Gear

http://www.hatsandheadwear.co.uk/product/Tilley_TW2_Winter_Tweed_Hat_TW2

and others on the site.

 i've got an Akubra & a 'hard' waxed cotton one from Oz. Great.  Previously had a snap-brim polyamide lowe alpine, but a bit floppy in big winds.

you can squash a Tilley

I've heard akubra are good hats but not sure if right for formal. You can get some felt hats which are waterproof I believe. Are they akubra or another name?

At the risk of getting told off for directing you to another forum but I have seen similar threads on bushcraft UK forum in the past. They might have found your ideal hat already. Failing that go to a hunting/shooting store. I mean a really good one.

What about a cap? Not talking baseball but an old fashioned style cap. There are some modern ones out there as well as those harris tweed ones. I grew up wearing a harris tweed cap when walking in the hills in winter. They can look good. A good shooting store sells them and also the tweed trilby style hats too if you are old enough to get away with one!! There is a shooting shop locally a few years ago and they had loads of hats from tweed caps to more formal hats too.

'TP', from a previous life it seems I cannot wear a cap without trying, unconsciously it would appear, to wear it as a beret. Amusingly, I'm informed that's how old colleagues tend to recognize one another many years later.

 A formal hat it shall be.

Thank you,

AF. 

http://www.hatsandcaps.co.uk/Mens-Rain-Hats-C_MENS_RAIN_HATS_pg4/

worth a look

Thank you, all those who suggest Tilley.

I do have a couple of them. They are great in an English summer i.e. as near waterproof as dammit. But they don't come in a sober enough colour to go with a dark raincoat nor are they warm enough for winter. (I've tried.)

As I say, a bit too late I see Tilley used to do a soft-shell winter-hat. Then they redesigned it and put retro-reflective piping round the crown, making one look like Simon Templar gone to the bad.

I think I'll search for the older Tilley winter-hat, used; trawl the vintage-clothing emporia for a fedora, and proof it; or save-up and hat the hit-shops (or something like that) and treat mesen to a new 'un: should be summer by then. Ha(t)!

 AF. 

What about the gamekeeper's look? 

Tweed

I got a hat a couple of years ago, although more for sun issues than rain issues - it's very similar to one of these, and was also from ebay. That one comes in black which looks reasonably unscruffy and waterproofing could be addressed by spraying it with Nikwax (which I have done with mine). And at £9 delivered it's almost worth a go anyway.

Just thinking about my previous post, and the simon templar reference above.

Tweed hat and white raincoat, and you too could look like Clouseau.

Maybe that isn't entirely helpful.

Hello again, Jim Parkin , '.Matt', and all who've made this post interesting and fun. I don't mind in the least suggestions which 'aren't entirely helpful'. I live for going off-piste, and taking it.

It's funny, but it was only recently that a ladyfriend told me that I'm trouble. Genuinely now, I was surprised: it had never occurred to me, though as soon as the words had been uttered I knew that she spoke true. At first amused and charmed I ended up quietly delighted. And I decided no more messing about: might as well dress the part in which Creation saw fit to cast me. Ha!

So no, I don't want any floppy-brimmed attire for the 'I can light a fire even when the jungle's sopping wet'-brigade nor to turn tweedy. Me, I'll have something with a bit of snap, thanks. I'll pick-up something eighth-way decent to tide me over; but having found a young blade in Americaland who makes the most exquisite 40s-style headgear, I'm off over there.

(When skirt says, "You're sure of yourself," it's not a complaint.)

AF. 

'Flair Guns'?

I'll get me coat . . . and hat, if I had one.

AF. 

Got a Tilley Winter Hat. (Model-designation is 'TW2', I understand.) It's very good: wool, hence warm; medium-brimmed, so fine for town dress; and yet with fold-down ear-and-nape cover for when it's properly bitter. 

Best of all, though, is that I find people treat me differently when I don this  hat with my formal raincoat: with which a beanie or, God forfend, a baseball-cap just does not go. I was brought up to be polite; and in some way a hat with a brim seems to be the full stop at the end of my sentence, if you catch me.

However, I'll try to also locate an old-stock TW5SS: an all-nylon, determinedly completely waterproof, 'soft-shell' dress-hat: for the days of deluge without cease. (I say 'old-stock' for that was all-black, like a baddy's hat in a cowboy-film; whereas the more recent model has daft retro-reflective piping around the crown, like a fallen angel trying to keep the rain off.) 

Oh, a tip: if buying a Tilley winter-hat order the next one up from your usual  size: the fold-down insulation for neck and ears (and one for'ard) tend to make the fit a touch snug.

 AF.