Fedora versus Trilby

Bill Cunningham's latest roundup of stylish New Yorkers over the past weekend featured the current popularity of summer fedoras. While for men, this topper choice is reminiscent of Hemingway and sweating highballs on a breezy terrace, women in fedoras seem to capture the tattered gutsiness of Jane March in The Lover. The steamy heat, a little dress, and a masculine hat that's really far too big - it does carry a certain shrug of mysterious insouciance which is only appropriate in hot weather.

One small point about this that I would like to distinguish: they aren't all fedoras. Fedoras come in everything from wool to straw, and in just about every color of the rainbow. Everyone knows the classic Borsalino-style: de rigeur in film noir, a must with double-breasted pinstripes, and the choice of every leading man from Humphrey Bogart to Dick Tracy.

The "other" fedora which is equally, if not more popular in this modern era is a version with a much smaller brim that is known as a trilby. Trilbys are best known as the choice of hipsters, jazz & ska musicians, and even Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther. The shape is named for the 1894 George du Maurier play Trilby, taking it's name from the main character who originated the style in the production.

I suppose trilbys do fall in the fedora family, but their short end and peaked front give an automatic jauntiness to the shape that runs counter to the formality of the fedora. Trilbys are fabulous in brighter colors and patterns that may be somewhat sacrelidgeous on a fedora.

It's not that you have to choose between them, I'm just noting the difference. Both are androgynous, classic, romantic, and dare I say, full of panache? But they do indeed celebrate different moods. While a fedora may be a bit more sophisticated and a trilby more slapstick, the personality is also in the wearer. After all, Indiana Jones wears a fedora while Professor Jones wears a trilby. 

Some great trilbys may be found a Newurban Hats. 

Comments

[Max]

A fedora is brown felt with a broad brim. A trilby may be made of other materials, has a narrower brim, and often a higher crown. The general shape is the same, but the fedora tends to be more formal. At 78, I have seen the various styles come and go.