Talk:Wideawake hat

Hat design

I am concerned that the article may be too US-centric at the moment, because it stresses that the hat is made of felt, with a shaped brim. In the UK and Australia, the brim is completely flat, unless one or both sides is pinned to the crown. I don't know what material used to be used in Australia, but the Australian hats sold as wideawakes in the UK for many decades past are waxed woven fabric, with an inner supporting material to keep the brim flat, and to make it ping back to a flat shape after being pinned up. The waxed Australian hats are waterproof, or nearly so - if you wear it in the rain it acts like an umbrella to your head and shoulders. They are crushable, too - you can fold them into your bag for a few hours, and when you take them out, they ping back into shape. Also, in the UK, wideawakes are not normally associated with Quakers. I don't have a citation for this - there may be one out there somewhere, but at least at the moment you can see from the article's pictures that the old UK wideawakes have a brim that is different from the US ones. Perhaps we can at least separate the two types of wideawakes in the article? Storye book (talk) 09:29, 21 March 2023 (UTC)