Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Indiana Mouse

I bought a hat the other day. May not seem so strange, I know, but I'm not your typical hat wearing guy. I have a thing for watches. If I had lots of money, I would have the coolest watch collection. In my guy world the rules dictate that guys can only wear certain pieces of jewellery. A watch, a wedding ring and cufflinks. Necklaces, earrings and such belong to the ladies.

Or pirates like Captain Sparrow. But I neither look like Johnny Depp, nor troll the seas in the Black Pearl.

Anyway, hats. Yes, I bought a hat! A grey (they called it mid-grey) Akubra Stylemaster. Now, along with not being a hat guy I'm not an afficionado either. But researching (yes, I researched the purchase) has revealed that the name fedora was taken from a play (also called Fedora) in which the titular (isn't that a cool word?) character, Princess Fedora, doffed a hat (I refrained from using the word fedora since it wasn't called a fedora back then). The hats are traditionally made of fur felt, there are many fanciful terms like brim, snap, crown. Anyway, after days of research I kind of unconsciously ordered one.


And here it is. This isn't my actual fedora, I think they're still killing the rabbits (apologies to all the PETA people out there). And now, in my mind I am trying to figure out how exactly I'm going to crease that baby. Looks like this one's been creased the traditional way which is straight down the length with the two front pinches. I figure, why buck tradition?

I shall dub thee recession hat. I think it's okay to say it now, recession. People are no longer in denial about it. I'm calling it the recession hat because I imagine this is what the fellows wore back in the Great Depression. Anyway, it will be an interesting experiment because from what I've seen of my research, most of the (fedora) hat wearing public are fat, bald or greying (google Fedora Lounge - not disparaging these fellows in any way because they all seem lovely fellows and are passionate about hats). Except for Jay Kay from Jamiroquai. He's cool. And it seems that the trick to hat wearing is all about confidence. If you feel awkward about wearing a hat, then you'll look awkward. I dunno, I've seen some fellows who look like they're really comfortable with themselves in a hat and yet, they look awkward. But I'm approaching this with gusto. I don't believe I have the right head shape (the top of my head is the shape of a cube) but I'm going to wear it with attitude, damnit. Well, I'd better. It cost me the good part of $100!

I'm trying to convince my friends to buy hats (because this is obviously the up and coming trend for this year) and help revive the trend, but they joked and started calling me Indiana.

Ah well, as long as it's not Princess Fedora.

1 comment:

  1. Your use of brackets makes this very difficult to read. Also this may be the most text ever about a hat you didn't make yourself.

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