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"... And no one has ever broken this Oath!" These words ring out as Stan and Ollie finish their meeting at the Oasis of the Sons of the Desert - an oath that soon leads the duo to hijinx and mischeif. The Laurel and Hardy 1933 feature film Sons of the Desert is still funny today and rings its truthful message to us all - if you see the news that you were supposed to be on a sinking ship - read the rest of the article!!!
We are featuring a tall red-wavy velvet fez, with a one-color solid embroidery, and while you will have your choice of tassel color - we think the gold tassel suits it just fine. This fez has the licensing approval of the Sons of the Desert Organization and we've added that as an accompanying tag on the inner quilted lining. (Quilted whuh?!?)
After testing out designs that closely mimicked one of the original fezzes, Jason realized that he would need to go in another direction... something that related to the artwork more than the actual fezzes used in the movie. After looking at various posters and stills from the movies debut and subsequent re-releases he's distilled the problem down to a few key thoughts.
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The initial design should represent the 1933 setting of the film. Perhaps in the future I will work on a more modern/complex design as an alternative.
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The embroidery will be done in a single color. Despite being a black and white feature, the fezzes were the traditional red with gold braiding for the logo. Many of the movie posters presented this as well.
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The design should be in a loose relaxed style as though it were hand stitched. This is closer to how the props were made and it keeps in line with Laurel's suggestion that the organization should have “a half-assed dignity” about it.
More from Jason:
"One area I wanted to focus on updating was - first and foremost - the lettering. The original fezzes had a very loose style that in this day brings to mind Comic Sans... not exactly what I wanted to go for. I felt the lettering needed to be something a little more deco and I once again referred to the posters from the past to give me direction. I chose a more deco style from the era for the Sons of the Desert lettering.
The other area that I spent some time experimenting on was the center fill of the sun. In the original fezzes the braid was coiled to fill the area in as a solid color. However, on a few of the posters for the movie the sun was illustrated to have a more open spiral like what you see in this prototype fez photo. I like the additional texture this creates and it avoids the large dead space of flat color that a uniform fill would create.
When we review our designs the first thing we look at is how does the fez look, not just the embroidery. This isn't simply a graphic design problem, we look at the fez as a whole. On top of that we always consider what the fez is going to look like at a distance or how will it look in a photo. My background is fashion design, as well as graphics, so I consider the fezzes as part of an ensemble, not just an individual accessory. Am I making this whole process more complicated than it could be? ...most likely a resounding 'Yes!', but hey, that is what we do. 
