Felt, straw and tweed, shaped on wooden blocks older than the shop
See the sixA hat starts as a hood: a cone of rabbit felt or a straw capeline, stiff and shapeless in a box. It goes over the steam kettle until it will give, then it is pulled down over a wooden crown block by hand and tied off with cord while it dries. The brim is opened on a second block the next morning, once the crown has set and will not move again. It gets cut to width against a gauge, wired or left soft depending on what you asked for, and pressed. The only machine work in the whole thing is the ribbon and the sweatband. Four days is the honest answer, and most of that is the hat sitting still on the block while the felt makes up its mind. We are on Kruger Street, one door up from the roastery, and you are welcome to stand at the bench and watch a crown go on.
Rabbit felt needs a day on the block for every day you try to take off it. We stopped fighting that in about 2019 and the hats got better.
Rabbit felt in a dark bone colour with a soft teardrop crown and a 95mm brim left unwired so it moves in wind. Wide enough to be honest about what it is for, which is the road between Beaufort West and Sutherland. Grosgrain band and a leather sweatband stamped at the back.
R3 200.00Choose a size
Toquilla straw out of Ecuador, blocked here over the same crown as the fedora and banded in black grosgrain. It goes from cream to the colour of dry grass over one season, which is the reason to buy this rather than the copies on Bree Street. Ships in a tube, though we would rather you did not roll it often.
R2 850.00Choose a size
Six panels of grey Donegal tweed off the roll, lined in cotton twill with a stiffened peak. Cut and sewn in the back room instead of blocked, so it is the only thing here you can have in the same week you ask for it.
R1 150.00Choose a size
Charcoal rabbit felt, 55mm brim, snap front and a centre dent pinched by hand while the felt is still warm off the kettle. This is the Salt River block, which runs a narrower crown than most, and it is why the hat sits properly on people who had given up on hats.
R2 950.00Choose a size
Waxed cotton with a stitched brim and four brass eyelets, made for rain rather than sun. It packs flat in a bag and comes out without a crease you have to explain. Re-wax it yourself once a year or bring it in and we will do it while you wait.
R890.00Choose a size
A soft horsehair brush, a felt sponge for lifting the nap on a crown, and a round card box deep enough to take a 95mm brim without crushing it. What you want if the hat lives in a cupboard between trips.
R640.00Add to cart184 Kruger Street, Maboneng. Tuesday to Saturday, nine to four. Re-blocking and a new ribbon are free on anything we made. Post a crushed hat in a box and we will steam it back and send it home.
