Many people may be surprised to learn that the Fedora hat is not a particular kind of hat but a set of characteristics yielding many variations of style. With popular styles ranging from wide-brim gangster hats popularized by the movies of the 1920s to the more contemporary and narrower headgear favored by Frank Sinatra a few decades later, fedora hats were once a wardrobe staple for fashionable gentlemen. Hats are again making a comeback after spending many years in oblivion and fedora hats riding the crest of fashion.
Getting a Grip on the Fedora Hat
The term fedora often describes any kind of felt hat worn by men in contemporary parlance. This kind of generalization reflects on two things. They are the consolidation of hat styles prevalent today and the general decline in the habit of wearing hats. A fedora, also called a snap brim, refers to all kinds of soft felt hats sporting an indented crown. Typically the crown height ranges from four to six inches and the brim width from two to four inches. The crown has a characteristic pinch where the sides and the top of the crown intersect at the front. Fashionable men and women wear fedora hats because they can shape, bend, size, and crease the hats in endless combinations, depending on their preferences.
Important Characteristics of Fedora Hats
You can shape the crown of the fedora hat in innumerable ways. The teardrop crown is the most popular, but the diamond and center crease styles are also common. According to Gentleman’s Gazette, the teardrop crown is also called the C-crown. Other crown styles include the open crown, telescope crown, and cattleman crown. There are many ways of styling the fedora hat brim with different widths, positions, and finishes. You can leave the edge of the brim unfinished after cutting or have it decoratively sewn or trimmed with ribbons of different colors. If you are an enthusiast, you can try looking for a fedora with a Cavanagh edge, which is no longer produced. It is a special felt edging that serves to add strength to the brim without the need for stitching. The most popular way of wearing a fedora is to put the brim down in the front and up at the back.
There is also a large variation in the location and sharpness in the hat’s pinch that allows wearers to project their personality. While today, you can buy fedora hats made from many materials, felt is the most popular. It is a material composed of compressed and matted fibers like wool, cashmere, rabbit fur, etc. It is common for a fedora hat to have a ribbon or strip of fabric sitting just above the brim for decoration. Some hats may even have a feather over the ribbon’s bow for added pizzazz.
Wearing a Fedora Hat – Style Tips
Among the first things you need to decide is the kind of look you want to sport. Innumerable celebrities on and off the silver screen have popularized the fedora hat in their inimitable styles ranging from the gangster look to Johnny Depp’s scruffy look. However, many style experts agree that a black fedora hat looks best when paired with a classic, well-tailored formal suit with a tie. Since you can expect your fedora hat to draw attention to you wherever you go, you should pay close attention to the rest of your attire to boost its impact.
You can ensure that you will look at your best when wearing a fedora if you pair it with a jacket of any kind, be it a suit, a blazer, a sports jacket, or an overcoat. Because the fedora is a formal accessory, you should ideally wear it with a seasonally-appropriate jacket. Unless you deliberately want a gangster look, you should stay away from wearing pinstripe of chalk stripe suits. Instead, try to pair your fedora with classic attire like a vest, double-breasted suits, leather gloves, etc. Even though at one point in time, men used to wear fedoras all the year-round, nowadays it may be better to choose a Panama hat in summer and wear a felt fedora when it is cooler. Even though you may love your Fedora for its classy looks, you need to remember that it is essentially outdoor wear, and you should always take it off when indoors. If you are tempted to wear a pair of sunglasses, think again because you run the risk of overdoing it. If you need to beat the glare, wear a pair of sunglasses and drop the idea of wearing the fedora.
Conclusion
Wearing a fedora should not be a casual decision. Since it is part of classic menswear, you need to make sure that the occasion is ideal for you to wear a hat. Since you may be the only one to wear one, you need to make sure that the rest of the ensemble matches perfectly to make the style statement you want.
