#borsalino Archives • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

if you know about hats and fashion then you know Borsellino. mine is from their shop in the fashion mall in Milano. I never know where they started or much about the history. Yesterday I just decided to go from Asti to Alessandria on a short train ride to see what was there. I find every small town in Italy to have something interesting to experience or just look at. Walking down the street I saw a police station at the park by the train station that said “Borsalino“. There goes my curiosity. So I did a Google map search and I found there is a museum in this town so I went there. For €10 (senior discount) I could go see the history and all the different types of hats made by this company. The company name is taken from the fellow who started the making business in the 1800s. As you walk around the museum you see all the different styles you have seen in most kinds of cultural photos of different places of the world and also from the movies. It takes a minimum of six weeks to make one of their hats and it takes months to make one of their fine straw hats, Panama hat, sourced from Montecristi in Ecuador. I visited the museum in my Borsalino.

The prominent company name In my Borsalino — The prominent company name

Originally in this town In my Borsalino — The original factory was here in this town but it has moved to a larger facility just outside.

Popehat Bill Smale — And of course because they are a prominent business in Italy they must find some way to serve the Vatican

Humphrey Bogart hat Bill Smale — The Humphrey Bogart standard hat from 1930

Wide brim Panama Bill Smale — This is the much wider brim Panama hat made in Ecuador

Fine weave Panama Bill Smale — This is the same style I have but the weave is finer

Iconic hat — You’ve probably seen this hat in a movie

Top hat — These are top hats but one of the very famous raw materials from their best sellers in the 1850s was the beaver hat, most likely sourced from raw materials from the US

Bowler hats — These iconic bowler hats were popular not only in England but also in the US

I didn’t check to see why these hats got their name

Fancy hat — you have definitely seen one or more of these styles in the movies

Fedora hat history — The interesting history of this style, the fedora started in a movie with Sarah Bernhardt from a character she played named Fedora. She wore this style hat and since it has become in the US a name for this general style hat including the Bogart and other similar styles.

Cowboy hat — The description in the museum indicates there were many styles worn in the west in the US but the styles above were used in early movies and therefore created the general “cowboy hat“ legend and style. in the ranching business it is called the “western hat”. City people call it the “cowboy hat”.

Bikers cap — I think these were designed for movies as sailor’s caps or what Borsalino says was also fashioned after the Greek fisherman‘s hat. but these also became known as the “bikers hat” in the US and typified by the Marlon Brando style in a streetcar named desire.

Motorcycle helmet — This is the iconic motorcycle helmet you see in many older Italian movies

Montessori — And now, if you are familiar with education styles, you know the rest of the story.

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