Under the Brim

I've always liked wearing hats--well, except for a period in my early 20s, but I quickly realized that looking cool was less important than warding off the cold--but I haven't always been able to find hats that I like. I usually don't care for what's trendy at a given moment.

For ball caps, I prefer them fitted, and if not sporting a logo of a local team, I want it to be blank. Do you know how difficult it is to find a fitted, low-profile wool cap without a logo? I had one, a long while back, that I'd bought from one of those cart vendors in Downtown Crossing. It was dark gray, and even had kind of a short brim. It was a great cap.

I lost it in 1998, somewhere in downtown Palo Alto, on a trip visiting the Mrs.' family, because I had carelessly put it in my jacket pocket and it fell out. I made do with an adjustable version, but it wasn't the same. I switched to a flat cap, sometimes called a newsboy, in a Donegal tweed that I got at the Irish imports store when it used to be in Quincy Market. That has worked out well.

In summer I can't wear a ball cap--just too warm. But I do need sun protection if I'm going to be outside for a while (which, if you know me, you know I try to avoid as much as possible). I like fedoras and other hats with brims, and they look good on me (not the case with everyone). What I don't like is the skinny-brim look that's currently in vogue (like I said, I usually don't care for what's popular or trendy), plus it has the opposite effect on me: because I have a fairly large head, a hat with a narrow brim looks too small on me, even if it's the correct size.

About eight years ago I discovered the panama as a summer hat, and it made complete sense for me. I've had a few of them since, some of which fit better than others. A couple of years ago I bought one on eBay from someone who imports them directly from Ecuador, where they are made to his specifications. This one was made to an exact hat size of 7-3/8, as opposed to just "large," and as a result fits much better.

But one thing about a panama is, it's sort of dressy, or it at least makes you feel like you should be dressed up when wearing it, ideally in an off-white linen suit or something similar. I wear mine much more casually, of course, but I kept feeling like the hat's natural straw color and dressy black band were working against me.

Several months ago I saw a panama in Nordstrom that solved this problem. The straw was a nice, rich tan color, and the band was olive:

The straw is actually a bit darker than it appears in this picture, but you get the idea. This hat is made by a company called Bailey, and was selling for $83, which was a bit steep, especially since I saw it just as I was starting my spending crackdown.

A few weeks later I saw the same hat in Lord & Taylor. I thought, great, once we get past 4th of July they'll put it on sale, and they always have coupons for additional discounts (you have to sign up for emails on their web site to get them) so I'll be able to scoop it up cheap.

So I waited. And waited. Every couple of weeks, or whenever the emails said "new markdowns taken," I stopped at L&T on my way home from work, and each time the hats were still $83. I waited some more. The email said "final reductions" so I went and looked, and still full price. I complained about it to the Proper Bostonian.

So now it's August, and I'd given up on getting the hat. No luck finding one on eBay either. The other night the Mrs. said she needed to go to the mall to pay her Macy's bill, like she does each month. We usually split up and I wander around for a while.

I went into Nordstrom to see what new fall stuff they had, and along the back wall in the men's department I saw the hats on a shelf (they had previously been displayed on a proper hat rack near men's dress shirts and ties). I checked the hat and it was marked down to 50% off (give or take a few cents), and they still had large, which I had previously tried on and knew it fit well enough.

Sometimes, patience is rewarded (although I admit I wasn't very patient in this instance). And there are still a few weeks of summer that I can get some use out of this, though I think I'm going to have to remove that little black plastic shield thing from the band.