Hat dilemna

[X-Calibre]

Here's my situation, for Christmas some good friends of mine got me a nice hat for Christmas, as they are aware of my recent interest in fashion. The hat wasn't too my liking as it seemed to not work well with my features. Fear not, they anticipated this and said that the hat seller was more than willing to do an exchange after the holidays to whatever I preferred. So today I went to the store and found that the Homburg was most to my liking and was good with my features. I tend to wear brown very well and after trying the black and brown on a few times I chose the brown. Later today while thinking about my new acquisition I had a chilling thought. I just got a really nice, really formal hat . . . in brown! Now I really do believe the brown looked better, but I'm concerned about the versatility of the hat. I'm having a lot of trouble thinking when and where I could wear a brown Homburg. I have both the inauguration and a wedding coming up where the black Homburg would make more sense.

So how tough is it to "match" a brown Homburg, I assume that a tux, a navy blue suit, even lighter overcoats would require a black hat. Should I get the black one? I'm sure he will allow the exchange, or should I try and work the better looking hat into my wardrobe, even if kicking and screaming?

 

[yo!]

If you are more concerned about your hat matching when you are wearing formal or dressier clothing then maybe you should get a black one. However, if you plan on wearing the hat on more than those two occasions, as you have already stated, you wear brown more often therefore I would get the brown one.

The trick is to not necessarily have the hat 'match' the rest or your get up, but to have something which will tie it in. I often wear a brown hat along with a coordinating scarf and it doesn't matter what else I am wearing because when I get to my destination I take off the hat and the scarf and the rest of my clothing still matches.

 

[Vintage Gent]

Were brown and black your only choices? I have a homburg in a medium gray, and I think that's a good compromise. It avoids the severity of black without venturing into informal territory.

 

[X-Calibre]

I think his selection was pretty picked over. Brown and Black in my size was all that was available, in Homburg that is.