Thread: Hats, New and/or Old!

In 1914 Rome, a young enlistee in the Italian Army, Almicare Moroni was sent to one of the local, government contracted seamstresses to get measured for his uniforms. Four years later, when he was finished with World War I (or perhaps more precisely, when WWI was finished with him), He returned to Roma specifically to visit Josephine, the seamstress whose pretty face (faccia bella) had frequently infiltrated his thoughts since the final fitting. A few years later, Almicare and Josephine Moroni disembarked a ship at Ellis Island, New York. to begin their lives as Italian-Americans.

I was twelve or thirteen when Almicare died in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His wife told me I could choose two of his many awesome fedoras. I selected the only black one. It was all I wanted. It was beaver fur felt, teardrop shaped with a two and a half inch wide brim a wide grosgrain ribbon with a real pearl pin through the bow and a ridiculously orange satin liner. Grandma smiled as she handed it to me saying, "You choose-a very a-special-a hat-a!"

"Why is this one so special? They are all nice. "

"He getta married in-a dis-a one. He wear dis-a one onna de boat. It'sa de only one-a from-a Italia." Shortly before our divorce my first wife cut this irreplaceable fedora into three strips of black fur felt. I have yet to be able to replace that hat.

There have been other threads about plans to purchase specific fedoras but in this thread I invite posting pictures of our hats in general, except ballcaps. I don't count a ballcap as a hat. So I'll start. I picked up a very nice porkpie last week:

I got it from http://www.delmonicohatter.com/ in New Haven. It's black fur felt with a two tone grosgrain ribbon and a feather. It has a two inch snap brim which I like up (as in the picture). There are different schools of thought about feathers. I think it depends on the lid. With this one, I think the feather works great!

So folks, whaddya think? Any hats out there?