Fedora hats

What is a Fedora?

What do Indiana Jones and Frank Sinatra have in common? They both understood the style that a fedora offers. A fedora is a soft felt hat with an indented crown around 11 cm high and a soft brim 6.4 cm in width. The fedora shape has been applied to different hats, such as the Panama hat and trilby.

The fedora varies based on:

• Brim – A fedora’s brim can be worn angled down, up, or, as the nickname ‘snap-brim hat’ implies, turned up in the back and down in the front. The brim can be finished in multiple widths, positions and materials with raw, sewn, trimmed, or finished edges.


• Crown – The top of the hat, the crown, can be shaped in different ways with the most common being a teardrop crown. Diamond and centre creases are also popular.


• Pinch – Sharpness and placement of the pinch vary between styles.


• Material & Colour – Most men’s fedoras are made from wool felt. Felt is a material constructed of compressed, matted fibres. Fedoras come in a range of colours with black, grey, dark brown and khaki being the most popular.


• Ribbon – Fedoras are synonymous with a fabric ribbon above the brim. Some also include a decorative feather.

Why Fedora?

The actual history of the fedora is an enigma. Many claim it originated in a play named ‘Fédora’ by the French author Victorien Sardou. One of the lead roles, Princess Fédora Romanoff, wore a hat similar to what we know as a men’s fedora hat. True or not, it’s a good story.

Prince Edward of Britain started wearing the fedora in the 1920s, and it soon replaced bowlers, flat caps and top hats. Its popularity rose in the 20s with Prohibition and gangsters and again with Hollywood stars in the 40s and 50s. While not as mainstream as it once was, the fedora hat is still a staple for the dapper, the hipster and even the modern man.