A FUN CHRISTMAS HAT GIFT

This is the perfect stocking stuffer hat gift. You do not need to worry about the recipients head size, and the interchangeable pompon/bobble will bring a smile to whomever receives it.

JUST BOBBLE IT

                      If you liked it, then you should have put a bobble on it!

OLDSTER TREND AND THE BUCKET HAT

A bucket hat is a soft cotton hat with a wide and downwards sloping brim which is worn by both men and women. The brim offers shade from the sun for the eyes and face. The hat is usually made from heavy-duty cotton fabric such as denim or canvas. Two metal eyelets are commonly placed on each side of the hat so that it is cool to wear on hot days.

The bucket hat is Irish in origin, being traditionally worn by fishermen and farmers as protection from the rain. It was quickly adopted by the English upper classes for country pursuits like walking, wildfowling and fishing as, when folded, it could fit inside a coat pocket. Today, it is part of the traditional Irish folk costume, together with the flat cap, grandfather shirt and Aran sweater.

In the 1960s and 70s, tweed cloth "Irish walking hats" were popular accessories for men as an alternative to the stingy-brim fedora and pork pie hat, the short brim being more in keeping with the then current fashion of slim fitting houndstooth and mohair suits with narrow lapels.

Bucket hats were quite trendy in the ’90s, but for the past few years the snapback cap (another ’90s favorite) and the stingy brim fedora, have ruled supreme.

 NOW hat the stingy brim fedora has been knocked off its fashionista pedestal, I see a resurgence of the bucket hat. It has been a go-to-hat for black urban youth who were so tired of the hipster fedora. Pulled low on the head and worn with dark glasses it can have a kool and menacing look. The early adopters are certainly going with tropical prints.

Rihanna has almost single-handedly made the bucket hat cool again. Thanks to style icons and trendsetters like Rihanna the bucket hat is having another moment. In the past she’s rocked floral printed hats by Joyrich and Profound Aesthetic – all of which quickly sold out after she wore them. Here are four floral and tropical bucket hats inspired by the star’s love of the utilitarian headgear. And they are all stolen from the boys. I think Rihanna would approve.

Cartoon and graphic Black and white printed canvas are also popular.

Disney bucket

JEREMY SCOTT 8 BALL BUCKET

The HIPSTERS have been pushed to the side by the OLDSTERS, who have embraced their great grandfathers high waisted pant and classic buckets a la Miami 1970's.

DUCKIE BROWNS RETRO BUCKETS

For those of us who are looking for a more wearable look, we can find the trend at J Crew.

Tommy Bahama by DORFMAN PACIFIC,  has a great summer bucket available at Lord and Taylor.

TOMMY BAHAMA TBW145-KHAKI

So wear a bucket hat for the summer of 2015 and work the look.

Check out these classic buckets from DORFMAN PACIFIC.

Best selling style 863 in pigment dyed twill.

STYLE 830D. POPLIN RAIN BUCKET

scala classico British tan

PHRENOLOGY and the criminal mind

What is Phrenology you ask?
Phrenology was developed by a German physician named Franz Joseph Gall in the late 1700s. Gall noticed that the cerebral cortex of humans was much larger than that of animals, which he believed was what made humans intellectually superior. Eventually, he became convinced that the physical features of the cortex could also be seen in the shape and size of the skull.

After examining the heads of a number of young pickpockets, Gall found that many of them had bumps on their skull just above their ears. He then suggested that the bumps, indentations and shape of the skull could be linked to different aspects of a person's personality, character and abilities. With his young pickpockets, for example, he suggested that the bump behind their ears was associated with a tendency to steal, lie or deceive.

• Moral and intellectual faculties were innate.
• The exercise or manifestation of these faculties depended upon their organization.
• The brain controled all of the propensities, sentiments and faculties.
• The brain was composed of as many organs as there are different faculties, propensities and sentiments.
• The form of the skull represented and reflected the form and development of the brain organs.

Gall sought support for his ideas by measuring the skulls of people in prisons, hospitals and asylums, especially those with odd-shaped heads. Based on what he found, Gall developed a system of 27 different "faculties" that he believed could be directly diagnosed by assessing specific parts of the head. He created a chart that showed which areas of the skull were associated with specific traits or characteristics.

So, if the hat don't fit, then you must acquit!

However, Gall's methods lacked scientific rigor and he chose to simply ignore any evidence that contradicted his ideas. Despite this, phrenology became increasingly popular from the 1800s well into the early 1900s. Gall's ideas gained many followers, but he began to attract considerable criticism from scientists as well as other groups. The Catholic church believed that his suggestion of a "religion organ" was atheistic, and in 1802 his publications were added to the Index of Prohibited Books. After Gall's death in 1828, several of his followers continued to develop phrenology, taking it from Gall's attempts at science into something of a cult. Phrenology references also began showing up frequently in popular culture.

Despite phrenology's brief popularity, it eventually became viewed as a pseudoscience much like astrology, numerology and palmistry. Criticism from some of the best-known brain researchers played an important role in this reversal of popular views of phrenology. In 1843, Pierre Flourens found that the fundamental assumption of phrenology - that the contours of the skull corresponded to the underlying shape of the brain - was wrong. In his Elementary Treatise on Human Physiology, physiologist Francois Magendie summed up his dismissal of phrenology by writing:

Phrenology, a pseudo-science of the present day; like astrology, necromancy, and alchemy of former times, it pretends to localize in the brain the different kinds of memory. But its efforts are mere assertions, which will no bear examination for an instant.

Influence of Phrenology

While phrenology has long been identified as a pseudoscience, it did help make important contributions to the field of neurology. Thanks to the focus on phrenology, researchers became more interested in the concept of cortical localization, an idea that suggested that certain mental functions were localized in particular areas of the brain.

While Gall and other phrenologists incorrectly believed that bumps on the head corresponded to personality and abilities, they were correct in believing that different mental abilities were associated with different areas of the brain. Modern research methods allow scientists to use sophisticated tools such as MRI and PET scans to learn more about the localization of function within the brain.

FALL 15 HAT TRENDS

Hat trends for FALL 14 are a little bizarre, going from sugar loaf MOUNTAIN high to valley WIDE.

Armani

ARMANI pulled the look off pretty well, but these hats are just not practical and a little too Halloween costume looking.

 A chic and less WTFRUWing way to pull this look off is like this.

0r

GAME OF THRONES INSPIRED

Love these game of throne inspired hoods with gem stones.

Thick knit beanies, often adorned with gems, are also selling briskly.

There is a lot of Russian influenced fashion fur for fall 2014. We see it on bags, shoes, scarves and of course hats.

Note the high circa 1970s mod newsboy crowns.

Remember that you will always be right on style in a CALLANAN hat.

BRADLY COOPER GOES VIZOR

We all love Bradley Cooper, who happens to be the lead in the current Broadway based Elephant man.
With the trending of buckets of the past year, I have being keeping my eye on visors as a new trend lately. Gosh, remember when Abercrombie and Fitch's half naked models pushed the baseball off the head of American guys a few years back, well, they might be ready for a comeback.
Let's watch and see if Bradley Cooper is an early adopter or maybe he was just having a bad hair day;-)

 You too can get the Bradley look, even if you are thinning on the noggin.

Good idea to try and match it to your beard color.

HARLEM'S BEST HAT SHOP - FLAMEKEEPERS HAT CLUB

Nice article about my friend Marc Williamson new hat shop by JUSTIN JONES FOR THE DAILY BEAST.
Marc is an authentic sartorial gentleman with a great swag. Mack was "hip" way before hipsters were even born. Dorfman Pacific wishes Mark the best of luck with his new store.

The Harlem Hat Shop You Have to Visit

Marc Williamson’s mission is to get us interested in hats, and find the right one for our heads. His shop, Flamekeepers Hat Club, attracts Wall Street businessmen and downtown hipsters.

When we meet, Marc Williamson tells me he wants to corner the hat market by “passing the torch of good taste from one generation to the next.” Seven weeks ago, he opened his shop, the Flamekeepers Hat Club on West 121st Street, steps away from Frederick Douglass Boulevard, where Harlem’s colorful history has merged with vegan bakeries and some of the city’s best soul food.

As I entered the asymmetrical space, Williamson, 44, greeted me with an aura of positivity and genuine ease—not the cheesy, forced welcome you get from a part-time salesman earning a few extra bucks in between class or Broadway auditions. After all, hats have been part of his life for the past 22 years; passion and positivity fuel his business.

The shop’s hats and caps, which range from $35 to $300, come from manufactures all across the globe: Germany, Czechoslovakia, France, Ireland, Columbia, and some are even made domestically. Each one is designed distinctively, marking decades-old traditions from each manufacture, guaranteeing a plethora of options and hats to fit every type of person. Williamson’s mostly male customers range from Wall Street executives to downtown hipsters.

His hat journey began while Williamson was studying Business Merchandising at Manhattan’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where he sought out a part-time job to help ease the financial burden. He spent days going from interview to interview before being hired on-the-spot at New York’s oldest hat shop—J.J. Hat Center.

“The management really groomed me for retail,” Williamson said of what he thought would just be a pit-stop on his path to graduation. “Once I got pulled into the management side of things that was it.” He would later become part owner of J.J.’s for a total of eleven years, as well as co-owner of Pork Pie Hatters in the East Village and Williamsburg. He’s catered to locals and tourists, as well as high-profile clients ranging from Sarah Jessica Parker to Pharrell Williams.

Williamson wasn’t always a hat guy—clothing was more his forte—and his experience in the hat industry evolved his personal style to almost always include the structured accessory. “My signature items would be my headwear…my scarves…and my socks,” he told Time Out New York when they dubbed him one of the Most Stylish New Yorkers of 2013.

Williamson’s 22 years in the business has also honed a trained eye in selecting the right hat for a person based on their look, energy, and style. Williamson stands by his record of rarely disappointing a customer when they are at a loss as to what suits them. But, he says, what ultimately makes a hat look good on a person is the symmetry of the crown of their head to their jaw line. “It’s key to a hat looking good,” he said. “That’s really the sweet spot.”

What ultimately makes a hat look good on a person is the symmetry of the crown of their head to their jaw line.

Flamekeepers, outfitted with its dark woods, bare-stone walls, and copper pipe shelving, occupies a completely modern space with a subtle ode to the past. It’s a play on Williamson’s idea of the current perception of the business. “I think hats around the world are looked at as old-fashioned,” he said. “I wanted to create a space that was more contemporary so that people would understand that hats are just as much [modern] as they are old.”

Just as hats are diverse, so are their wearers. “Anyone who wears a hat,” Williamson said, “definitely wants to tell you something about themselves. They want to speak about who they are.”

Flamekeepers Hat Club is located at 220 St. Nicholas Avenue at 121st Street in Harlem.

What’s the difference between interfacing, lining, interlining and underlining?

I am presently working on a fabric constructed hat and there seemed to be a little confusion on the "stuff" used in between the outer shell and the inner shell. On this project it is called Interfacing.
I hope this helps.

Building structure and support into a hat or garment can be confusing and a recent query brought this to light. The question — What’s the difference between interfacing, lining, interlining and underlining?

The answer: All of these terms refer to construction details that are usually hidden from view when you’re wearing a garment, but they serve an important function in maintaining the shape and comfort of your creation.

Interfacing is a support fabric used in areas that need more stability than just the fabric weight. For example, you’ll find interfacing in collars, cuffs, waistbands, closures (like buttonholes), and sometimes hems, as well as fabric hat brims and sometimes hat crowns. In tailored garments, you may find interfacing under entire garment sections, and more than one type used within a single garment.

Lining is used to help hide the inner construction details of a garment, and also to help it slide off and on over other clothing with ease. Lining fabrics are usually slippery and silky, though other types may be used for effect. Lining is constructed separately from the garment and attached at facing or hem areas by hand or machine.

Interlining is a fabric added to a garment when more warmth is needed, like in a winter coat. It may be a heavy fabric with batting added, or a lighter weight one like flannel or fleece. Interlining can be constructed separately from the actual garment (it’s sometimes removable), or used as an underlining.

Underlining is a fabric added to fashion fabric for more body and/or opacity. It’s a separate layer attached to the corresponding garment fabric section wrong side, and then treated as one during construction. The hat underlining fabric is often "fused" to the back of the hat fabric.  Pattern markings are often transferred to the underlining to avoid show-through on the garment fabric.

Sometimes, when we do not want to add additional fabric to summer hats we use 
BIAS TAPE is well known to quilters for finishing the edges of quilts, but bias tape is also a staple in garment and hat making as well. Bias tape can either be store-bought or made at home and comes it in a wide variety of solid colors and prints. You can custom make bias tape in nearly any thickness or fiber content. It’s been said that bias tape is the duct tape of the sewing world – you can use it for nearly everything.

Here we added a bias tape to finished a Dorfman Pacific summer bucket hat.

available at your local sewing center