How to Crease a Straw Hat

American hat manufacturers will tell you that the presidency of John F. Kennedy created an industrial disaster, because America's new leader made going hatless fashionable for men. Until the 1960s, knowing how to crease a hat, whether felt or straw, was a skill both men and women mastered--and local custom often passed judgment on whether it was properly done or not. Many felt hats now come factory-creased. Straw ones less often. Knowing how to crease a straw hat will do what it has always done: help it to fit on your head, help it to keep your head cool and, for gentlemen, give you something to tip when you pass a lady in the street. Follow the steps below to crease a straw hat.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Straw hat
• Pictures of creased hats (see link below)
• Water in mist sprayer
• Paper towels
• Tissue paper

1. Decide what kinds of creases you want to put in your hat. The top crease, at the crown of the hat, is the most critical, covering part of your head but also leaving a ridge or ridges to allow heat from your head to pass upward, keeping you cool. Straw hats, woven circularly, respond best to a full-circle crease at the top (sometimes called a gambler's or pork-pie crease), but a cowboy crease or even a felt-hat crease (sometimes called a Borsalino) is possible.

2. Determine whether you want side creases as well. Side creases have always served as fingergrips to remove a hat but have other functions as well. On a cowboy hat, deep side creases were as aerodynamically important as the top crease or creases running from front to back. All made it easier to keep a hat on one's head while riding a horse. Side creases toward the front create a gentle focal point and highlight the face. (They used to make tipping one's hat easy when society expects even the roughest men to acknowledge a lady in this fashion.)

3. Study pictures and the mirror until you choose the creases you want. Using a water mist spray bottle, dampen the section of your hat you want to crease, beginning with the crown. Form the crease/creases with your fingers. Then stuff the hat and creases with tissue paper to hold them in place while they dry.
   Blot off dampness on the outside and let your hat dry.

4. Create side creases the way you did the top one: spray, form, blot and dry.

5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 if needed. Occasionally a stiff straw hat or one that has been lacquered will be resistant to a single creasing and needs a second round.

References

• A Shopping Gallery for Hat Creases