Hat
characteristics, production and how to identify them
readily.
Milady spends considerable time on
make-up and dress before going out of the house, and
the man, similarly, dresses up for every occasion. These
preparations have one common goal: For each to look
his or her best and to express their most alluring personality.
So, too, it is with hats.
Even though they cannot primp for themselves,
it is done for them by painstaking specialists in the
hat industry. They, like the men and women who wear
them, must look their very best, and must express a
captivating personality all their own. This personality
comes in what we in the trade call "finishes".
Each finish has its own expression.
There are the silk and angora finishes. These are the
aristocrats, or the more luxurious, of the touches which
express the hat's personality.
But the Velour, the Suede, the Beaver,
the Sponge, the Scratch Finishes, and, to be sure, the
Mixtures, are very personable too. They are markedly
different, each expressing its own thing in its own
way, just as Milady and Mr. Man who choose them as their
fancy dictates
THE SILK (ARISTOCRATIC)
FINISH
This is a long fur finish, with a characteristic sheen
of silk, as in the illustration shown with this article.
The sheen is imparted in one of two ways: buffing the
long nap with a felt wheel, or smoothing the nap with
a leuring pad and a special brand of grease. Like the
angora finish, the silk finish is most luxurious. Both
finishes go exceptionally well with dress-up clothes
and overcoats.
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| Silk finish
is a long-fur finish with a sheen similar to silk. |
THE ANGORA
(ALSO ARISTOCRATIC) FINISH
The long textured hair of angora fur characterizes this
finish. But it does not include any angora fur, oddly.
It's all in the name, this type of long-haired finish.
It is fashioned by leaving the fur long throughout the
entire back-shop operations, and using a long wire brush
for scratching the long fur in the front-shop work.
It's a luxurious, man-handled creation.
THE (NOT NECESSARILY)
BEAVER FINISH
Such a finish does not necessarily mean that the hat
consists of beaver fur. Its a trade name which designates
a hat in which the nap is left long and combed out horizontally.
Made from long, selected fur, it has a long dense nap
and a beautiful lustre brought out by a buffing wheel.
It differs from the silk finish in this respect because
the silk consists of shorter fur and longer nap.
THE (LUSTROUS)
VELOUR
This is famous for its deep lustrous nap, like that
of fine velvet, and its extreme, melow pliability. Of
all the finishes, this has, probably, the most fascinating
appeal to the sense of the touch. The operation in its
creation includes "sharkskinning" the hat
body which really means combing up the nap and pulling
out short fibers with real sharkskin strips mounted
on a furiously rotating wheel. Then the fur fibers are
clipped on special machines which flail away like a
barber's clippers.
THE (VELVET
LIKE) SUEDE
Sometimes referred to as "antelope"or "doe"
finish, the Suede Finish has the feel and look of suede,
or short napped velvet. It is distinguished from a regular
smooth-finish felt by a slightly discernable sheen where
the light catches the ends of the fur and also by its
soft, velvet-like surface. The look and feel of suede
finish is due largely to two operations: emerypaper
buffing, which abrades the fur to the desired height,
and polishing with the felt wheel, a step which not
only adds lustre but brings up the nap
THE SPONGE
(OR KNOB) FINISH
This is also known as the chinchilla or pebble finish.
Its distinguishing feature is multitudes of knobs or
clumps of fur covering the entire surface of the hat,
imparting a nubby appearance, similar to chinchilla
or wool cloth. Wear this type hat with strongly textured
clothes such as rough tweeds, cheviots. The knobs are
produced in the fur by water-moisturing the surface
and then rubbing it with the ellipthical motion by machine.
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| Sponge finish
is characterized by little knobs or clumps of fur. |
THE (COMBO)
MIXTURES
This comprises not one solid color, but a combination
of several (three to eight) colored furs blended tastefully.
A variety of finishes can be imparted to the mixtures:
smooth, rough, silk, etc. In production of other hats,
the fur is dyed after the body of the hat is formed.
In mixtures, the dying process comes first.
(THE WIRE BRUSH)
SCRATCH FINISH
Actually, this refers to a group of finishes and its
just a generic term, because the surface of the fur
is "scratched" by a wire brush in final stages
of production. This process loosens up the surface hairs,
leaving them rough and hairy, or they can be laid with
further brushing in a nice-looking, long, smooth nap.
Depending on the depth of fur originally clipped or
abraided in the back-shop, three general scratch finishes
are produced: The long, the medium and the short.
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