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Author
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Topic: Hats at Bernie Utz
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Jim Demetre
Cafe guest
Member # 363
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posted 12-20-2007 10:02 PM
    
With stories about the possible move of Bernie Utz from its current location on 3rd and Union circulating in the press, I realize that I've neglected to mention the Seattle fashion institution here for far too long.Bernie Utz has been been selling hats to Seattle men from this storefront space since 1939. If old movies are to be believed, there were a lot more men wearing hats at that time than there are today. This is the only full-fledged hat store in Seattle today and no doubt one of the few left in the entire country. I have bought many hats at Bernie Utz over the years, including my Stetson Open Road (seen here) and my ultra-soft Borsalino Como. The shop is remarkable for its built-in wall-to-wall oak and glass cabinets, stocked with every imaginable variety and genre of men's hat. Purchasing a hat can be an intensely deliberative or completely spontaneous action. Regardless of which process takes hold, there is no better place to make your decision than Bernie Utz. The staff is as attentive and knowledgeable as any retail establishment I've patronized. Many people can describe a type of hat only by referencing an old movie or forgotten character actor. This is usually enough for the folks at Bernie Utz to determine what it is you're looking for. Bernie Utz
(206)-623-0233
310 Union Street
Seattle, WA 98101 -------------------- Jim Demetre Artdish Editor
Posts: 2606 | From: Seattle | Registered: Nov 2003 | IP: Logged
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Ries
Cafe guest
Member # 1005
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posted 12-21-2007 08:11 AM
What a great store.
And, as far as downtown store go, the last of the Mohicans.
I used to buy hats there, as well as shopping at places like Cordas Brothers, which later became Ruby Montana's.At one time, in Downtown Seattle, there were a lot of locally owned stores that sold honest menswear- I bought boots from stores that sold them to loggers and fishermen, shirts for cowboys from Ellensburg to wear to dances, and, of course, hats from Bernie Utz. All gone, replaced by chains, or just not replaced.
I once bought a pair of glove leather soft knee high black boots, with laces at the ankle, which were a uniform requirement for Seattle Police motorcycle officers in the 70's. Or a pair of custom made cowboy boots, which took 2 months to arrive from Texas, from the place down on First Avenue with the fiberglas horse above the door. (I know, they later moved, but at that time, they were on First, south of Jackson)
Where, nowadays, would I buy my Ben Davis zip front blue and white stripey work shirts?
Or a decent cowboy cut suit?
Or a pair of caulked boots? All things I used to be able to do within a ten block radius of the Market. And what happened to that great pimp store?
Not Leroy's, no, in the sixties and seventies, there was a store on Pike or Pine, and about 3rd, that carried the greatest urban african american clothes. I used to buy things like fluorescent pink nylon wife beaters there... I wont even begin to rant how I used to buy actual fishing supplies, or jewelry findings, of wholesale buttons and ribbons, or baseball caps wholesale by the dozen, right downtown. All Gone. -------------------- Ries Niemi's work has "Bad ideas, Bad imagination and Bad motives"
- Charles Mudede
Posts: 406 | From: Proud Resident of Monkey Island since 1955 | Registered: Aug 2006 | IP: Logged
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sharon
Cafe guest
Member # 1805
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posted 12-21-2007 10:30 AM
I bought my favourite cowboy hat there, long ago. I hope they don't go belly up; I'd be sad if they weren't somewhere downtown because there are damned few if any milliners left anywhere.Does anyone else remember Wee Hats in Pioneer Square? That place was awesome. I had the best long-horned Viking helmet ever. Not sure if I could really rock that with my hipster looks, now... : -------------------- "the clarity of the well marked path is sterile. to find the path, to
follow it, to examine it, and to clear away the tangled undergrowth; that
is sculpture." --guiseppe penone
Posts: 141 | From: seattle | Registered: Nov 2007 | IP: Logged
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Jim Demetre
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Member # 363
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posted 12-21-2007 06:31 PM
My father used to sell his sweaters to some men's clothing stores on Third and Pike back in the early sixties. As he moved on to make ski clothing later in the decade, these shops became bastions of the flamboyant pimp and queer inspired fashions that ruled in the early 70s. He said that one was named Third Avenue Men's Shop, but it may have later been called something else. I am not sure if this was the place owned by Bernie Brotman (whose son Jeffrey would later start Costco), but he had a store somewhere in this vicinity. I was too young to shop there at the time.But alas, shopping downtown is not what it used to be. Duncan & Sons had moved south near the old Sears, but they may have relocated yet again. The Federal Army Navy Surplus on 1st and Lenora (next to Patagonia) still has Ben Davis shirts and many other useful items like WWII tank helmets and camouflage bikinis. I bought my Alpini hat there for $11. And I do remember Wee Hats on 1st and Yesler. The owner was a tall, gracious woman with platinum blond hair who could have carried off wearing a viking helmet. I put on a fashion show at CoCA in 1997 that she participated in. If I'm not mistaken, she moved to Arizona or some such place. -------------------- Jim Demetre Artdish Editor
Posts: 2606 | From: Seattle | Registered: Nov 2003 | IP: Logged
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