Hat Blog

Put on a New Hat and Head Over to the Art Museum

2010-08-06T15:25:07-07:00

Shepard Fairly's work from Viva La Revolucion: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape.

I am not the kind of person who believes he is likely to experience a personal breakthrough by reading the Twilight books. I am concluding as much only by way of Twilight’s reputation, as I have never even seen a copy. I’m assuming that these books are this generation’s Celestine Prophecy, which I did read. The one thing I remember from that book is to concentrate-meditate in fact-on the act of eating your food. Focus your full attention on each bite: the flavor bursting forth, every olfactory nuance, the textures, the sound and feel of your teeth slowly gnashing each parcel of food. Chew very deliberately and appreciate the miracle that is food. Although I experienced no personal breakthrough, I think I lost a few pounds.

As a younger man, when I needed to change things up/to get out of a rut, I would grab my backpack and make my way – usually with my thumb – to a wilderness area. I’m too old for that now; and, anyway, hitchhiking doesn’t cut it these days. So, in need of a new route to clearing my cluttered cranium, I put on a new hat and headed over to “Viva La Revolution”, a new exhibit extolling graffiti’s artistic merits at The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. Before you draw conclusions about how these actions were easy and should not qualify as life-changing, hear me out.

First, the hat: with a brim just shy of four inches, the Dario Panama hat from Jaxon is not inconspicuous. Embracing it as daily wear this spring/summer had intimidated me. I felt very self conscious wearing it. (I was able to don it on vacation where “stretching” from one’s safe zone is easier). Fully accepting this big hat as this summer’s “new me” was a leap.

Next, the art gallery visit: Unfortunately it has come to this, but spontaneously escaping from the tasks and responsibilities of my daily routine is not easy. It’s tantamount to playing hooky. It’s a bit embarrassing to write this; how can it be that I have become such a slave to work?

So, there it is. Putting on a new hat and, outside of my schedule, heading over to the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego did provide me the slightly altered view of my world that I was seeking. I can still hear the skeptics; “This hardly qualifies as an activity having much consequence; too simple.” In fact, it was rather easy to do. . . . . and that’s the point.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

It's About the Hats

2010-07-19T12:42:29-07:00

Clockwise starting at the upper left: Dario chin-cord attachment; Old Sacramento: Montecristi Fedora; Heritage C-crown Fedora

At the beginning of the year I resolved to dive, big-time, back into hats (Keeping eCommece Real – January’s HAT BLOG article). Now that we’re midway into the year, it’s time for an accounting. I was in Asia this past spring and, without a doubt, our Fall/Winter hats will be our best selection ever for Jaxon and sur la tete – stay tuned. For now, newbies include 1. The Jaxon Panama Dario with Chin Cord, 2. The Montecristi Fedora, and 3. The entire collection from Beaver Brands.

1. The Dario is blocked and finished to our specifications in Germany by Mayser Hat Company. These unusually wide-brimmed (just shy of 4-inches) Panama hat bodies are hand-woven in Ecuador. The traditional pipeline for the paja toquilla (Panama) material as described in Tom Miller’s The Panama Hat Trail is employed in the making of this hat. Per The Village Hat Shop order, Mayser imports the high quality, wide-brimmed, Cuenca-weave hats bodies. The German factory then blocks and finishes the hat. Our initial design did not include the chin cord. After personally field testing the hat in Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park, I was dissatisfied with the fact that the big brim made the hat dysfunctional in open desert winds. Otherwise I loved the hat for its great styling, fit, finish, and superior sun shade. We added the chin cord using Mayser’s very nifty solution. Be sure to look at the chin cord details [above]. At $285, this is my favorite new hat of the year.

2. The Montecristi Fedora is a Panama Fino hat body, 20-grade minimum from Montecristi, Ecuador, in a great fedora style. No matter how many different styles that we introduce into the high-end of the Panama hat marketplace, the traditional fedora continues to be the most popular. With this hat we improved the styling details: crown shape, height, pinch, brim size and roll, trim, and sweatband. At $475, we have a great hat at a very competitive price for this quality Panama.

3. Developing our new Beaver Brand styles has been very satisfying. Tapping the resources and experience of this venerable 150-year old USA factory has allowed us to design an array of hats that echo the Old West. Historians know that different hats are associated with different geographic regions of the western USA. Furthermore, the job and social standing of the townspeople dictated their headwear choice, often not a western style per se. Even the generic “cowboy hat”, encompasses dozens of variations. See the “Old California”, “Old Southwest, “Old Sacramento”, “Old Gaucho”, “Classic Derby”, “Classic Homburg”, and “Heritage C-crown Fedora” styles, all at the Beaver Brand page.

We understand that a hat business is fundamentally all about the hats. Enjoy.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Blue Skies, Do They Matter to China's Future?

2010-05-24T15:16:50-07:00

Guangzhou (Canton) China, May, 2010
Note the sky and buildings in the background.

How important are blue skies? I don’t mean metaphorical blue skies, but literal blue skies. Earlier this month I returned from China. For the first time, I was struck by the general discontentment of my employee there, Chinese born and raised. I’ve known her many years. We first met when this smart and ambitious young woman - let’s call her Cindy - sent unsolicited emails (in the days when people were still reading them) from her homeland to various businesses, offering her services as a conduit to Chinese hat manufacturing. The personal and authentic nature of Cindy’s correspondence prompted a reply (I did in fact have inklings of expanding our inchoate Asian import business so her timing was fortuitous). After exchanging some emails, and becoming "acquainted", I decided to test the waters by initiating a process with a goal of bringing in a single product from China shepherded by Cindy. Sourcing, sampling, pricing ultimately led to an order and delivery. It went well. Fast forward seven or eight years and Cindy is now in the loop of a high percentage of our inventory. When we first met face-to-face, many years ago, she was everything I expected: bright, well-organized, hard-working, upbeat and appreciative of the opportunities that her country’s burgeoning economy in combination with her skills and ambition afforded her in the modern world.

On this latest visit, Cindy was different. She now does not like living in China. She was glum. She dreads the prospect of living life without blue skies, not only for herself but more so for her three-year old son. She lives in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province in southern China. Until this past year she didn’t know what life was like in a place where one could regularly see a blue sky. Her husband’s company, however, recently transferred him to Spain and for three months she joined him in Madrid, a land where the sky was blue. For her, there is no turning back. She wants out of China.

I met her in the city of Guangzhou (formerly Canton), in the same province as Shenzhen. The sky was gray, smog covered, for the week that I was there and she made a point to call my attention to it. Although this discussion of feeling smothered by the inability to see the sun was all quite personal and literal, I cannot help but consider its broader implications. Is China’s poor record of custodianship of the environment a looming problem? I think so. As its citizenry continues to mature, their willingness to live in a place where smog blots out the sun will be less tolerated. Moreover, finding out that there are blue skies elsewhere when one didn’t even know they existed speaks to a much bigger issue that might be relevant to China’s future. What else don’t the Chinese people know about the world outside their borders? And what will happen when the people learn these things, as they surely will?

As one who follows the current geopolitical climate, I am aware of the pressure being placed on China by much of the world to allow their currency – the renmimbi – to appreciate to the market rate of exchange against other currencies (China pegs this exchange so that their export market will remain vibrant). At the risk of oversimplifying, the argument being made by the USA and others is that China needs to keep its economic engine humming via growth of its domestic market and rely less on exports thereby contributing to a more stable world economy. To that point, I was struck by the emergence of both large USA-style major malls as well as smaller strip-centers being developed in the midst of huge apartment complexes. I visited a large mall in Beijing, dragging Cindy along to a place that she heretofore had not ventured. She could not fathom how businesses were selling merchandise at the ridiculously high prices indicated on the hang tags. Finally, she came to terms with this new shopping phenomenon by understanding that China had a small percentage of its population that could shop at these stores; yet, that small percentage, given China’s 1.2 billion population, is significant enough to support the malls and the Chinese entrepreneurs that are opening Western-style shops.

So from what I see first-hand, China’s economy is adjusting and in fact is transitioning a greater percentage of its GDP to its domestic market. However, there are still millions of its citizens moving from very poor rural areas to factory towns incrementally improving their lot in life (see my 24-slide presentation of a hat factory) so the cheap labor force supporting the manufacturing sector can, as well, likely survive a long time. By controlling its currency and other state-run levers of its economy, China, given its size and various economic classes (ironic for so-called Communists), can transition from an export driven economy to a more mixed economy in a time-line fundamentally of its own choosing.

This observation had me shaking my head as I traveled the country. "How can the USA – or any country for that matter - compete?" To this economic advantage, add Chinese cultural values such as their work ethic and their high regard for education including the learning of others’ languages, and future dominance on the world stage appears inevitable.

Unless, in this uncertain age where change can and does happen with little warning, the dissatisfaction of the person who sat next to me in the taxi, complaining about the dearth of blue skies, tells a more compelling tale about China’s future.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Waving the White Flag

2010-04-12T11:10:45-07:00

I’m about to commit generational heresy. I can already hear the criticisms from my boomer compatriots ("Good manners never go out of style," etc.). In fact, I have done my fair share of kvetching about the lack of good customer service in retail (I’ve probably posted half a dozen articles on this subject over the years). But, this battle is being lost and I am accepting reality (maybe I’m becoming a Buddhist?).

I now believe "the problem" is a blameless generational difference in world views. I’ll get to some theories about origins, but first I’ll attempt to describe the respective behaviors. My generation believes (and behaves as such) that a welcoming smile and a "hello" are not only good manners, but good business. We believe people should a priori acknowledge and appreciate one another suggesting a world view that people are basically well-meaning and friendly. These on-the-surface (superficial) actions connecting one to another are fundamental to our value systems (at the very least, life is about being pleasant to each another).

Not so fast. The younger generation does not put much stock in perfunctory warm greetings and sociable body language. They are responsible, hard working, value professionalism and creative output, but simply don’t care as much about being friendly to strangers. I’ve been in the belly of the beast – Google headquarters, online marketing summits where I am by far the oldest person at the table, young successful architectural firms, etc. – and these very smart and successful young people, graduates of the country’s top universities, are not so much arrogant (like many of my friends contend), but simply highly focused on their work and less interested in unrelated chit chat. They don’t care about "how you are", and are fine if you skip "how are you?"

Before we get all bent out of shape about the decline of Western civilization, take a breath. I employ 48 people. Only a handful of us are over 40. I work with these "kids" every day, and by and large, they are good people, reliable, rightly proud of their accomplishments and contributions. True, they don’t greet customers in the manner that I’d ideally like to see, but my reconstituted goal, as their boss, is to train them to be ambassadors from their generation to ours (older people are not "right", but they are customers). By the same token, people from my generation can be ambassadors to the younger generation. For example, tipping a waiter or waitress who is efficient (but not friendly) on the basis of service, not smiles (or lack thereof).

Tolerance and acceptance of this sub-cultural distinction will come more readily if we understand how it came about. Being older and wiser, and the parents of these kids, it behooves us to try and understand them whether or not they reciprocate. We can be role models in building bridges toward understanding one another. Furthermore, we lived through, as well as contributed to, the environment that resulted in the cultural changes that we are now criticizing:

1. Our society drilled these kids with the fear-based message "Don’t talk to strangers." (By contrast, we would hitchhike fearlessly, and talk with most everyone.)

2. Generally speaking, the personal lives of these kids have been more complicated than ours. Although the Father Knows Best/Leave It To Beaver/Ozzie and Harriet depiction of American life was never really accurate, this archetype is long gone. Heroes like Beavis and Butthead, South Park, The Simpsons, etc. are wry, laconic, ironic, impolite, often disconnected from the dominant culture. Given their personal experiences, this is a more authentic depiction of modern life and therefore gets emulated.

3. Our educational institutions devalued teaching Humanities in lieu of subject matter that was necessary for standardized test taking. (Hypothesis: There is a correlation between this generational change of behavior – i.e. reluctance toward perfunctory politeness – and academic achievement).

4. The lives of our politicians, media personalities, clergy, etc. don’t contribute to the creation of a society where one’s default assumption about "us" is necessarily positive. When these kids were young and impressionable, our President’s explanation of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky and the truth that ultimately came to light must have been disillusioning. [Drawing any conclusions about my politics will likely be incorrect.] Perhaps our right to "respect" needs to be earned, and not assumed.

Whether this list even scratches the surface of an explanation is not the point. Whatever the reasons for these generational changes in behavior, they exist and are come by honestly. It is what it is (I am a Buddhist!).

There are advantages for each generation – besides the Kantian imperative of understanding each other for its own sake – in appreciating the other’s sub-culture. In business, a polite 30-something may get the job, or get the sale, or get the client when engaging a 50+-something. A 50+-something, by accepting the values of the 30-something, stays engaged (helping to avoid crotchetiness), learns new tricks. By giving "this pass" to the younger generation, we can quickly move on to less superficial content, where we just may be surprised by what we’ll learn.

Where does this leave me with regard to a business/retail strategy? As I alluded earlier, instead of trying to change anyone’s behavior, my goal is to be an ambassador and encourage diplomacy, training employees to be ambassadors as well. When visiting another’s culture, shouldn’t we be respectful while working to understand who we are dealing with? To some extent, we try and adopt their style and learn their language. I’d be satisfied with that outcome.

Truce.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Straw Hats

2010-03-29T15:00:52-07:00

There is a book - perhaps even a serious scholarly research project - waiting to be written on this rich and varied subject. People have been harvesting plants endemic to their region of the world and fashioning the derived natural material into headwear as long as there have been humankind. Today, go virtually anywhere in the world and one will find the latest iterations of this very long history of making hats from plants.

Some, like people on the western coast of South America (primarily what is now Ecuador), have taken this to the level of a highly refined craft. Carludovica palmata (paja toquilla to the locals) is harvested, cleaned, bleached, dried, split length-wise into various width sizes with the finest being the size of thread, bundled according to size and quality, sold to weavers who can take months to weave a single hat, sold again to middlemen who sell yet again to hatters who finally block the material into any number of popular shapes, finally adding sweatbands and trimmings. These straw hats make their way to the market in most of the world as Panama hats (not from Panama but so named because of the hat's trading route explosion onto world markets during the building of the Panama Canal).

Other cultures have similar traditions. We here at the Village Hat Shop have employees whose cultural roots are from The Philippines. One day I was presented a finely woven straw hat traditional to the native people of Negros Occidental. The material comes from the inside leaves of the acaba tree. The hat is light and airy and, like Panama hats, the product of painstaking work. The people wear the hat for protection from the blazing sun of the region as well as for provincial festivals. Buntal, a popular straw hat material in North America and Europe -also fine and light weight-comes from yet another Filipino plant, the buri palm tree, from Baliuag, Bulacan. The list of exquisite straw hats made by indigenous people from endemic materials is very long. The Native Americans of the Northwest make a cedar bark hat. The native peoples from California make a hat from pine needles. Raffia is one of the most popular straw materials in the world. The island of Madagascar is the home of high quality raffia, but variations of the plant are also found in Africa. Many of the beautifully adorned crowns of feathers, shells, animal parts, and skins that we associate with African arts are started from a base of raffia straw. Baku, another lightweight, very fine, and expensive material that is in high demand in wealthier countries, comes from the taipot palm in Malabar and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). For my money, one of the best straw hat values in the world today is the very durable sewn-braid palm leaf hat from Guatemala, yet another example of a plant and a people in an enduring relationship.

Milan straw has a complicated and controversial history. The original material (if I have my facts straight) was a hand-braided wheat straw from Italy (hence the name Milan from the Italian city of the same name). Real milan, the natural material, is still available but becoming prohibitively expensive for most hat buyers. The Chinese make something synthetic and call it milan; this is mostly what is found in the hat market today. [Synthetic "straws" are all over the place and not the topic of this article other than this: if you are a buyer of what you assume is a "straw" hat, beware.] The Japanese make a material from hemp (I need a botanist to tell me if hemp bears a close relationship to the original) that is a natural material facsimile of milan.

Some cultures whip up a hat in minutes from plants in their area. When I visited Tahiti in 1981, the local people would impress tourists by cutting palm fronds and weaving, from the unaltered material, a good hat for sun protection in 5 to 10 minutes. The hat starts out as green and becomes brown over time. When it finally becomes too brittle to properly function, one simply tosses it and makes another. Many cultures - likely the majority - operate somewhere between the extremes of complicated Panama hat makingand simple Tahitian hat making. Perhaps, from a global perspective, the most iconic hat on the planet fits this description-the conical hat we associate with Asia. The shape has likely prevailed throughout time and place because of the simplicity of its design and supreme functionality. I have witnessed the hat as good rain gear, excellent sun protection, and a good wind break (one simply tilts into the wind). It's very strong albeit lightweight; a structural engineer can explain why. The straw material varies from place to place. I own Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai variations of the style. Each is made well and with minimal effort in order to achieve the hat's purpose. Sometimes, one will find elaborations on the theme, but for the most part the hat is made to function well in the weather.

The American straw hat making industry traces its origins to Betsy Metcalf. Betsy may not have made the first straw hat in America, but in 1798, at age twelve, she made a straw bonnetthat is believed to be the first documented straw hat made in the USA. Her next move immortalized her. She then "learned all who wished to make bonnets", thus launching an industry. I've seen pictures of these early bonnets and the straw, neatly hand-sewn in rows, looks like "straw"-the stuff we see in bales found on farms.

Many straws are closely associated with a specific hat style. Coburg straw is associated with Italian Skimmers (also known as Boaters or Sailor Straws-think barbershop quartet). I don't know which plant species Coburg straw comes from, but hats made from this material predate synthetics, so I am quite confident it is a natural straw layered in plies making the skimmer hard and durable. Shantung, the straw we associate with better western hats, has a history similar to milan. Its origins may be natural, but now it is a man-made material. Although many people associate a "Panama Hat" with the fedora hat style, this material is made into virtually all men's and women's hat styles. The optimo style - where there is a crease running laterally on the top of the crown - likely evolved from the natural crease created when a soft, unblocked, good quality Panama hat is rolled for storage or portability. Sinamay, the product of a process of preparing the acaba plant from The Philippines (see above) that includes weaving the straw on a loom has become a material of choice for women's straw hats. In fact, it is the most popular millinery material in the hat-loving UK.

Many years ago, I traded for a hat made by the Cofans from the Agua Rico River of the upper Amazon in eastern Ecuador. This crown's impressive feature is the green iridescent beetle casings that ring the headpiece. The casings are affixed to a sewn plant material from the area. Amazonia, First Nation Americans, remote regions of The Steppes, tribes throughout Africa, East Asia, India, etc. all have hat making traditions. Simply documenting whatever has survived into the 21st Century would be enough to justify a scholarly project. However, why did some cultures elevate this craft to art and others simply whipped off functional apparel? Is there a clue to other elements of cultural development and values that can be gleaned by this study? How did human cultivation of plants for hat making change an area's botany? Were hats used for trade or were they considered useless outside of one's indigenous region (in part because hats were so closely connected with one's rank in the society, or religion, etc.)? Good questions could make a long list.

I've read that historians believe hats were the first apparel worn by humans. These hats of course were made from plants or animals. Where's the book on this extraordinary subject? Much of the material is still out there.

Enjoy your hats,

Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com

Felt Hats

2010-03-05T17:28:49-08:00

Felt Hat Making in America. Missouri, Mid-1980s

Felt is a mass of wool and/or fur. It is not woven, but rather pressed and manipulated in a centuries-old process using heat, water, and pressure to create the strongest, smoothest, most water-resistant natural fabric known. Legends abound with regard to its origin. Some claim that St. Clement (the patron saint of felt hat makers) discovered felt when, as a wandering monk, he filled his sandals with flax fibers to protect his feet. The moisture and pressure from pounding feet compressed the fibers into crude, though comfortable felt. Others suggest that Native Americans or ancient Egyptians discovered felt by way of fur lined moccasins or camel hair falling into sandals. In fact,, none of these "firsts" is first as scraps of felt have survived since the Neolithic era, 9,000 years ago, making it the oldest form on cloth. [One theory postulates that felt was "discovered" many times and in many parts of the world because its popularity has risen when societies have become poor, cold, and agrarian. As each society became more urban and advanced, felt making subsided or disappeared.]

To the hat industry, whoever invented felt is not as important as the fact that felt hats function well. Hats made of felt are durable, comfortable, and attractive. Felting has evolved to an art in hat making. Each manufacturer closely guards his exact felt making process and formula. I’ve come to understand over the years that what constitutes a good felt hat can be a matter of opinion or taste. For example, the stiff and meaty felt associated with a high quality American western hat is much different than the supple and light fine felt material associated with European hat making. (Think Stetson versus Borsalino.) Both felts require quality pelts and skilled craftsmanship, but with much different objectives.

Not only do the materials (wool, hare, beaver, nutria, etc.) used to make felt vary, but a host of considerations inform the outcome. Some hats are made to be protective and therefore the felt is stiff and heavy. The bowler, in fact, was made for a game warden in 1850 who wanted protection while chasing poachers on horseback. Cowboy hats function similarly . On the other hand, dress hats-which do keep one’s head warm or dry-are typically lighter weight and, in great part, expressions of style and taste. The finish of the felt, as distinct from its materials, can be "silk", or "angora", or "beaver" (not necessarily meaning that the hat contains beaver fur), or "velour", or "suede", or "sponge", or "scratch". Each finish has its own expression and associations. For example, the silk or angora finishes are typically associated with aristocrats and the top hat or homburg style.

Know that the felt hat that you are wearing or about to purchase is extremely labor intensive and is a modern day example of an ancient and venerable craft.

Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com

More Hats

2010-02-11T15:30:10-08:00

Periodically, I am accused by Hat Blog readers of not being focused enough on my core business. These people argue that I write too much about general ecommerce issues, the Internet, restaurant or book reviews, and the like. The message is "give me more about hats."

Okay, I hear you. My resolution this year is to refocus squarely on our products. I’ll be attending more trade shows around the world, visiting factories, adding hats and vendors to our web site. We’ll add more hat related content too; hats are a never ending story (past, present, and future).

Most importantly, I’ll be adding my two-cents to the design team. In fact, I have already begun. The more heads that are thinking about our products - styling, materials, trimmings, sweatbands, workmanship particulars, size and fit, etc. - the better. Bruce Zales (Jaxon designer) Susan Lee (sur la tete designer) and their assistants do a stellar job, but every additional person attending to this most fundamental aspect of our business brings a different perspective. Our customers come from every walk of life, are every age, live on all parts of the planet, and are both men and women. So, the more diverse our buyers and designers, the better and broader our selection will be. And, there was a time that I did this job essentially myself, so getting back to this indispensable work is something I am very comfortable with. I am enjoying getting "back to the future".

Here are a couple of hats that I’ve recently brought to the party: 1. The Dario Panama Hat: This genuine Panama hat body is hand woven in Ecuador. These unblocked, bigger than usual hats (3 ¾ inch brims) are then sent to Germany where the venerable Mayser Hat Company blocks and finishes the hat to our quality specifications. Quantities are very limited. 2. The Tyrolean Dreispitz: A classic hat that is an icon for the Alpine region of Europe. Dreispitz in German translates to tricorne which refers to the three dents in the crown. 3. The entire Hills Hats of New Zealand line. There are more. Keep checking our New Hats for Men and New Hats for Women pages.

Thanks to those readers who have asked for more hats, more hat information, more hat images, more hat blog postings. You asked for it, you got it. [That used to be Toyota’s slogan - not so good these days (uh-oh, I need to stay focused on my task).]

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Keeping eCommerce Real

2010-01-15T17:18:25-08:00

I have an aversion toward modern clichés like "keep it real", but in a world of avatars, nanos, virtuals, digital manipulation, etc. this heretofore fatuous remark, needs some new respect.

"Keep It Real" monkey stencil
by British street artist, BANKSY
photo: banksy.co.uk

In my line of work, what could be more basic, old-school, "real" if you will, than a hat? Why bother making distinctions about what's real and what's not? Well, it's not so simple if the hat seller is online. Here's why: Instead of the indispensable focus on styling, workmanship and materials, fit, functionality, trimmings and other details of the trade, hatters today can easily get bogged down in online marketing and e-commerce competition, improving operations, software, hardware, IT upgrades, logistics of shipping, receiving, distribution, etc. Don't get me wrong, all these activities - peripheral to the hat itself - are important for an online retail business to succeed. But, all these other things are for naught if the headwear delivered at the end of this complicated chain of activity is not a good product. Furthermore, there may be other online sellers out there who can do some of this other stuff better than us (there are plenty of e-commerce generalists selling hats online, as well as every other product), but compared to us, many of these others are not, and will never be, "for real".

2010 is our 30^th year in the hat business (and we've just completed our 14^th holiday season online). We know that keeping our eye on the ball - uh, I mean the hat - is what it is all about. So, as the year develops, stay tuned for lots of new products. We will continue to add hats that are well made and are good values. New and interesting additions to our catalog are arriving regularly. We have 2010 visits planned to hat factories all over the world and will hold the manufacturers "feet to the fire" to get our products made right.

Please continue to help us with this process by writing Customer Reviews at the page where your product was purchased. Not only is this feedback very useful for other people considering a purchase, but it informs us about which headwear needs improvements (or elimination from our offerings) and why.

Thanks for your support over these past three decades. We are the same people with the same fundamental values who opened the first Village Hat Shop on May 2, 1980. We will continue to provide the good service and good hats that our customers rightly expect and deserve.

Thank you for your patronage and best wishes for 2010,

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

The Village Hat Shop Rocks Hillcrest at its 2009 Holiday Party

2009-12-15T11:34:25-08:00

This year, the stars aligned. We have three very talented bands closely associated with our business. These are established, well-recognized, California musicians and song writers. So, what better way to celebrate than to dine and imbibe at our favorite local Hillcrest restaurant, Saigon On Fifth, and "kick out the jams" (am I showing my age and Detroit roots?). We took over the banquet room, set up the back line, closed the doors to the main restaurant, and rocked.

The Silent Comedy opened. Their set included the world premier of guitarist Tim Graves’s song "Bartholomew". Among the bands many accomplishments, The Silent Comedy performed this year at the San Diego Music Awards and won the 2009 Best Pop Artist award. Next up was Lauren DeRose accompanied by Marissa Oliver on violin. Lauren is a top-tier singer/songwriter. Her musical training includes 3-years at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Boston's loss is San Diego's (and The Village Hat Shop’s) gain. Simply put, Lauren’s honesty and musical virtuosity is wonderfully unique. After stomachs were full with good food and potent potables, the perfect closing band was the rhythm and blues of Tori Roze and The Hot Mess. The big sound of this five-piece band filled the room and the party was on, full-tilt. The Hot Mess is Lee Clark (Tori’s mom!): Flute/Backup Vocals/Added Percussion, Jordan Morita: Trombone, Johnny Alexander: Guitar, Harley Magsino: Bass, and Serge McCoy: Drums. Tori, in addition to the lead vocalist, plays trumpet, keys, and acoustic guitar. Tori's soul singing reminds me of the great jazz and blues stylists of the middle 20th Century, but with her own very distinctive modern lyrical bent. The music and lyrics from all the bands is original.

What a party! What good fortune to be surrounded by such wonderful and talented people on a daily basis. Lauren and Tori work at VHS HQ. Our connection to The Silent Comedy is by way of our Christine, Tim Graves’s "lady" as he so aptly put it his shout-out. We also have a sponsorship deal with TSM (these fellas wear Jaxon Hats; and they did so before we hooked up). So, it’s all good. We should only be as fortunate next year to have this entire gang still closely connected to The Village Hat Shop. Who knows, maybe we even can run this gig again!

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Iconic Hats: Newsboy Hats and Ivy Hats

2009-10-26T14:07:28-07:00

[This is article #8 in a series on iconic hats. It joins The Top Hat, The Bowler, The Fedora, The Cowboy Hat, The Beret, The Baseball Cap, and The Fez.]

^{Newsboy caps and ivy caps – variously known as flat caps, baker boy hats, driving caps, golf caps, English caps, eight-quarter caps, etc. – date to pre-World War I and historically are associated with the working classes. In pictures from this period, as well as in literature, one finds factory workers, laborers, construction workers [there is a famous 1932 photograph by Charles C. Ebbets of construction workers on a beam over NYC - Lunch Atop A Skyscraper -where most are wearing a newsboy or ivy cap], etc. wearing variations of cloth caps. Because this headwear was cut-and-sewn primarily from either cotton or woolen fabrics, variations were plentiful and a man could easily distinguish himself from the next by his choice of color, material (e.g. tweed, herringbone, etc.), or style (cut). Furthermore, these caps were inexpensive when compared to the full size hats of the day like bowlers, top hats, or fedoras, so a person could own more than one and, if so inclined, change his hat from day to day. Because of the small size, soft nature, and portability of these caps, their popularity spread to young professionals, college fraternities ("ivy" cap as in Ivy League), sportsmen ("golf" cap as worn by the likes of Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan), etc. A man accustomed to dressing up for work during the week with a full size hat, could now wear this informal cap on the weekend signaling his "time off" while he pursued leisure activity without stepping down in class.}

^{Today, the popularity of ivy and newsboy hats is perhaps second only to its ubiquity in the early 20th Century. The English-born Kangol 504 cap helped to revitalize this style in the mid to late 1990s. Movie stars, musicians, golfers, fashionistas, skate boarders, people young and old, can be found on a daily basis wearing a newsboy or ivy cap frontwards, backwards, or sideways. . Those who determined that this was "my style" quickly learned that the variations of this headwear style are virtually limitless. Many – like my father – make a hobby of collecting caps and make certain to pick up one or two while traveling in the British Isles or Europe.}

^{Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com}