Fez Friday: Fashion's Favorite

A crocheted fez from the 1940s.

Hat of the Week: 1880s Straw Top Hat

I just love this crazy hat.

Hat of the Week: Jesse James

Keeping up with my Drag King theme of late, here's a photo of Old West outlaw Jesse James taken in 1864, aged 17. He radiates teenage swagger, and looks like such a girl.

I saw this photo in a documentary and was so taken with it that I had to track it down. He's wearing a weird leather pull-over hunting jacket, with ammo pouches for breast pockets, over a clean white shirt and Colonel Sanders tie, and accessorized with a huge 6-gun. Behind his head on the left, it might be long hair or possibly a fox tail or raccoon tail hanging jauntily off the back of the hat. His hat looks so manhandled, I love it. The shape has been totally battered and distorted, the brim flips way up on either side, I imagine from frequent and none-too-gentle pinching of the sides of the hat as he has taken it on and off. And the point of the brim sits asymmetrically on the head in front. Kind of piratical, no?

Bridal coming soon!

Know any brides? I've been holed up, working on a TON of bridal cocktail hats and mini hats. Photos coming soon.

Fez Friday: Fez Cologne

For the gentleman.

Hat of the Week- Ugly and Great Straw Porkpie

There's something great and also hideous about this straw 1970s porkpie. The top of the crown and the brim are made of spiral-sewn Milan straw braid, but the vertical sides of the crown are made of that horrible lattice wicker stuff from 1970s dining table chairs. The hat looks frankensteined together. Notice how the wicker is kind of crooked.



I like the idea of inserting a totally different material into a section of the hat. Truthfully, though, the execution on this one is a bit sketchy. It's kind of a surprise to me to see that it was 'professionally' made (the sweatband is stamped 'Imported from Italy'). It's got a ribbon sweatband inside instead of the more usual leather, probably for cheapness as much as to make it cooler to wear in hot weather.


Check out the heavy, lumpy upholstery trim used as a hat band. How weird. My parents had a couch that looked like that. You just know it's 100% synthetic and kind of wooly and scratchy at the same time. Makes my skin crawl just looking at it.


I'm going to make a guess and say that this was a super cheaply made hat, and maybe sold cheap in some touristy place somewhere. I hated it at first, but I can't stop looking at it, and that says something.

Fez Friday: Drag Kings Rock

A little late, but this one is worth it.

My hero, Ella Wesner, Male Impersonator.