Fedora (hat)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The fedora is a soft felt hat that is creased lengthwise down the crown and pinched in the front on both sides. It was invented in the mid-1910s. Any hat that resembles the soft felt version is also usually called a fedora, including straw and twill ones. Similar hats with a C-crown (with an indentation for the head in the top of the crown) are occasionally called fedoras. It is usually worn by men, but ladies' versions can also be found.

The popularity of the fedora has resulted in a large variety of styles being available. Fedoras can be found in nearly any color imaginable, but black, grey, and tan/brown are the most popular and universal.

In Europe a fedora is also called a trilby. They typically have a shorter, "stingy" brim and the back of the brim is distinctively more sharply upturned as a result. It was invented in Tirol.

Another variant is the 'bogart,' being identical to the fedora but having a larger 2" wide brim.

The word comes from the title of a 1882 play by Victorien Sardou, Fédora, the heroine of which, Princess Fedora Romazova, wore this or a similar style of hat.

In the USA fedoras were considered an essential part of the suit and of business and formal attire. Most men did not go outside without wearing one. However, like the bowler hat, the fedora fell out of usage and popularity during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Today, fedoras are rarely worn as part of normal business attire, though they have staged something of a comeback as of the 2000s. Since the early part of the century, many Hasidic and Haredi ("Ultra-Orthodox") Jews have worn black fedoras and continue to this day.

1 Famous uses
2 Notable wearers
3 External links

[edit] Famous uses

Image:Jimbo i Bergen - 16.jpg

The fedora was worn mostly in the early part of the twentieth century within urban industrialized settings as a stylish way to protect from the wind and weather while being compact enough to deal with the newer technologies such as the automobile. It is often associated with Prohibition-era mafia and private detectives and tops off most zoot suits.

Red Hat Linux uses a red fedora in their logo and named their free Linux distribution Fedora Core.

A variation of the fedora, the pork pie hat, is also often associated with ska music and its "rudeboy" culture.

In traditional courtesy, when a man doffs this hat, he often grasps a fedora by placing his thumb in one of the pinched indentations at top front and at least two fingers on the other side.

[edit] Notable wearers

[edit] Historical

Fedora wearer extrodinaire Billy Zane
WWE Superstar Undertaker* "Mark Calaway" wears a black Fedora as part of his ring attire
Journalist and author Jim Knipfel
North-Carolina based band, Bombadil
Jack Abramoff, the infamous Washington lobbyist, wore a Borsalino fedora to the federal courthouse where he pled guilty.
Spider-Man and Evil Dead film director Sam Raimi can often be seen wearing a fedora on set.
Tim Armstrong of Rancid
It is common today that many Hasidic and Haredi ("Ultra-Orthodox") Jews wear black fedoras.
Run-DMC, the rap crew, wore black fedoras.
Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, is known to be quite fond of wearing a fedora.
Frank Sinatra, performer of the mid twentieth century and member of the Rat Pack, was often depicted wearing a fedora.
Bob Dylan, legendary American songwriter, musician, and poet has been wearing a fedora when performing live in the new century.
Paul Simon wears a fedora on the cover his Negotiations and Love Songs album.
Tom Landry, Dallas Cowboys NFL coach
Michael Jackson dons the hat as one of his trademarks.
Matt Drudge of Drudge Report fame.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Chabad Hasidim made this hat especially popular among his followers.
Adam Savage of the television show MythBusters has worn one in some appearances
Stephen Thanabalan, Asian Singaporean Model, Journalist regularly sports a Fedora
Malcolm Allison, the flamboyant soccer manager from the 1970's, was a famous fedora wearer.
Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant of the University of Alabama wore a fedora made of a fabric woven in a houndstooth check pattern.
Legendary American Football coach Vince Lombardi
On NBA Draft night, 1996, Samaki Walker was noticed for wearing an all-white suit with matching fedora
Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, the trombonist from Late Night with Conan O'Brien's house band, The Max Weinberg 7, nearly always dons a white fedora. This hat sometimes makes its way into Conan's comedy routine.
Members of the punk bank Rancid are often seen wearing a fedora.
Legendary Z-boy skater Jay Adams often wore a fedora.
Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates.
Larry Harvey
Professor Gunther von Hagens; scientist,inventor and sculptor/artist is never seen in public without his fedora, even while performing anatomical dissections.
Tom Waits, the distinct singer-songwriter, is often photographed wearing a fedora.
Mustache Commander of StreetWars.
The Notorious B.I.G., a rap artist.
Johnny Depp
Former San Francisco mayor Wille Brown.
Ne-Yo
Investigative journalist Greg Palast.
Student and young author Charles William Lawless.
Kid Rock; the rocker-rapper from Detroit is often seen wearing various colored fedoras.
Anthony Salerno, usually seen wearing a fedora hat

[edit] Fictional

Indiana Jones, the fictional archaeologist and adventurer, is known for his brown fedora and leather jacket.
Carmen Sandiego almost always appears in a red fedora with matching trench coat.
The class Red Mage in the Final Fantasy series is characterized by wearing a red fedora with a white feather on it.
Fictional detective Mike Hammer always wears one, with a trench coat.
Fictional detective Dixon Hill (on Star Trek: The Next Generation) always wears one, with a trench coat.
In Hollywood movies of the 1940s, actors often wore a fedora, particularly when playing private detectives, gangsters, or other "tough guy" roles. A trench coat was frequently part of the costume, a notable example being Humphrey Bogart's character in Casablanca. The fedora is closely associated with film noir characters, such as Bogart in The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon or Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past.
James Bond actors Sean Connery and George Lazenby wore a fedora when portraying the secret agent. When Roger Moore took over the role, he didn't wear a fedora, although he threw one on the coat rack on several occasions.
Chip from Disney's 1989 children's cartoon Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, wore a fedora as a trademark.
Sharky from the underwater crimefighting duo Sharky and George always wore a fedora, despite wearing no other clothes.
In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, The Phantom of the Opera, the Phantom sometimes wears a black fedora.
The comic strip hero Dick Tracy wears a yellow one.
The first costumed comic strip crime-fighter The Phantom (aka Mr Walker) wears a signature trench coat and fedora when walking in town as an ordinary man.
Clark Kent was often seen wearing one (including in the 1978 feature movie of Superman), though in more recent incarnations it has been absent.
In the Bowery Boys movies, Slip Mahoney always wore a fedora with the brim folded up.
New Zealander Sam Neill, an actor, often wore a fedora when portraying fictional paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III.
In the anime series Hellsing, Alucard is usually seen wearing a red fedora hat.
Freddy Krueger, the fictional dream mass-murderer is noted for wearing this hat, along with a red and green striped sweater
Daisuke Jigen, Lupin's marksman in the Lupin III manga and animé, wears a fedora, supposedly as an aid for aiming his gun.
Also, Inspector Zenigata, ICPO agent sworn to capture Lupin, of the same anime and manga wears the typical detective set of trench coat and fedora
Tex Murphy, the fictional gumshoe of the 2040s.
In The Spirit created by Will Eisner, Denny Colt began a life of fighting crime wearing only a small domino mask, blue business suit, fedora hat and gloves for a costume.
Joey Jeremiah, from the original Degrassi series, always wore a fedora to school. That is, until his teacher yanked it off.
The comic book superhero/vigilante The Question always wears a fedora (usually blue) with a matching trench coat and suit, and a mask that makes it appear that he has a blank, featureless face. This is referenced in the Watchmen graphic novel, where the character of Rorschach (who was loosely based on The Question) often wears brown fedora along with a brown trenchcoat and his signature ink-blot mask.
In the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series, the turtles would often wear fedoras and trenchcoats as disguises when going undercover.
Jack McCoy has recently started wearing a fedora in episodes of Law & Order.
Charles "Fat Charlie" Nancy in Neil Gaiman's Novel Anansi Boys also wear a green fedora hat which he acquired from his dad "Mr. Nancy".
Pipboy from the Fallout series sometimes wears a fedora Hat.
The original DC Comics superhero known as the Crimson Avenger wore a fedora as part of his first costume.
DC Comics superhero Midnight, a character made in homage to the Will Eisner creation known as The Spirit, wore a fedora.
Marvel Comics superhero Wolverine often wore a fedora when dressed in civilian clothes in the X-Men Animated Series. The character also wore one in the New X-Men Here Comes Tomorrow storyline.
Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, and Cab Calloway wore fedora hats as Jake and Elwood Blues and Curtis in the film The Blues Brothers
The Sandman wore a green business suit, a gasmask, and a fedora for his crime-fighting costume.
Inspector Gadget wears the standard detective trenchcoat and fedora combination.
Edward "Stubbs" Stubblefield, as well as several male civilians from Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse wear fedoras.
The Mask,wore a yellow one in the Animated Series.
In popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas by Rockstar Games, the player obtains the ability to shop at "Didier Sachs" after beating all the missions, which is the most expensive clothing shop where Trilbys, Bowler Derbys, and Fedora-esque Booters may be purchased.
Characters in the television show Remington Steele often wear Fedora hats. Most notably, Stephanie Zimbalist's character Laura Holt wore one throughout much of the first season.

[edit] Signage

The Red Hat logo features a red fedora on its Shadow Man logo. In addition, the Red Hat community-oriented distribution of Linux is called Fedora.
The newsreader Forté Agent uses a person wearing a fedora as logo and icon.