Hats Off to the Fedora

Gunzels exchanging gunfire with police made the windy streets of 1920s Chicago roar. Brewery busters and bootleggers were divided on how they felt about Prohibition, but they did have one common interest: their love of fedoras. As indispensable to the wardrobe as a Thompson submachine gun, cops and robbers alike wore fedoras for day and evening wear.

The fedora was fashion’s democratic equalizer, covering the heads of America’s Everyman. It enhanced ‘30s mob thrillers such as “Little Caesar,” starring Edward G. Robinson. The 1942 classic “Casablanca” saw Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid catching the evening flight to Lisbon, while Humphrey Bogart stood in his trench coat with fog swirling around his snap-brim fedora.

Since those days, Hollywood has delivered other box-office favorites, such as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “The Untouchables” and “Dick Tracy,” in which fedoras cast a shadow over the eyes and added a sense of menace or mystery.

Despite its extensive film history, the fedora debuted in a play. It got its name from the French, the title of an 1882 play by Victorien Sardou.

Hat makers hoped the fedora’s popularity would endure, but despite its extended appearance on the world’s stage, its fashionableness declined when John F. Kennedy entered the White House. American males turned to the young President for fashion clues and followed his bareheaded lead.

Although it can’t be said that hats have made a comeback, the man who wears a fedora makes a strong, individual declaration. The hat literally tops off one’s taste in clothing.

Annie Goodman, owner of Village Hatter at Fashion Island Newport Beach, says that among the many hats she offers, the classic fedora is by far man’s best friend.

“There are all types of different shapes of men’s hats: Aussie shapes and safari shapes . . . but, basically, the most popular thing is the fedora shape,” says Goodman, who has sold hats for nine years.

Goodman credits Hollywood for the fedora’s resurgence. “When the first ‘Indiana Jones’ movie came out, that really interested men again in wearing fedoras . . . because that hat, with that character, just created an image . . . of what a hat can be.”

With a fedora, she says, “you can be another person for a while. You can be Al Capone or Eliot Ness or Indiana Jones. A hat makes you feel different.”

John Rosenthal, general manager of the Stetson Hat Co. in St. Joseph, Mo., which has been making hats since 1865 --including a line of small-brim (also called stingy-brim) fedoras--assigns the fedora’s mystique to what it conjures in the minds of men.

“I think it’s the look,” he says. “It’s a certain image that the wearer is projecting to others and also the way he feels about himself.”

Lewis Ansanger of Western Hat Works has been renovating and selling hats in San Diego for 70 years. Although Western styles are favored among customers, he says fedoras run a close second. “We shape them, style them any way you want,” he says of his hat-blocking services.

Shaping begins by placing a new hat’s formless crown on a block carved from hickory, ash or maple. After steaming, the crown assumes the center crease, snap-brim and two dimples given by the wooden form.

As Indiana Jones knows, traversing jungles and exploring caves for treasure may endanger life and limb, but you don’t need to worry about the fedora--adventure only adds character to it. Ansanger’s advice is to keep the fedora “in an area where there is a lot of air, but also where mothballs are prevalent, because moths like felt.”

Hat Care

How the hat is handled will determine its longevity. For maximum wear, follow these suggestions:

* Refrain from touching the hat’s crown, because oil from hands will soil the fabric. Handle it by its brim.

* At least once a week, brush the hat counterclockwise around the crown with a soft bristle brush.

* For more thorough at-home cleaning, hold he hat over steam from a teapot or pan of boiling water. The steam loosens dirt and softens the felt for reshaping.

* Spray a fabric protector over the hat to repel dirt or water.

* To prevent perspiration stains, turn the sweatband out after wearing, allowing it to dry before storing.

* Store the hat in a hat box or plastic bag, resting it on its crown, not its brim.