Post by Drum on Oct 5, 2024 12:23:28 GMT
As y’all know, I have been diligently attempting to nail down details of the evolution of the Tilley hat from inception to the end of Alex Tilley’s ownership of the brand. I am almost ready to conclude that almost all of the hats made by Tilley during the 20th century were of essentially two designs, spanning what may be as few as three models between 1980-1999.
The first model, which came to be known as the “T1” after Tilley decided to market a wider brimmed model (the T2), was the ONLY hat design offered by Tilley from 1980 until 1986, when the T3 was introduced. While the essential design of the T1 and T2 were identical except for the size of brim, the T3 was a new design with a less oval and more round shape to the crown and, of course, the ubiquitous snaps on the brim.
These three hats models were marketed as “THE TILLEY HAT” owing to the fact that they were, essentially, the same hat, (cotton duck material, brass grommets and snaps, shoelace wind cords, etc). Over the first two decades of Tilley, these three models were tweaked as per customer feedback and new suppliers were sourced. The pocket in the crown, originally added to the design to hold the flotation foam disc, eventually became the “security pocket” and, later, the home of the (four page) owners manual and “brag tags”. Nylon wire was added to stiffen the brim and the wind cord location was changed from brim to band. Tags and labels progressed during this time from a brim label to dual brim tags to the large crown labels, (phone number and address changes help us to identify the progression).
In a nutshell, i am coming to the belief that it was not until the last few years of the 20th century, or later, that Tilley’s hat offerings began to evolve away from the basic Tilley hat to include new styles, new materials and shapes. This evolution charts the transition from purpose-built sailing and adventure hat to multi-season, multi-setting fashion accessory.
Soon I will post up a progression of hat tags and labels in the hopes of narrowing down the years of service for each. Eventually, I would like to nail down exactly when each Tilley model was introduced and its life span and iterations. Stay tuned.
The first model, which came to be known as the “T1” after Tilley decided to market a wider brimmed model (the T2), was the ONLY hat design offered by Tilley from 1980 until 1986, when the T3 was introduced. While the essential design of the T1 and T2 were identical except for the size of brim, the T3 was a new design with a less oval and more round shape to the crown and, of course, the ubiquitous snaps on the brim.
These three hats models were marketed as “THE TILLEY HAT” owing to the fact that they were, essentially, the same hat, (cotton duck material, brass grommets and snaps, shoelace wind cords, etc). Over the first two decades of Tilley, these three models were tweaked as per customer feedback and new suppliers were sourced. The pocket in the crown, originally added to the design to hold the flotation foam disc, eventually became the “security pocket” and, later, the home of the (four page) owners manual and “brag tags”. Nylon wire was added to stiffen the brim and the wind cord location was changed from brim to band. Tags and labels progressed during this time from a brim label to dual brim tags to the large crown labels, (phone number and address changes help us to identify the progression).
In a nutshell, i am coming to the belief that it was not until the last few years of the 20th century, or later, that Tilley’s hat offerings began to evolve away from the basic Tilley hat to include new styles, new materials and shapes. This evolution charts the transition from purpose-built sailing and adventure hat to multi-season, multi-setting fashion accessory.
Soon I will post up a progression of hat tags and labels in the hopes of narrowing down the years of service for each. Eventually, I would like to nail down exactly when each Tilley model was introduced and its life span and iterations. Stay tuned.
