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Lawrence & Foster Flat Cap advice needed

TexasToast

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Hello all im thinking about getting a L&F flat cap but not really sure what fabric/color to get I could use some advice.

I'd like to buy a Garforth flat cap in Twiss which is the color I like, To tell you the truth I don't know what color that is. I assume it's black or grey not sure I should email them.

Second question is I plan on just buying one flat cap and want to get a color that's versatile and goes together with almost everything that's why I chose Twiss are there any other colors I should consider.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
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Casaubon

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Like yourself, I also intended to buy just one cap, as I prefer to keep my wardrobe simple. I chose a color/fabric combo that does not match any of my outerwear. In my case, brown herringbone Donegal tweed was a good choice since my F/W outerwear consists of a plain navy topcoat and two waxed cotton jackets (dark brown and olive).

flatcap.jpg


By the way, the color Twiss reminds me of that SNL Levi's sketch:

"That is the color Greb. They not brown, but they not not brown."
 

TexasToast

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Like yourself, I also intended to buy just one cap, as I prefer to keep my wardrobe simple. I chose a color/fabric combo that does not match any of my outerwear. In my case, brown herringbone Donegal tweed was a good choice since my F/W outerwear consists of a plain navy topcoat and two waxed cotton jackets (dark brown and olive).

View attachment 1776769

By the way, the color Twiss reminds me of that SNL Levi's sketch:

"That is the color Greb. They not brown, but they not not brown."

Thanks for the suggestion, That SNL skit is to die for cause I'm "Woke" lol.
 

johng70

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I have several flat caps. If I was only going to have 1, it would be a tweed, not a linen one. Unfortunately though there isn't a single cap color that will go with everything. It's kind of like shoes that way.
If you intend to only wear it with a coat (and taking it off when you take off your coat) then you buy the color that coordinates with that coat.

If you intend to wear it with/without the coat then it's trickier because the hat must coordinate with the coat and the outfit underneath it.

Looking at their site, I like a number of their tweeds, but being green based they're not as versatile. It's also challenging to tell how light or dark some of the shades will be. A brown or navy blue is going to be the most versatile color. But it's tough to tell how dark some of the blues really are. Charcoal or black really only work well if you only wear with your coat and you have a coat color that matches well with it.
 

TexasToast

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Thanks johng70 I've been rethinking my choice of color/fabric selection something other that Twiss. I'm now looking at Dove now since I want to wear the hat with a suit. I also thought it was challenging to tel some of the colors. I'm going to look through some more of their offerings
 

johng70

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Thanks johng70 I've been rethinking my choice of color/fabric selection something other that Twiss. I'm now looking at Dove now since I want to wear the hat with a suit.
Pairing with a suit will be tricky. In 1920 when the look was more common, suits were a heavier weight wool so the weight/texture of the hat worked with the suit. So, depending on the cloth/weight of your suit it may look odd paired with some of the tweed fabrics. It's much easier to pair a tweed cap with heavier weight casual wear - denim, cords, flannel.
I have 5 different flat caps - I wouldn't wear any of them with my suits (but I don't have any tweed/flannel suites either)
 

TexasToast

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Thanks again for the insight and history of pairing of fabrics and hats. This new information has made me to consider a different approach for a hat. I can see the logic off your comments because nowadays the only time you see flat caps are on people who are wearing casual climbing. Just out of curiosity what would you still reccomend a flat cap just for warmth not as an accessory regardless of what you were wearing.
 

johng70

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If you're wearing the cap for warmth, I would think you've got a coat. So, if you're in a suit and overcoat a flat cap can be coordinated with the overcoat. But I would also take off the hat when I remove the coat.
 

TexasToast

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If you're wearing the cap for warmth, I would think you've got a coat. So, if you're in a suit and overcoat a flat cap can be coordinated with the overcoat. But I would also take off the hat when I remove the coat.
Thanks I wasn't too off the mark in my thinking thanks for the validation.
 

Panama

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I popped into their business unit in Castleford and rummaged around the available materials. They are very friendly.
 
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Pairing with a suit will be tricky. In 1920 when the look was more common, suits were a heavier weight wool so the weight/texture of the hat worked with the suit. So, depending on the cloth/weight of your suit it may look odd paired with some of the tweed fabrics. It's much easier to pair a tweed cap with heavier weight casual wear - denim, cords, flannel.
I have 5 different flat caps - I wouldn't wear any of them with my suits (but I don't have any tweed/flannel suites either)
This may be too late to be useful to the OP, but for a suit you might look for a silk or cashmere flat cap (unless your suit is tweed). City Sport makes silk and cashmere flat caps. Lock & Co may offer silk but they definitely have cashmere. Even one of the non-tweed black or navy would work better. L&F makes caps second to none, but the cut of the Garforth is more of a country cut IMO than the Lock Gill cap or a City Sport English-style cap.

You can find photos of a young King Charles and Prince Phillip wearing flat caps with sport coats and possibly casual suits to see how they pulled it off -- they were wearing tweed IIRC caps and coats. IMO if you are going to wear a flat cap with a suit made of more formal fabric you not only need to get the cut and fabric of the cap to be as refined as possible, but you also need to make the rest of your outfit a little more casual and carefree than you would without a flat cap .... maybe skip the tie, wear dress loafers instead of oxfords, no belt, etc.

You might also look at Bates' flat caps.

I'm sure L&F can make any flat cap you can imagine out of any fabric. The model they made for Orvis called the Yorkshire driving cap is less country style. With L&F it's not a matter of quality or whether they can do it -- it's whether one of their available caps is the right style for you. I have no idea what it would cost to get them to do a custom order to your specs.

Another important consideration if you are going to pair a flat cap with suit of more formal material is sizing and how you wear it. There seems to be a lot of disagreement about how to wear a flat cap ... how they should fit. Many people today wear them pulled down low while I'm sure many here have seen more mature generation wear them precariously perched way on the top of their heads. You really have to sort all that out before you wear one with a suit. I refer again to photos of Charles and Phillip for a classic way to position a flat cap. But every maker has their own style designed to fit in certain ways and not so much others.
 
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I was just wearing one of my Garforth caps and wanted to add another comment to make sure I do the model justice and don't seem dismissive of it as a cap that could be worn with a suit. The problem I think people get into with the Garforth is when they don't like the way the side naturally sits. To try to narrow it and make it look more modern, they push the sides down, which does work with other models. But because of the way the Garforth is designed, this never, IMO works well. You can see one model do this in a website image for a Garforth. It doesn't show the cap off well. Left to their nature, the sides have an elegant liveliness to them but when tamed down, they pull the top of the cap into a droopy, wavy shape.

That's all to say that if you like the shape of the Garforth and it works on you without contorting the sides, then it might in fact work well with a suit. It's a very classic flat cap shape that I would say has a little bit more body on the sides, which when it works for someone could be said to be more formal than some other flat cap models.

I've been noticing more and more brands selling Lawrence & Foster's Garforth cap under their own brand names in an incredible range of fabrics. So if you like it, there are few other high end flat caps available in so many fabrics.

For reference, there are other flat caps with sides designed somewhat like the Garforth. I think Jonathan Richard's classic flat caps have some design similarities.
 

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