One thing I discovered about wearing beautiful fedoras, trilbies and other hats, like the peaked flat cap, is that when I’m out and about taking photos, I need to wear a stingy hat.
Lifting the camera up to my face, quickly trying to capture a moment on the street, and the camera bangs into the brim of a low brimmed hat. So, a stingy is my hat of choice for photography.
It makes sense. If you look at the old photos of newspaper reporters, cameras held up to photograph a celebrity, or to capture a moment as an event, they’re all wearing their trilbies with the brim snapped upwards and out of the way of their camera body.
The stingy hat has been around for a few decades. Stingy was the name of a woman, an actress from the 1920s. She played a role on Broadway where she had to don a trilby hat for her stage role. The problem was that she found that the brim blocked her view to the audience, obviously a hat too large for her head. She snapped the brim upwards, and it worked for her.
The theatre director kept telling her to put the hat brim straight again, but she wouldn’t. The audience found it endearing, and loved the idea of this cheeky looking hat style. The Stingy hat style was born, and forever after its name is associated with Stingy the theatre actress who snapped her trilby brim up at the audience.
Fedoras, Trilbies, Straw trilby hats, and panamas, all have their own style and place, yet stem from the same idea that it’s an absolute pleasure to wear a hat with style and enjoy the feeling of walking through town well dressed to suit your own needs.
Above is the introductory video for my new channel on YouTube. Hats, clothing, shirts, and accessories. Upcycled, homemade Bags. Skirts, and tops by Deborah Cocking of Der Weite Rock, a Berlin based dressmaker in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
I’m all about the hats and shirts. A well formed Stingy hat and a Ben Sherman, Ralph Laurent for comfort, make for a pleasant feeling as I strut through the streets of Berlin with my camera and box of tricks.
Hats and Style Video Channel on YouTube
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