The BORSALINO BROTHERHOOD

[DonJuan]

I need proof, an article, another owner of one, another USA made style. If they were produced here where are they all?

 

[DJH]

DonJuan, if I were you I'd be asking for my money back. Having to wait for an answer to your question is unacceptable.

 

[RJR]

DonJuan,you've put up pics of a Borsalino with no tags or numbers,been given several leads and now you need some sort of "proof" ??

 

[photogravity]

I need proof, an article, another owner of one, another USA made style. If they were produced here where are they all?

DonJuan, I understand what you are saying but there times when there just isn't any conclusive information available about a particular item. I collect and ride vintage bicycles and there are times when you simply cannot have a definitive answer. As just one example, I have a bicycle frameset that came from L. H. Brookes in Manchester England. There are only a handful of examples to be found and trying to determine the age is pretty difficult. After looking at various clues, the consensus is that the bicycle is from the immediate Post-War era. Those items were the headset, the fork crown, paintwork and the construction. Immediately following the war, bicycle builders were hard pressed to source lugs to build bicycles and just fillet brazed them instead. By the late 40's shortages of lugs had subsided and lugged bicycles were once again the norm.

Anyway, there are times when you simply need to trust the experts and enthusiasts in the absence of a conclusive answer. My opinion is that since besdor (a respected professional hatter) has stated his opinion that should carry some weight. Below is the bicycle frameset in question.


L. H. Brookes - 5 by Sallad Rialb, on Flickr

 

[jlee562]

The post above mine?

What Steve/MayserWagner is referring to, is that Besdor is the proprietor of Bencraft hats in Brooklyn, a major retailer of Borsalino hats. If he can peg it as a Bollman, I'd venture that's about as proof positive as you're going to get.

 

[ingineer]

deleted post
Where is the popcorn icon ? LOL

 

[Bob Roberts]

DonJuan, if I were you I'd be asking for my money back. Having to wait for an answer to your question is unacceptable.

Ha ha. Lol.

 

[Bob Roberts]

There only ONE ANSWER Donny...

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[DonJuan]

Ok guys thanks.
Sorry

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[besdor]

The hat was made when Bollman had the rights to import AND manufacture their own Borsalino hats . Today , Bollman is only acting as an importer and distributor. They cant make any hats in the USA using the Borsalino name.

 

[javadave61]

Don Juan, I first discovered the forum back last winter and headed out to my local hat outlet where the proprietor gets most of his stock from the Bollman Hat Company just down the road in Adamstown, PA. He proudly sold a Borsalino hat for $35. It was one of his only fur felt hats (most were wool), and the felt was quite nice, but there was an elastic sweat with the S, M, L, XL sizing. No liner either. I wanted something "fur" so badly, so I picked one up.

I later returned to the outlet to find the very same hat, only this time it said "Bailey" on the tag. Same hat. Different tag. I asked him about this, and he talked about Bollman distributing Borsolino hats and Borsolino now making its fur felt hats for Bailey, and so on. I didn't get it all, but what I realized was that a vintage Borso and a modern Borso are two different things, especially if a "Bailey" tag and "Borsolino" tag are interchangeable.

But hey, after doing some searching on the hat, it appears they are selling it for a mere $350! Bailey Noble Fur Felt Fedora. I think the Borsalino Traveler is a similar hat. I would have kept it as a nice travel hat (it rolled up nicely), but the fine folks here on the lounge totally corrupted me, and suddenly the crown looked tiny and tapered.

 

[DonJuan]

Thanks besdor, I meant no disrespect to anyone on this forum.

 

[photogravity]

Thanks besdor, I meant no disrespect to anyone on this forum.

DonJuan, it's all good. I think that your earnestness overwhelmed you. There is a lot of wisdom to be found on this forum, so hang around a bit and enjoy the company.

 

[photogravity]

Don Juan, I first discovered the forum back last winter<snip>

I joined the forum on June 4, 2015 and had only one hat at the time. As of today, I counted 28 around the house (I may have missed some) and have another 6 on the way. :eusa_doh:

So as to stay on topic. One of the hats that is on the way is a Borsalino, purportedly from the 50's.

 

[photogravity]

Strange Borsalino

I recently acquired a Borsalino from eBay. There is a liner with a leather sweat band and a small tag with gold thread and a hand-shaped sorta thing that says "EULAN BAYER" and the sweatband says "Diamante" Twenty Five. It's grey felt. I'm not coming up with much on this.

 

[alanfgag]

Something like this?

 

[photogravity]

Something like this?

Very much like this, except a different colour and nowhere near as nice condition. Still seems like a pretty nice hat. Is this likely a 1960's hat?

Also, it has some sort of corrugated type thingy in the front of the sweatband. Seems I've seen something about that "feature" on some hats. Ventilation feature or something?

BTW, the search function on this forum is horrible, but I guess I'm preaching to the choir.

 

[alanfgag]

Yes, 1960s era on. A good quality and not uncommon 25 dollar hat. You'll see many photos of the corrugated sweatband spacer on this thread. It is much more productive to use Google to search - add "the fedora lounge" to your query and you will pierce the veil of mystery.

 

[hatsRme]

Most of us just use Googoo to search the Lounge. Just enter the topic, followed by The Fedora Lounge, and it works.

As to the Corrugated heat vent effort, last week the forum also decided it might be a Doo-da, OR a thingy. Your choice. Bob J. @ Black Sheep Hat Works offers present day corrugated Doo-das as an option in his work.

 

[Chepstow]

Today I found a very special Borsalino in a dark green on a fleamarket in Bonn-Germany!
A superbe high Crown and a extreme wide brim over 7 cm. I can go wrong but I guess it's a Borsalio from the 40s to early 50s. Please correct me if I wrong.

Some photos!