Jane Who: Philip Treacy: "I like hats that make the heart beat faster''

I have a new obsession.

Well, the term "new" is quite indefinite.

It all started one fashion history lecture, when our lecturer couldn't describe a hat in words (or in a language) we would understand and so she suggested the curious ones to check out the White collar series that is running now in Estonia. Did I do that? You bet I did!

Otherwise this whole introduction would be unnecessary, right? Good logical thinking, my friend.

I don't now exactly how it happened, but the series became an obsession (take into consideration, not the obsession this post is talking about). I know this, first it was the hat, then it was the main character's style (it's quite interesting how the stylist puts together some of the outfits with pieces that are not considered to be in a good marriage, but it all works. Furthermore, I have never seen so may variety of pink shirts on men. Maybe it's me. Maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe men aren't scared of pink. Maybe they don't associate pink with the pink triangle Hitler forced homosexual men to wear. Maybe the fear of men wearing pink is made up by women. Maybe they really don't have anything against pink. Maybe it is the fact that we have convinced men that "no, you actually do have a phobia, it's clear as water". How did I get to this conclusion? Is it really relevant to this post? No), finally it was the story to blame. It always is. Thank you for listening.

"Where was I? Oh I was here" B.Streisand

So, boomeranging back to the whole point of this post. One of the main characters is often featured wearing a hat. Then we began talking about hats is our fashion history lectures. Then I did some hard research on Philip Treacy. And then I began seeing hats everywhere. And today I encountered an almost perfect hat, but almost perfect is not enough for me, for now.

Hats were stuck in my subconscious mind for a long time and I had to rescue them by bringing them into my conscious mind. Somewhere in that mission we became close friends. Well, sadly for now imaginative friends. I still have to find the perfect one...

What kind of a "hat" were you imagining during this long introduction? The object of my obsession is a felt hat. Now there are a lot of different types of hats made out of felt and that's quite obvious as wool felt is one of the earliest known form of textile fabric.

Felt is believed to have been discovered by the nomadic tribes of Asia, who made tents and garments by felting sheep's wool. One of its early uses in headwear was in the Greece. A "petasus" was a narrow-brimmed skull-cap which was the "it" item of that time if I could say so. It became the symbol of Hermes- the messenger god.

Among the Romans the cap of felt-pileus- was the emblem of liberty. When a slave obtained his freedom he had his head shaved and wore instead of his hair an undyed pileus.

By 1600 fur felt was pretty well established as the proper material for a man's hat. The hat-making qualities of beaver from the New World were specially noted.

Later the tall beaver came into fashion and crowns reached a height of 18 cm or more. The worlds tallest hat is over 45 cm. Can you believe that? Maybe (again with the maybe) the wearer was short and suffering from Napoleon complex.

The demand for beaver skin in Europe ultimately drove the animal to near-extinction. The popularity of the beaver hat declined in the early/mid-19th century as silk hats became vogue.

The derby, bowler, coke hat and also know as billycock or bombin or as I know it the melon hat was invented by William Bowler, a London hatter, and originally came as a piece of riding headwear, more practical for active sports than the high beaver hats that dominated for street wear. The bowler was called a derby by a hatter in this country who sponsored it after noting its general use at the English Derby race.

But it is also believed that it was an English soldier and politician Edward Coke (pronounced “cook”, not like the you-know-what), who was the first customer (and designer of the hat). When Coke arrived in London 1849 to collect his hat he reportedly placed it on the floor and stamped hard on it twice to test its strength.

You may be familiar with this hat through the infamous Charlie Chaplin.

The term fedora was in use as early as 1891. The hat is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" in the front on both sides, though the creasing does not define the hat and the positioning of pinches can vary if they are found at all. Fedoras were originally sold "open crown", meaning they were uncreased, with the owner creating the desired creases. A customer could always opt to have the shop add shape to the hat if desired.

Fedoras can be found in nearly any color, but black, grey, tan ("fawn"), and dark brown are the most popular.

The hat is sometimes associated with the Great Depression–era gangsters and detectives. Popular stars in the 1950s such as Gene Kelly wore fedoras often in their movies. In Hollywood movies of the 1940s, characters often wore fedoras, particularly when portraying private detectives, gangsters, or other "tough guy" roles. A trench coat was frequently part of the costume.

And of course I think you are familiar with such fedora-wearing heroes as Frank Sinatra and Indiana Jones. When these men come into mind, their hats come with them. This is a perfect example on how a hat can defy ones image.

A fedora in reality describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name. Quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby, Homburg and Porkpie.

The trilby is viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is commonly called the "brown trilby" in England and is much seen at the horse races. It is described as a "crumpled" fedora. The London hat company Lock and Co. describes the trilby as having a "shorter (narrower) brim which is angled down (snapped down) at the front and slightly turned up at the back" versus the fedora's "wider brim which is more level (flatter)." The trilby also has a slightly shorter crown than a typical fedora design.

The hat's name derives from the stage adaptation of George du Maurier's 1894 novel "Trilbi"; a hat of this style was worn in the first London production of the play. Traditionally it is made from rabbit hair felt, but is usually made from other materials, such as tweed, straw, wool and wool/nylon blends.

The hat reached its peak of popularity in the 1960s, cause the lower head clearance in American automobiles made it impractical to wear a hat with a tall crown while driving. It faded from popularity in the 1970s when any type of men's headwear became out of date, and men's fashion instead began focusing on highly maintained hairstyles. The hat saw a resurgence in popularity in the early 1980s.

The godfather of all charm Mr. Bond, James Bond, wore a trilby in the first Bond movie in "Dr. No".

Talking about the godfather, Al Pacino was wearing a-little-more-curvy-fedora the Homburg hat in the film "The Godfather" in the 1970s. This resulted in the hat being dubbed "The Godfather". It was popularized by "The Peacemaker" Edward VII in the early 1900s after he visited Germany, and brought back a hat as a keepsake. King Edward VII was very flattered when his hat style was copied in Britain and America and even at times he insisted on being copied. Homburg became popular in the 1930s and the person behind it- Mr. Churchill himself.

In the search for the perfect hat.