The Brim Report

Denim changes personality when it moves from jeans to a cap. Weight, weave, wash, pattern and construction all determine whether an interesting cloth becomes a good hat.

City Sport has made caps in Belgium since 1898, but one riotously colorful collaboration with FunkyBrims proves that tradition does not have to be quiet.

Born from one sailor's frustration, the Tilley hat left the boat and became a practical companion for travel, weather and years of ordinary adventure.

The raw Shelby and washed Buster share heavyweight Japanese Kuroki denim, but they offer very different ownership experiences.

The Sterkowski Orso and Salty Dog use the same extra-fine merino wool, but different stitches give them very different weight, shape, and winter character.

Structured wool, a full narrow brim, patchwork Donegal tweed, and just enough feather: a close look at the practical Irish Walking Hat.

From Old Tom Morris’s checked wool cap to Harry Hall’s modern newsboy, golf headwear has spent more than a century balancing weather, performance, personality, and tradition.

When filming ends, a hat may return to rental stock, enter studio storage, become a gift, reach a museum, or lose the paperwork that proves where it came from.

After repeated takes, perspiration can change a hat’s fit, shape, color, and continuity. The costume team has to protect both the actor and the illusion.

Costume artists use controlled fading, reshaping, stains, and texture to give a new hat a believable history while keeping every copy consistent.

Hollywood’s movie hats are spread across studio collections, independent costume houses, working wardrobe trailers, and carefully controlled archives.

Films are shot out of order, hats are repaired, aged, duplicated, and dirtied. A costume team keeps every crown, brim, dent, and stain consistent.

The Akubra Cattleman was not named for one celebrated Australian. It was named for generations of people who worked beneath a difficult sun.

I bought the Akubra Lawson thinking it was named for a writer. An archived Akubra page led instead to explorer William Lawson and the difficult route west.

Andrew Barton Paterson moved between two worlds: Sydney law offices and the bush legend he helped create. The Akubra bearing his name does much the same.

Akubra is more than Australia’s bush hat. Its history reaches from Hobart hat mills and city streets to military slouch hats and Kempsey craftsmanship.

That is only one reason people wear pins, but it is an important one.

Maritime Stories and Their Hats Illustration created using AI. The historical story below is documented and sourced. Pirates took whatever they could use: silver, liquor, weapons, food, and sometimes the ship itself. In 1717, however, the English pirate Benjamin Hornigold and his crew made off with something far less glamorous. They stole a shipload of hats. The encounter happened off the coast of Honduras, where Hornigold’s pirates stopped a passing sloop. The people aboard