Featured Post

Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!

(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...

Mar 9, 2015

the end of a slice of Jewish culture

Back in the day, when I was turning bar mitzvah and getting my first black hat, I got a Stetson. It was a great hat, as hats go. It lasted a while and it had the feather in the band, as was the style back then.

Back then I think the choices, at least in Chicago, were only Stetson and Borsalino. And Borsalino was too expensive for a bar mitzva boy.

I think my next hat, or maybe the one after that, was a Borsalino. As far as I can remember, I only once had a Borsalino.

After leaving Chicago and moving to Israel, there were so many different brands of hats, and Borsalino had gotten so expensive, I never again got a Borsalino hat, though they were considered the premier hat for a yeshiva guy.

It is a bit sad, on that note, to see that Borsalino is in financial trouble and we may be seeing the end of Borsalino as they go bankrupt. Even though sales are up, financial mismanagement may do them in.

They hold an important place in modern Jewish culture and history.

And their hats, not necessarily the ones for the religious Jewish market, are so cool.




------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

4 comments:

  1. Meh. They serve as a fashion item (if you like that sort of decoration); but they aren't durable enough to do the job of a hat. Any hat that needs protection, rather than protecting me, isn't much of a hat.

    I've got Bailey's and Stetsons, and they have stood up to all weather conditions for years with a little care. And a proper hat shop can take a raw hat and cut and shape it any way you like, for the same or less than a Borsalino. The hats I purchased in Houston over 20 years ago are still going strong. Unfortunately, I don't know of any place in Israel that sells hats like that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let it not be said that Haredim have no concern for fashion. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I'm not mistaken, Judge Harry Stone from "Night Court" wore a Borsalino, but it wasn't black, and it wasn't from their "Religious Collection" aimed at the Jewish customer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. lol. he definitely had a great hat. I have no idea if it was a bOrsalino, but from the article linked it seems that Hollywood loves Borsalinos, so it wouldn't surprise me

      Delete

Related Posts

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...