Fedora



Indiana Jones is well-known for his trademark fedora hat. Herbert Johnson in London was the company who supplied the fedoras for the trilogy. They can still be purchased today, for the taste of around $300.00, from their shop in London.

With each Indy film a new shape to the fedora came with it. Here is a breakdown of the different styles.

Raiders Fedora
The Raiders of the Lost Ark hat appears to be the tallest, yet not as tall as most people think. The crown was a 5 1/2" crown that looked straight sided, wide brim, with very little rounding at the top. The brim also has a dramatic swoop in it, particularly noticeable when the hat is pulled down towards the eyes.

While Herbert Johnson did make the hats used in the movies,  their standard hat arrives slightly too tall, at 5 3/4", instead of 5 1/2". Some fans when acquiring Indy attire want the name, but one should keep in mind that there are several other hatters available who do an outstanding job of creating an Indy hat. Many hats can be found in the correct specs and often for much less money.

Temple of Doom Fedora
With the filming of Temple of Doom, Indy's hat took a few twists of its own. Herbert Johnson didn't use a new model to create their Indy hats. What some people mistakenly imply is that Stetson also provided Indy's hat. This is one of the more common rumours; they did not provide any hat for this movie. Again all Indy's famous lids came from Herbert Johnson. This movie's hat showed a lot of resemblance to the Raiders hat, yet missing the tighter front pinch. Another interesting fact is that the current Herbert Johnson, at its standard 5 3/4" open and unstyled height, is correct for the Temple of Doom fedora.

While Temple of Doom was playing in the theatres, fedoras were produced commercially in conjunction with its release. Stetson had their hats crafted in two locations, Austria and the United States. The Austria hats were noticeably different, made with a finer quality of felt, not coarse, like the U.S. versions. In 1988 Stetson stopped selling their Indy hats, and let their license of the merchandising hats expire right before Last Crusade started filming.

Last Crusade Fedora
With Stetson letting their license expire, Dorfman Pacific hats began to commercialize the Indy hat, and these hats eventually made their way into Disney theme parks. The hats for the movies were still crafted by Herbert Johnson, and are now actually more straight sided than the Raiders hat. This due to the fact the top dent is bashed differently as is the crown. The LC crease shows more of a triangle shape with a not so tight front pinch.

Last Crusade featured scenes of Indy riding a horse to get after the tank holding his father and Brody, and the fedora flew off Harrison Ford's head during most of those scenes during shootings. In jest, Ford put a stapler against his head when a documentary crew visited during shooting of Last Crusade. This created the urban legend that Ford stapled the hat to his head.

It also shows how Indiana got his fedora in the first place. After losing the Cross of Coronado, one of the cowboysput it on Indy's head. He has suposedly had it ever since.

Behind the scenes
In LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, at the end of the level The Opening of the Ark, Indy's fedora is colored gray in accordance to how the movie ended.