Designer Collection, from the Bollman Hat company. I bought two in 1984. They seemed to appear just as Temple of Doom came out. I still have mine and they are in pretty good shape. One is a light brown and says "Lost Ark" in gold on the sweatband, which makes it pretty obvious that they are related to the films. The other is a chocolate brown, but has no gold title or text. They have a surprisingly high crown when pushed out, about 5.5", except this is lost a bit since they have a tear drop top, which makes them about 4.5" high. I wanted to get some more but I can't find them anywhere and believe me I have scowered the net. The wool felt is pretty stiff and like I said, mine look pretty good for their age. I found them at "Chess King", (Yikes!), Remember that store anyone? Anyone born before the 80's anyways...

Michael B

Ah, Chess King! Yes, my friends always shopped there but I was never "hip" enough because I bought my clothes elsewhere!

If you wanted to look like Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice that was the place to go.

I too had one of those hats......I recall that the one I had did not have a lot of stiffener in the crown, and was easily popped out from a C-crown to a nice center dent......sure wish I hadn't let the dog eat it..........

michaelb wrote:Yup. It's the Bollman Designer Collection, from the Bollman Hat company. I bought two in 1984. They seemed to appear just as Temple of Doom came out. I still have mine and they are in pretty good shape. One is a light brown and says "Lost Ark" in gold on the sweatband, which makes it pretty obvious that they are related to the films. The other is a chocolate brown, but has no gold title or text. They have a surprisingly high crown when pushed out, about 5.5", except this is lost a bit since they have a tear drop top, which makes them about 4.5" high. I wanted to get some more but I can't find them anywhere and believe me I have scowered the net. The wool felt is pretty stiff and like I said, mine look pretty good for their age. I found them at "Chess King", (Yikes!), Remember that store anyone? Anyone born before the 80's anyways...

Michael B

That's very interesting information! It's the first I've heard of these hats, particularly the Indy connection with 'Lost Ark' in the sweatband! The 5.5" open crown hight sounds about right - the pics I've seen look to have a fairly deep centre dent.

Michael, as we chatted about via PM it would be great to see some pics of your hats and please, a shot inside of the sweatband and lining too would be great. I will be interested to see if bound brim versions were available too.

Does anyone else here own one of these lids?

Regards

Al

Yes the Indy connection was very interesting, but not surprising since, like I said the movie was just released, or about to be, and my friend and I spotted them right away. We made the connection, but the "Lost Ark" was pretty much a dead give-away.

No center dent on mine, tear drop, or C crown, on both.

I have the hats at work and a girl who works here brought in her digital camera so pics should be available before the end of the day. But BEWARE... After a few months sitting next to my Herbert Johnson, I think they have tapered even more, just in shame... Once I get my Adventurebilt I think they will just crumble into dust.

Also, I have never seen a bound brim on any of these... As far as I can remember...

Michael B

Here's a pic I found online of a fedora by the same maker - Bollman.



The straight-sided crown has a definate Indy look to it IMO - however, the edge of the brim is bound, as you can see.

I wonder if Bollman tweaked the design to offer an unbound (sic?) edge as they jumped on the Indy bandwagon with their 'Lost Ark' version?:-k

Boll was making this hat just prior to the release of Temple of Doom. I owned one, and it was a decent hat for just running around in...but not anything to write home about. The edge is not really bound as we know it. It does/did have a sewn edge with the felt turned over on itself to give it that impression.

Regards! Michaelson

Thanks for the info Michaelson.

These are wool-felt, I take it? Did your hat have 'Lost Ark' on the sweatband like michaelb's?

Michaelson wrote:The edge is not really bound as we know it. It does/did have a sewn edge with the felt turned over on itself to give it that impression.

I thought that was the definition of a 'bound edge'. If it's not, what is a bound edge really? I have a Robert Hall fedora that had a fabric rim (since removed) that matched the hat band sewn over the edge of the brim. Is that a 'true' bound edge?

Snakewhip_Sable wrote: I thought that was the definition of a 'bound edge'. If it's not, what is a bound edge really? I have a Robert Hall fedora that had a fabric rim (since removed) that matched the hat band sewn over the edge of the brim. Is that a 'true' bound edge?

Yes, that's a true bound edge.

Hello!

Here are the pics of the 2 hats. The lighter brown (top 4) "Lost Ark" fedora origonally came with a similar colored ribbon, but I replaced that with an "Official" Indiana Jones Fedora ribbon because I thought that looked more accurate, and I never liked the "Official" hat. Not a bad ribbon job, considering I was 17 in 1984 and long before IndyGear! The last 4 images are the darker brown Bollman version. Anyways, these were my first Indy hats. Still holding up after 22 years, although nothing like my HJ or Akubra. I am thinking about putting them on eBay, but don't know if I should part with them considering their condition and mostly for nostalgia's sake...

Enjoy!

Michael B

I think one of my friends has that Lost Ark hat. Is a "Dorfmanesque" hat?

I think its wool felt, so probably. I kinda like it, though.

Indiana,

I also had one of these "Lost Ark" hats over 20 years ago. I worked in a costume store in Hollywood and had it ordered for me. We used to deal with the Golden Gate Hat Company a lot.

I got rid of this hat when I bought my first HJ in '87.

~Ron