This is a straw skimmer or boater and was frequently worn in the new version of "The Great Gatsby." These hats were the most popular summer hats of the fashionably in-tune men of the 1920s.

The 1920s come roaring back to life in 3-D this weekend with the 6th film interpretation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel “The Great Gatsby.”

Whether you think it is the bee’s knees or nothing more than a load of banana oil, it is a stylistically beautiful hommage to the era’s fashion, which means tons of great hats.

With Leonardo DiCaprio taking the title role, he is proving to be quite the hat fan in our Hollywood Hatties segment. He, like many of the actors in this film, is frequently spotted wearing a straw skimmer, also known as a boater. It looks good on him, too. Gatsby’s rival for the heart of the fair Daisy, Tom Buchanan played by Joel Edgerton, also looks striking in a skimmer.

Toby Maguire, who plays the narrator Nick Carraway, also wears a skimmer, but in this photo he’s wearing an ivy cap. Ivy caps and big apple caps were extremely popular at the time. It wasn’t at all out of place for a man to be dressed in a three-piece suit topped by a cap instead of a hat, especially in the summer months.

There are more hats than these, of course, but these are the heavy hitters of the film. If there is a question you have about an actor in the film and the hat they are wearing, send us a still and we will try to help you identify it.

This is the Tommy Bahama Safari. It is a great hat for keeping the sun at bay with its large downturned brim. Perfect for golfers, gardeners and BBQ goers.

These straw hats are brand name favorites and perfect for life relaxing under the hot summer sun.

We have the latest Tommy Bahamas from safari hats to gamblers to fedoras. We even have their Panama hats.

Visit Hats Plus today to what Tommy Bahama hat is right for you.

The Stetson Rockport is a classic mens' summer straw fedora. Perfect for work or play, the brim snaps up or down to suit your mood and style.

The snap brim is a dapper number you can wear up or down to best suit your style.

Inside it is nicely protected by a leather sweatband.

Best of all, it is one of Stetson’s most affordable summer hats.

The six straw hats in this photo represent six different types of straw used for making straw hats. Starting in the bottom left corner and working clockwise are shantung straw, panama straw, sisol straw, baku straw, sea grass and milan straw.

Spend any time browsing straw hats online or in our shop and you will notice that there are several different types of straw listed in the descriptions. While it is not difficult to see and feel the distinctions between them in real life; many people don’t know the technical differences in the hats’ weaves and construction.

Using the photo to the right, let’s take a closer look at 6 different types of straw used in many of our summer hats.

SHANTUNG: In the bottom left corner of the photo you will see part of the crown and brim of a white straw hat. This is shantung straw. Shantung is usually a light-weight straw that is bleached to an almost pure white, about as white as the meat of an almond. Shantung straw hats are made from a flat woven sheet and blocked into fedora shapes and optimos. The off-white color helps reflect the sun light, but the weave isn’t usually as tight on shantung hats as it is on others, so it is still possible to get burned with prolonged activity outdoors. It is quite maleable, but shantung can be easily damaged by rain and crushing, unless otherwise noted on the hat.

PANAMA: Panama straw is a catch all phrase that most people say when referring to a straw hat. A true panama straw hat, like the one above the shantung hat on the left side of the photo, has a weave that radiates out from a circle in the center of the crown. The inside of a panama hat is stamped with brown ink declaring the hat was woven in Ecuador. Different types of straw may be used and woven with varying degrees of tightness as well as vent patterns. Some panama hats can be rolled up for storeage. Others will be destroyed by any act of crushing or rolling. It depends on the hat and its manufacturer. To read more about the history of panama hats or how to grade them, please see our previous blog posts.

SISOL: The top left corner of the photo features a sisol straw fedora. Sisol is so light weight that it makes feathers feel leaden. Highly refined and delicate, sisol straw fedoras are prized more for wearing at special events than for daily use. They are very suseptible to rain and nearly any impact. Yet, they are also nearly works of art and so light you can wear one all day without noticing  any presure on your dome.

BAKU: Baku straw hats are so refined the straw is first used to form geometric shapes in the weave. It, too, is extremely lightweight like the sisol straw. Genuine baku straw hats are among the most expensive straw hats at Hats Plus. As much art as headwear, most people save their baku straw hats for special events. Water and rough handling is baku’s greatest enemy.

SEA GRASS: Heading down a notch to the middle right-hand side hat is sea grass. For as expensive as baku is, sea grass tends to be inexpensive. Made of actual sea grass from the ocean, this type of straw hat is rarely bleached and often green hued. Frequently, sea grass hats have a more relaxed personality with open weaves for better ventilation and less shade. That is not always the case, but common enough. Usually fairly durable, sea grass straw hats are good for most any occassion.

MILAN: Milan straw hats, like the one in the bottom right corner, are more defined by their construction than material. A milan straw hat has many horizontal layers like clapboard siding on a house. The straw itself can be made of anything from paper to different plastics. The layering process can make these among the heaviest of the straw hats but also among the most durable. Some, certainly not all, milan straw hats are packable. Most can withstand rougher handling than other straws. Milan straw hats also tend to offer pretty good solar protection, too.

With any luck this helps to better distinguish the differences between the straw hats that are available. As always, we welcome your questions and comments.

This is the Kangol logo first designed in 1983. While a popular brand today, the company started nearly 100 years ago!

While Kangol’s caps are among our best selling in the whole store, fans of classic felt fedoras might be quick to blow off Kangol as just trendy fad caps and hats. However, the evidence exists that they are the real deal and here to stay on top of the fashion world. What other brand can boast generals, The Beatles, a princess and rappers among their biggest fans?

Take the Kangol beret for a moment. It has been among the company’s best sellers for 94 years!

It all started at the end of World War I in 1918. That’s when a British soldier named Jacques Spreiregen came home looking for a new occupation. French berets were very popular; so he started an import business.

As it grew and succeeded, he started having the berets made in England and named the company Kangol in 1938. No one knows for certain how the company name came about but leading speculation on the company’s website is that the “K” stood for knit, “ang” came from the angora used in the caps and the “ol” from the wool. The kangaroo now associated with the logo wouldn’t be developed for another 50 years.

Among the company’s most distinguished early customers was British WWII General Bernard “Monte” Montgomery. Many soldiers in the British army wore them as part of their uniforms, but Monte was almost never seen without his Kangol.

After this war, the Kangol beret became the official headwear for the U.K.’s 1948 Olympic team.

The 1950s saw a great deal of design innovation at Kangol. It was in that decade that they first created the 504 and 507 caps. Their first successful summer cap of that era…the “Tropic.” These are our most popular caps to this day. Sure, they come in more colors and variations than they used to, but the overall design remains a top seller.

Always on the cutting edge of music and culture, Kangol became the only company licensed to design, market and brand headwear for none other than The Beatles. They were one band who didn’t need any HELP with their fashion sense.

In addition to musicians, professional golfers took to wearing Kangol caps by the late 1970s. The company also began a serious expansion into American markets.

Having trouble remembering the company name, Americans kept calling the caps kangaroo hats. When the company decided it finally needed a more permanent, easy-to-recognize logo, it turned to the mistaken pronounciation of its name and crafted the now eponymous kangaroo logo.

Rap culture in the 1980s instantly took to the brand. Rappers such as Grand Master Flash and LL Cool J famously wore the hats. To this day folks come into Hats Plus asking for LL Cool J hats, meaning a Kangol bucket hat.

Yet, rappers weren’t the only ones taken by the company’s headwear in the 1980s. Britain’s Princess Diana posed on the cover of Vogue magazine with a Kangol in 1983!

Today, anybody who is anybody wears Kangol caps and hats. Musicians, models and movie stars all enjoy the always fresh fashion sense of the company’s designers. And those designers now include a movie star with his very own line of Kangol caps. Who? Samuel L. Jackson.

Head on over to Hats Plus today online or in person to find what Kangol suits you best!

Gardening is a breeze with the plentiful shade delivered by the Stetson Rustic. Even lifeguards will love how this straw hat's brim is so wide.

Spring means the start of gardening season, and even in March and April you should protect yourself from the sun’s harsh rays.

Stetson’s brand new “Rustic” straw hat is the best friend of gardners, lifeguards and anybody else who spends a lot of time outdoors. This summer straw is made from thick palm leaves that help block the sun’s powerful UV rays. It has a very wide 3 3/4-inch downturn brim, which provides about as much shade coverage as any hat we carry.

As a summer hat, it is fairly light weight. The crown has vents on each side to help vent the heat from your head and allow breezes to help cool you.

Great for both men and women, this straw hat has an elastic headband to provide the best possible fit. Windy days are no trouble at all with the attached chin strap.

Gardening, lawn work and the great outdoors have never been more rewarding than with the comfortable protection of shade from a Stetson Rustic.

Stetson's Rick LaPorte visits Hats Plus with next fall's hat samples. He's wearing the all new Stetson Emmett, which will likely be one of our most popular new hats of the autumn. It is a fur felt fedora with an especially handsome braided leather hat band.

As the snow melts, the songbirds return and the buds start forming on the trees, it can mean only one thing. It is time to think about next winter.

Well, only in the hat business. Hatters are always manufacturing in the opposite season. That means we get a sneak peek at this coming autumn’s hottest new hats!

So far this week we’ve had visits from Kangol, Bailey, Dobbs and Stetson. There’s nothing that stirs a hat lover’s soul with anticipation like seeing those big, black tubes of hat samples coming through the door.

Today’s visit by Stetson’s Rick LaPorte showcased many intriguing new models of fedoras and headwear innovations.

“We’ve come out with a new wool-fur felt blend hat line,” LaPorte said. “It has exciting colors and band treatments, which are made in our Garland, Texas, hat facility.”

What are some of the advantages of a blended wool and fur felt? It is much softer than a wool hat and holds its color better, too. It is more affordable than a fur felt hat, and it is a little more water repellent.

We got a preview of the Stetson Belfast, which was one of their most appealing wool-fur felt fedoras. Thick, soft and warm, it offers a more popular short snap brim with a lower profile crown. The two-tone hat band uses a primary self band with a gently contrasting grosgrain band peeking out from below it.

One of this fall’s potentially biggest winners will be the fur felt Stetson Emmett. It has a teardrop crown accentuated by a braided leather hat band. The soft brim snaps up or down according to your preference. It will come in classic black and a handsome walnut.

Wanna sneak peek of your own. Rick’s wearing one in the photo.

Stay tuned and we’ll bring you more updates about next season’s hats as we learn more!

Stetson's Andover gets a new two-tone color design this summer. Made of Milan straw, it is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

The straw hats are coming out from hibernation. Better, yet, the new arrivals are coming in, and we have some handsome devils to be proud of.

The ever-popular and charismatic Stetson Andover is coming in new two-tone color combinations, such as the black and cream milan straw beauty in the photo. Next to him is an all black, all straw Stetson Stratoliner! The best-selling felt hat now has a summer companion! For those who absolutely have to keep the sun off of them in the summer, the Stetson Rustic is made of thick palm leaves and ideal for blocking the sun’s harshest rays.

Dobbs has already sent us two new beauties for the summer, as well. These great hats are called the Dobbs Caruth, which is quite dapper, and the Dobbs Baroni, which is very colorful and exciting to wear.

Next comes the most resplendent of our early summer straw hat merchandise. It is the very thin, elegant and sporty Borsalino Sisol Pork Pie. When you wear it, you can’t help but look like a million bucks!

The Head N' Home Stoker is the perfect steampunk hat. It is leather and easily customized. It is even made right here in the USA.

In case you’ve been missing out on some really exciting reads, steampunk is an adventurous subgenre of science fiction that you should check out. Think of it as retro sci-fi. Most of the novels and graphic novels are set in the Victorian era, though not necessarily in England.

Imagine an 1880s the way the fathers of science fiction Jules Verne and H.G. Wells would have made it. With steam as the prevailing power source, most amazing devices from time machines to zepplins are steam powered. The sci-fi technology might have an infusion of Nikola Tesla. Spring-powered gears, as in clocks, have a bigger role in the genre, too. Mix in a touch of the super natural and/or a dystopia, and you’ve got a strong foundation for any self-respecting steampunk story.

Remember the old TV show “Wild, Wild West.” That was steampunk set in the American old west, except there was no such thing as steampunk, yet. It was way ahead of its time. The new “Sherlock Holmes” movies with Robert Downey Jr. and Judd Law have a touch of steampunk style, attitude and invention. If you are looking for a good list of steampunk literature, check out this list from The Library Journal.

When fans get together at conventions, costumes are de rigueur. And no costume is complete without the propper topper.

Most fans, regardless of whether they are men or women, want either a top hat or bowler. It doesn’t matter if it is leather or fur felt. Pick out a base model that best suits your personality or the character you want to represent. Among the steampunk enthusiasts who visit our store, these are some of our most popular hats based on style and price.

The Wool Felt Derby is our most affortable, comes in sizes up to XXL and is available in several colors. The Capas Top Hat is also the most affordable, if you don’t want to spend a fortune on something you are going to stitch, glue and redesign. A little more expensive but more stunningly designed are our Mad Hatter top hat and 18th Century top hats. For fans of leather hats, the Head N Home Stoker was made for steampunk fans! Lastly, though the design hasn’t quite caught on with steampunk crowd, homburg hats are from that same period and will likely see some love at conventions soon. If you want to check it out, the Capas Godfather is a great starter for a new steampunk outfit.

The really fun part is customizing your hat. For that you’ll need a hot glue gun, needle, thread, scissors and a lot of patience.

It helps to draw the hat you want to make before starting. Shopping for the accessories might be the most fun part. Explore antique stores for old medallions, brooches and gears from clocks or other machines. Hobby shops still sell cloth and material for making a custom hat band, which is usually stitched into place over an existing one. Sometimes they carry pheasant and peacock feathers. These shops are likely to have brass or other metal studs to festoon upon your hat. Hardware stores can be good sources for the needed supplies, too. The period goggles will be the hardest piece to find, but not all hats require the goggles.

Before you start glueing and stitching, know that these actions will damage your hat and leave visible marks should you ever remove the ornamentations. Your best bet is usually to put on the hat band, if you are custom making one first. If you want to remove the hat’s original hat band, remember it is usually stitched on. Using small, discreet stitches, you will want to sew your new hat band into place to help keep it looking tight and smooth…if that is the look you’re going for. Small, light-weight pieces can be glued on with a hot glue gun.  Be sparing with the glue. A little dab will do ya, and becareful not to burn yourself. Taking your time and being patient will pay large dividends when all is said and done.

Once you’ve completed you new hat, send us a photo and we’ll post it right here on the blog!

Men of all occupations and backgrounds wore hats back in the day. See how commonplace hats were for men in these old WPA posters.

Poking around the Library of Congress archives, it isn’t too hard to stumble upon those remarkable Works Progress Administration posters. In addition to the exciting Bauhaus and art-deco stylings, it is incredible how ubiquitous men’s hats were.

First-aid poster for farmers…hats. Coal miners…hats. Factory workers…hats.

Almost all men seemed to wear hats back then, regardless of social class or occupation. More than just a fashion accessory, your hat helped define you. It also served a practical purpose. Imagine working the fields 6 days a week without a brim on your hat to keep the sun off you. Imagine how cold, dirty or at risk your hair might be at getting snagged in machinery or catching fire. Those factories and mines didn’t have any OSHA standards to protect the workers. And while that might make some folks nostalgic, don’t forget how many people died or were maimed on the job back then.

Hats and caps still help present a distinct definition of yourself to the people who see you out and about. It is just a shame more people don’t wear them. We all look better in the right hat or cap.

As for the hats in these posters, you can still get them today. The blue hat worn in the farmer poster looks similar to the Bigalli Quickstep in navy blue (also inexpensive, durable, all-weather) and the tan hat looks like the Guerra Falbatravel in tan. In the “Goggles” poster, the guy is wearing a black spitfire. The Pennsylvania miner appears to be wearing what we call a “Fiddler.” See all of these hats and more at Hats Plus today.