As the urge for men in their 20’s and 30’s to wear formal hats increases, so too does the confusion over which hat is which. In particular, the trilby versus the fedora.

Davidoff (The Rocker), from The Dirty Skirts, for example, calls any old hat a trilby. Because he LIKES saying it. It makes him feel sexy. And clever. He wants you to know that he is aware of and uses the word often in his everyday speech. When, in fact, he is completely off the mark. With the split between trilby’s and fedora’s in young “hip” Cape Town looking at around 50/50, at least he only looks like a doos half the time. Given the company he keeps, you could take that down to 25%, due to general ignorance.

Nasty? Definitely.

Necessary? Always.

So anyway, let’s check it out.

THE TRILBY

Your basic trilby

I gleaned this information from a website I’m about to launch, called “Wikipedia” – I think it’s got legs..

A trilby hat (or simply trilby, originally Trilby hat) is a soft felt men’s hat with a narrow brim, a deeply indented crown, and a pinch at the front. Traditionally it was made from rabbit hair felt, but is now sometimes made from other materials, including tweed and wool. Trilbies are softer than Homburgs, and have a flexible brim instead of a curved one. They are similar to fedoras, which have a wider brim and are mainly an American hat. The hat’s name derives from a play based on George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby, and one was worn in the first London production of the stage adaptation.

Hmm, very interesting. And I’ll tell you something even more interesting, or, rather, coincidental; and that is the fact that I actually played Svangali in that very production.

That last sentence was a CLASSIC example of, what we call, a “blatant lie.” I don’t do that very often, but I tell you what, the RUSH is awesome!

Now let’s check out a very good friend of mine:

THE FEDORA

My fedora. Signed by Michael Jackson.
I was one of the dancers in the Smooth Criminal music video.
Again, that last statement was complete fabrication.
Seriously, the hat is not even mine.

Ok, a fedora is a soft felt hat that is creased lengthwise down the crown and pinched in the front on both sides. Similar hats with a C-crown (with an indentation for the head in the top of the crown) are occasionally called fedoras. The brim goes all the way around, and often there will be a hat band as well. A trilby hat is somewhat similar to a fedora, but typically has a shorter brim, and the back of the brim is distinctively more sharply upturned as a result.

Right, so there you have it. Are we going to be cool about this now? Please, we can’t have any more fuckups. It JUST CAN’T HAPPEN!

Not at this level..