Pianist Deniece Williams was in the shop during Blues Fest here in Chicago. Doesn't she look nice in a pork pie hat?

Our sweet home Chicago is world reknowned for its blues, most especially the annual summer celebration of BluesFest.

Luckily for us, Hats Plus is a popular haunt for musicians to visit. A slew of bluesmen and women were in the shop all week, and we were fortunate enough to have a few agree to pose for some photos.

Jazz and classical pianist Deniece Williams was trying on a few hats. (Not to be confused with the “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” Williams.)

Arkansas Blues Hall of Famer E.B. Davis (left) poses with Ken, our very own blues expert at Hats Plus.

Also in was E.B. Davis. Here he is posing with Ken, Hats Plus’ resident blues encyclopedia. Mr. Davis is known as “The Blues Ambassador.” He also has been inducted into the Arkansas Blues Hall of Fame. You can watch some of his performances on YouTube.

Resident hat whisperer Edwin Urrita demonstrates how to dust a straw hat.

Depending on where and how you stored it, that trusty panama, milan or shantung might need a little dusting.

Dusting a straw hat is a simple task, but it must be done carefully. Straw blocking is easily damaged.

All you will need to dust your straw hat is a soft, damp (barely moist) cloth.

Do you remember the #1 enemies of fur felt hats? Water and heat. Those are the same enemies of straw hats. Make absolutely certain that your cloth is not wet, dripping, sopping or soaking.

Just damp.

Regardless of whether you have a straw fedora, pork pie, Homburg or boater, be mindful of the weave of the straw. In most cases you will start gently wiping the hat with the damp cloth from the center of the crown and dust counterclockwise. Work your way down to the brim, and be sure to get both the top and bottom.

Be careful not to rest the damp cloth for too long in one spot, as you don’t want to moisten, warp or otherwise damage the straw. Also remember not to grasp the straw too tightly, especially by the pinch, as the straw is liable to crack or become misshapen. (And, sadly, there isn’t much to be done about restoring or reblocking straw.)

Don’t be daunted. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to dust a straw hat lickety split.

Storing a hat is actually a good idea to help extend its life. It helps to keep it from getting too dirty or dusty and minimizes exposure to other elements that might harm it.

The ideal way to store a hat is in hat box. Place it upside down in the box. This will help keep the brim from flattening out. If your hat has a snap brim, make sure the brim is snapped up all the way around the hat. This helps the brim to keep its shape. It also helps to keep it from flattening out if it somehow gets dropped or flipped and restored right-side up.

Store the box on a clean, flat and dry surface. Remember that heat and moisture help to shrink hats. Keep your hat from being stored in the sun or near a heating vent.

Even if you don’t have a hat box, just follow these simple rules, and your hat should be okay on top of a closet shelf or some other place safe from children, pets, etc.

Hat firmly back on your head, you don’t worry about it until you’re back on your front steps. “Wait a second,” you say to yourself. “Snow is just frozen water. Water isn’t good for felt hats. What do I do?”

It is true that water and heat are your hat’s two biggest common enemies. Both can shrink or deform your hat in a hurry. While most dress hats or fur felt hats aren’t considered water resistant, keeping them safe is relatively easy.

Before you go inside, shake off as much snow as you can. Be careful not to brush or grind and melt the snow into your hat. Once in your home, find a flat, clean, dry surface to place your hat without fear that Fido or the cats will get to it. Then turn down the leather sweatband. Rest the hat on the sweatband, making sure not to let the brim touch the table top. Let the hat dry slowly and naturally.

DO NOT place it on the stove, over a heating vent or radiator or under very hot lights. Although heat will dry your hat faster, it also will shrink it.

DO NOT let the felt touch any surface. If you rest the wet hat on its brim to dry, the brim will most likely lose its shape. If your hat has a snap brim, you might even want to snap the brim up as you let it dry.

Hats made from beaver felt are considered to be among the best made. The Pinnacle is considered the best dress hat made by Stetson because it is made of genuine beaver felt.

The felt for men’s hats normally is made from one of three kinds of fur: beaver, rabbit or wool. Beaver felt is considered the rarest and most refined of the three. Felt is made by matting the soft undercoat hairs of these fur coats and then treating them with hot water and steam, pressing them, folding them and repeating many times until the individual hairs are indistinguishable and a fabric has formed a tight bond. Mercury nitrate used to help speed up this process, but the fumes in poorly ventilated work spaces drove many hatters to insanity. Thus the birth of the phrase “mad as a hatter.”

As a fabric, felt is one of the strongest, and oldest, natural fabrics made by humans. Its strength helps to make it a durable material for hats. When treated properly, it can last for many years. However, repeated exposure to heat and moisture also trigger felt’s natural tendency to shrink.

After the felt is made and dyed, it is then blocked on special handmade wooden models. It is carefully steamed and pressed into place. The brim is crafted in a device called a flange. The brim gets a treatment of flattening with steam and pressure. Stiffeners are added to help the brim hold its shape. Many manufactures do not treat the crowns of fedoras and pork pies with stiffeners, but bowlers are especially prone to stiffening. Dress hats made of wool are more likely to see stiffener, regardless of their style.

Once the hat has its shape, it is sanded to a smooth and even texture. The inner lining is added next, along with the leather sweat band. Both items provide comfort and protect the hat. The lining is particularly important for protecting the felt (and any stiffener) from the oils and styling products in your hair. The outer hat band and other trimmings are added last.

Of course, this is just the basics of how it is done. Stetson will make its hats a little differently than Biltmore, which makes its hats a little differently from Borsalino, and so on.

We’ve asked our customers to tell us a little about their favorite memories associated with hats. It could be about a relative or friend or even a hat they really, really liked. Here’s what they told us:

Rob remembered his father.

How did you get into hats? One customer was inspired by his father who always wore a fedora similar to this Stingy Pinch to church.

“My daddy would not be seen without a hat on,” Rob said. Pointing to the Dynafelt Pinch fedoras, “He always wore a fedora to church, but during the week it was baseball caps.

Willie was trying on ivies in front of a mirror.

“I picked up wearing hats from my grandfather,” Willie said. “He’d pick up one every week.”

What were his favorites?

“He liked Dobbs and Borsalinos,” Willie said before sharing, “When he passed, I got one that was grey with a black band. I got it cleaned and reblocked. I wear it on special occasions.”

A “bad” memory brought Kevin and Mary into the shop.

“She sat on my hat,” Kevin said, ribbing his wife who didn’t see it on the car seat the night before.

They are strictly a Borsalino family.

“We got married in Italy,” Mary said. “My father bought a Borsalino there to wear when he walked me down the aisle. We’ve been Borsalino fans ever since.”

Chris was busy trying on berets in front of a mirror. “I started wearing berets because of my uncle,” he said. “They fit him really well.”

Since he was 5 or 6, Chris wanted to wear berets, too. He wasn’t sure how his uncle got into wearing berets, but he speculated.

“He was in Europe during the war [as an Army surgeon],” Chris said. “There’s a possibility that’s where he got into wearing berets.”

Of course, not all hat memories are tied to family. Sanders came in with a favorite hat memory tied to an entire time and place.

“There was this guy named Conley [in my old neighborhood] who made hats,” Sanders reminisced, as he tried on a navy blue homburg. “He had every color imaginable, even mint. This was like 35 years ago. The hats cost $150, $200…and that was back then. People saved up for them for a long time, and it was a real sign you had arrived.”

Do you have a great hat memory? Share it with us in the comments section below! We’d love to read it

In 1890, Queen Victoria’s son Edward decided to take a trip to Germany. While stopping in the city of Homburg, he decided to get a new hat. What common prince would deign buy one off the rack? Edward talked to the hatter about making a special hat.

The end result was an instant success in jolly old London. Still formal, but not as old fashioned as a top hat, it sported a center crease crown and firm, upturned, bound-edge brim. This newly designed hat was soon named the homburg for the city in which it was first designed and made.

At Hats Plus we carry many great homburgs. One of our most popular is the Biltmore Imperial. Made with a quality fur felt, it is both handsome and affordable.

As we move forward on this segment, we might offer greater details about more difficult challenges, but for now we’ll stick to the basics.

DUST.

No matter how many filters they put in our cars, offices and homes, we just can’t avoid it. Your hat is bound to get dusty at some point.

The good news is, dust is fairly easy to remove from most any kind of felt hat.

HAT CLEANING RULE #1
Never, never, never use water or other liquids to clean your hat.

To clean the dust and loose dirt from your hat, take a soft brush and gently stroke the hat from the left counter clockwise to the back and around again. Work slowly without a lot of pressure. Repeat until you are satisfied.

If you do not have a soft hat brush, then you can use a lint roller or tape that isn’t too sticky. Be mindful of the grain of the fur felt in your hat. Work the lint roller in the same direction to avoid causing any damage.

Prefer a hat brush, Hat’s Plus sells them for only $10 a piece. Please contact the store for more info.

Many of our dress hats and straw hats come with feathers, but not everybody likes feathers in their hats. Some people we’ve found really hate feathers in their hats: “I’m not a musketeer!”

Through the excellent construction of our hats, you might not guess that the feather is actually an accessory that is neither necessary nor permanently affixed to the hat. If you do not like the feather, it may be gently plucked from the hat band.

The same principle holds true for hat pins, too. Many Stetson, Dobbs and Capas hats come with branding pins in the dress band or bow band. Unlike a Nike Swoosh, these pins slide right out and are not necessary.

“Does this look too big on me?” or “Why is this so tall?” they ask.

The height of the hat is the result of two primary factors. The style of the hat is among the key reasons. The crease of the crown is also a significant factor.

Oils from your head or hair care products can damage the lining and fur felt of a hat’s crown over time. So the crown of your hat needs to be high enough to keep from being damaged. Pork pie hats and bowlers have flat or gently rounded tops and are generally shorter crowns because they don’t need as much space to avoid touching your head. Fedoras and homburgs with a creased crown  have to rise up slightly higher to keep the crease from being too deep and touching your head.

So if you are new to hats, remember that the crown’s height serves a practical purpose and that it really isn’t as big as you might think. Then kick back and recognize how good you look with a hat.