1920s Gangster Fedora

E-bay, but the ones you'll find will be from the 60s ish and won't even be close to the styles worn in the 20s, though for a party they'll pass. If you want something closer to the style, you might find a cheap and crappy wool felt somewhere near that price (real fedoras are made of a fur felt- rabbit on the cheaper end, beaver at the high end). Wool is less comfortable, and shrinks. If you want something that looks like it could have been worn in the 20s and of decent quality, you're not gonna find it any where near 30 pounds.

Basically, it's a variation on the old, "good, fast, cheap. Pick two" adage: authentic, quality, reasonably priced. Pick two.

Well put Cpt.

Really, there is no such thing. Racketeers dressed well, period. Some guys like Capone wore fedoras. Dutch Schultz and the Bronx boys liked Homburgs. Albert Anastasia owned so many different types of hats that he was known as the Mad Hatter.

Its not so much the type of hat, though, as how you wear it and, more importantly, the color. Many dandies (ie gangsters) of the era wore the fedora in the "Hollywood" brim style, a la Capone in this mugshot:



The key, though, is the color: a pearl-grey fedora was the preferred color of the racketeer and gangsters of the era, regardless of the style of the hat:

Schultz and his counsel, Dixie Davis:



Mad Dog Coll and gang in pearl grey:



Unfortunately, the problem with pearl grey is that its tough to find. JJ Hatters here in NYC only do it special order via Borsalino.

I have a vintage pearl grey Stetson homburg, thing is so awesome.