In the video to "Happy" Pharrell Williams wears a teardrop crown fedora very similar in size and shape the the Biltmore Selkirk pictured here. This hat comes in a deeper brown, but the Driftwood above is actually more brown and grey in real life and a closer approximation of the color, though by no means a close match to the color of Pharrell's hat.

The artist Pharrell Williams is one of the hottest in music today. As both a performer and a producer, everything he touches seems to go to number 1. From “Blurred Lines” last summer to “Happy,” which almost an Academy Award earlier this month, and a whole lot more, Pharrell’s work keeps going straight to the top.

In addition to loving his upbeat and playful neo soul sounds, we love his obsession with hats. It is something we have in common.

Although we don’t carry his famed blown-out-crown-oversized-Canadian-Mountie hat, we do have a hat very similar to the one he wears predominently in the video for “Happy.” (Click here to watch the video on YouTube.)

For most of the video he is wearing a light brown felt fedora with a teardrop crown, narrow hat band and large brim. We have a very similar hat in the Biltmore Selkirk. It doesn’t come in the exact color, but it has a large 2 3/4-inch brim, teardrop crown and narrow hat band. It also has a killer stitched-edge brim. We have it in a rich brown and a lighter color called “Driftwood,” which I think is a closer approximation of Pharrell’s topper. In real life the Driftwood is a little browner and greyer than in the photo.

If you Google Pharrell under images, you will find him wearing myriad hats that include center dent fur felts and panama straw fedoras.

If you are looking for a specific hat he wears, send us an image in an e-mail, and we’ll try to identify it for you.

The company has Colorado’s largest selection of hats and caps.

All headwear will be discounted 25% to 60%. Customers who spend more than $250 will get a free gift.

If you’ve never shopped at a real hat shop before, you will love the experience of trying on a new personality with each hat. Finding the perfect fit in your favorite hat or cap is a great in-person experience, as is seeing and touching the headware.

The company’s Boulder warehouse is generally closed to the public, as it services hats-plus.com and the company’s Chicago headquarters shop. Hats Plus carries headwear by Stetson, Kangol, Dobbs, Biltmore, Borsalino, Goorin Brothers, Capas, City Sport, Bailey and many other name brands.

Hat Plus–Boulder will be open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and week days from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It is located at Chicago, IL. It may be reached at .

Hats Plus has been one of America’s leading hat shops since 1987.

When selecting your hat or cap for the winter, don't be afraid to use complimentary contrasting colors. This Biltmore Reese Eleganza in cognac looks incredible with this navy blue peacoat

This isn’t as silly a question as it might sound. We get a lot of customers asking us this very question every autumn.

With 600 different models of hats and caps from which to choose and a budget that will limit most people to only one selection, it isn’t necessarily an easy question to answer.

The first question you should ask yourself is what does this hat need to accomplish? Do you want it for warmth? Do you want it for fashion? If you are an outdoor baggage handler at O’Hare Airport, you are likely going to want the warmest thing we carry, which would be a fur (or faux fur) lined leather bomber with big ear flaps that cover your ears, cheeks and jaw. If you are looking to be the template for fashion in high school, you will want a cotton, stingy-brim fedora by Goorin Brothers. You aren’t going to be accepted at the opera in your bomber, and you are going to freeze to death in that tiny, thin fedora. So maybe you want something in the middle.

Another decision boils down to hats and caps. If you are looking for something more professional, a fur felt fedora or godfather is a stylish and warm option. Maybe you want something less austenatcious. A woolen ivy cap or newsboy cap will be warm and remain an easy cap to wear while driving. Some caps are insulated or come in thicker cashmere shells. Other caps offer earflaps, for those who spend a lot of time outside and still want to look fashionable.

One of the greatest challenges for fans of hats and caps is finding one they like that still works with their winter coat. A common mistake many people make is trying too hard to match their hat and coat. Maybe one in a hundred people finds a perfect color match or one that is close enough that no one else will notice the difference at 5 feet away. If you have a brown wool jacket and find a cashmere cap you like that is also brown, just by virtue of their different fabrics they might never match.

We cannot more strongly recommend finding a hat or cap of a completely different color that compliments your coat. Sometimes the right feather in that hatband serves to strengthen the bond between the hat and coat. If your coat is dark, avoid a dark hat. The navy blue peacoat in the photo looks great with the Biltmore Reese Eleganza fedora in cognac. A black or navy blue dress hat will look stunning perched over a grey top coat. Our collection of plaid and patch caps helps to alliviate this problem by mixing and matching so many combinations that can be used with many different styles of coats. The right plaid or patch cap might work great with your fall leather jacket and your heavy winter coat.

You see, there really is a lot to decide while selecting your new hat or cap for the winter. Please feel free to call us or write in with any questions you might have. Better yet, stop by the store to work directly with an experienced sales associate.

Recently some of our customers have agreed to let us take pictures of them to share their favorite finds after a fun day in the shop. Here they are.

One customer shows off his new Biltmore Milan Pork Pie hat.

The Twangdogs, a local country and rock group who first met at the Old Town School of Music, get some new hats for their next gig. You can watch them perform on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This dashing duo shows off their New York Tweed Spitfire cap and Goorin Eric B fedora.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four buddies show off their favorite finds one weekday afternoon. Their hats from left to right are the Goorin Topper, Stetson Bridger, Goorin Erwin and Dynafelt Fedora.

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.

Lushly set in 1949, the number one thing you can count on is the phenomenal wardrobe loaded with hats. If you especially like teardrop crowns for your fedoras, this movie will really trip your trigger.

Brolin leads the way for the good guys, and he’s as square jawed as Dick Tracy in the comic books. His hat of choice, however, is not banana yellow. His is a classic teardrop crown design where the crown is highest at the pinch and swoops down in the back as the teardrop rounds out. The Biltmore Ark hats that we carry are the same cut, if not color of Brolin’s topper. If you want the color and don’t mind a more general teardrop crown design, Biltmore’s Eleganza in “butterscotch” is a close match.

The police detective played by Ryan Gosling seems to have a new hat for every suit he wears in the film. Yet, the hat he probably wears most is a grey Stetson Downs. It has a narrower hat band and a teardrop crown.

Critics agree that Sean Penn as the villainous mob boss Mickey Cohen is truly sinister. His hat of choice in the film is a grey one with a center dent crown. The brim is worn up, which was done more frequently in the 1940s than it seems to be done today. Our best contender for that hat is the Stetson Temple, with its center dent crown and snap brim.

Breaking with the more formal wear hat designs is the character played by Robert Patrick. His hat is still a fedora, but it borrows a touch from the western tradition. Far from a cowboy hat, its skinny leather hat band and overall design plays a little more ruggedly and rural. A match for his hat is the Stetson Roadster. The Roadster’s snap brim might be a little smaller, but the walnut colored fur felt, skinny leather hat band and overall design is a pretty close match.

If there are other hats you want to match from the movies or TV, always feel free to write to us and ask.

In the meantime, see you at the movies.

Our resident Hat Whisperer shapes a crown on a Borsalino Sarakon to give it a deeper narrower pinch.

What does it take to shape a fur felt hat?

Patience.

After a long winter or an unpredictable spring cloud burst your trusty fedora has gotten a little mishapen. Perhaps you’ve just purchased a new fedora and you want to customize it to look a little more “you.” Maybe you want the pinch to be a little narrower or the center crease to be a little deeper.

Fixing and adjusting your hat can be fairly easy if you just take the time to be patient with it.

The only tool you will need is a tea kettle. You will need it as a steamer; so fill it with water and set it over a fire on the stove.

Once it is steaming up, you will be ready to work some magic on your hat. Steam will help loosen the fibers and starches that are holding your hat’s present shape. Place the exterior side of the part of your hat that you want to adjust over the steam. Hold it there only until you feel the heat on the interior side of the felt. This takes no longer than 15 to 20 seconds. (You don’t want to over do it. You also don’t want to turn off the flame under the kettle. You’ll need more steam.)

Once you have steamed the part of your hat you want to alter, the felt is ready to manipulate. Work slowly and gently with your hands.

If you want a deeper center crease, steam the whole crease. Then gently push the crown down with the length of your open hand. In a freeze frame photo, it will look like you are giving the top of your hat a karate chop. Once you have the crease set where you like it, blow it dry with you mouth, and then let the hat set for 5 or 10 minutes. If you can’t get it to set right, use more steam and start again.

Make sure to keep your pinches even and give them time to set.

Say you want a deeper pinch in the crown to bring the pinches closer together in the front. Steam both pinches. Place your fingers inside the crease of the crown and gently press your palms into each pinch. Blow the pinch dry and let it set, and if you aren’t satisfied, just keep using a little steam.

Check out the photos of resident Hat Whisperer Edwin Urrutia as he reshapes a crown to have two pinches that are deeper and closer together.

Brims sometime warp, and your best bet to fix it is to turn the entire brim up and then steam it. Spin the brim over the steamer to get an even application of steam to the whole brim. Then rotate the brim counter clockwise using your thumb and forefinger to smooth it out. This might take a lot of steam and rotating. Once the warp seems smoothed out, make sure to blow it dry and to let the brim set for a good 5 to 10 minutes before turning the brim back down, if you normally wear the brim turned down. If a warp or bump in the brim is particularly bad, sometimes you’ll have to steam it and press it on a flat surface with the heel of your hand.

If you prefer your hat’s brim to dip extra low on one side, steam and a little training by hand will help get it the way you like it.

Those are the basics of reshaping a hat. We hope it helps. Please feel free to write in with your questions.

The Biltmore Ark is very similar to the hat Leonardo DiCaprio wore in "J. Edgar." It is a wide-brimmed fedora with a teardrop crown.

For those who haven’t seen it, J. Edgar Hoover was America’s number one lawman from the desperate days of the 1930s, helping to put an end to the careers of bank robbers such as John Dillinger, until his death in the 1972. He both modernized and centralized crime fighting in America.

In the film, DiCaprio’s Hoover sports a grey teardrop crown fedora with a wide band much like the Biltmore Ark. Biltmore’s Ark is a handsome fur felt fedora that has a confident air of authority. A similar hat but with a narrower hat band is the Stetson Downs. Fans who want to replicate Dicaprio’s look will be a winner either way.

Bigalli has several great lines of fedoras and more like this Telescope hat.

Bigalli makes handsome wool felt hats in classic designs. Hats include gamblers and fedoras with center dent, teardrop and telescope crowns. Their fedoras range from the hottest new styles to retro splendor.

Each hat is made in Ecuador and offers great features. Many of their hats are water repellent and crushable, meaning that they can be packed when crushed from side to side. Unpack it, and it will retain its original shape.

Click here to see Hats Plus’ selection of Bigalli hats.

A pork pie fedora is called as much because of the way the crown is pinched around the top. Some might also contend they also taste way better than an actual pork pie.

Wait, I bet you’re wondering why they call some fedoras a pork pie hat.

Well. Because it looks like a pork pie…without the crust, ham or egg.

All right, all right. I kid.

A pork pie fedora features a cylindrical crown with a flat top that is pinched in

This is what an actual pork pie looks like. Please notice the pinched top layer of crust.

around the outer edge. That last feature looks very similar to the way an actual pork pie is baked. Check out the pictures, and you’ll see the similarities.

The pork pie fedora has been around for at least a century. Silent film star Buster Keaton was the

Buster Keaton was a hilarious silent film comedian whose great stone face belied a manic athleticism in films that had him cheating death in every frame. His flattened pork pie hat was his signature trademark.

most famous wearer of the hat in the 1920s. He would buy 20 or 30 at a time and spend weeks crushing them into his trade mark style. Many wouldn’t survive the weeks of soaking and wringing and ironing and stiffening he would put them through to get them just right.

Later, blues and jazz musicians, such as Lester Young, would make the pork pie a hat almost strictly identified as a jazz man’s hat.

Still popular with musicians, these days a lot of people love the pork pie hat. It is classy and modern. The stingy brim look is particularly popular.