My Favorite Costume Hats... · Real Men Real Style Community

My Favorite Costume Hats...

Given the reactions to my previous post on a related topic, I thought I'd make today's post about my personal, favorite costume hats that I wear from time to time.

I have two Stetson Temple Fedoras - modeled after the hats Stetson created for Harrison Ford in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Designed to evoke the feeling of a classic 1930s to 1940s daily-wear hat a university professor might have worn - while perhaps not being entirely historically accurate - this hat provides both the versatility of any, classic Fedora while adding in the "cool" factor of literally being modeled after and named for the hat worn in the iconic film and the film itself.

Of course, despite the fact that this particular model was literally created to be a costume piece, the Temple Fedora isn't my most costume-y hat. That distinction belongs to the next featured hat model: the Trilby.

The story of the Trilby starts in Theatre Royal Haymarket - in Westminster, London - in 1894. That year, the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's novel Trilby debuted. The actress, who played the titular character, wore a custom-made hat made specifically for the character: an extremely stingily brimmed Fedora with a short, creased crown and that distinctive narrow brim that turns up sharply in the back and down just as sharply in the front.

London women quickly flocked to this particular style of hat and, shortly after - in the early 1900s, so did the London men. Then - as now - the style was simply known as "The Trilby."

In modern times, of course, as the popularity of brimmed hats has waned, so has the knowledge of brimmed hat styles. You will often see various styles of stingy-brimmed Fedoras marketed as Trilbys, even if they have a teardrop rather than a creased crown. Still, you'll still - most often, at least - have a very stingy brim and that sharp upturn in the back.

In fact, you'll notice that my two examples of the Trilby each have a technical problem with being called a Trilby. The first (the Carmel by American Hat Makers) has a teardrop crown instead of a creased one. However, the classic stiff turns and stinginess of the brim make up, in my mind, for that small mistake. Likewise, the fourth - a navy houndstooth by Cremieux - features a stingy snap brim, meaning it's technically not a Trilby as it can be worn without the downturn up front. However, since that's the only way I wear it, I've decided to allow it.

What are your favorite costume hats?

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