The Last Hatmakers of the Western World

At Lock and Co. on St James's Street, the world's oldest hat shop has been fitting heads since 1676. Their conformateur, measuring the skull in three dimensions, has been in use since the nineteenth century. Measurements are filed indefinitely. Customers return decades later to find their head profile waiting.

The conformateur works by transfer. A ring of hinged pins closes on the skull, and a card at the top of the machine is pricked with a scaled outline of that shape, which is cut out and used to set a wooden block, so the hat is made to the head rather than to a circle. It matters because very few heads are round. Most are what hatters call regular oval, a number are long oval, and a hat blocked round on a long oval head presses at front and back and lifts at the sides within an hour.

The Western hat industry collapsed in the 1960s when Kennedy attended his inauguration hatless. Survivors including Lock, Borsalino in Italy, and Stetson in America persisted by serving customers who valued quality over fashion trends.

Felt hat construction begins with forming a cone from fur felt, typically rabbit or beaver. The cone is shrunk, shaped, and stiffened through wet processes, then blocked on a wooden form. Finishing involves trimming, binding, and fitting a leather sweatband.

Borsalino, founded in 1857, produces felt hats over seven weeks through over fifty steps. Their rabbit-felt fedora possesses suppleness distinguishing it from stiffer models. The company's survival through bankruptcy testifies to the hat's enduring appeal.

The X rating on a felt hat means nothing in law. It once indicated beaver content and is now set by each maker, so a 100X from one house may hold less beaver than a 20X from another. What can be checked is weight and hand. Good fur felt is light, springs back when the brim is bent double, and sheds no fuzz under a brush. Rabbit felt is the standard, hare finer, beaver finest and warmest, and the price steps between them are large.

Straw hat production centres in Montecristi, Ecuador, for the misnamed Panama hat. A superfino Panama, woven from toquilla palm, may take four to six months and can be rolled without damage. These hats, properly cared for, last a lifetime.

The contemporary revival, driven by sun protection concerns and renewed interest in classic style, has created new demand. Small makers like Optimo Hats in Chicago produce hats honouring traditional methods while accommodating modern tastes.

Handling is where most hats die. Lift a hat by the brim, front and back, never by pinching the crown, which wears through the felt at those two points within a few years. Store it upside down on the crown or on a stand so the brim keeps its set, and brush in one direction with a soft brush. A soaked felt hat should dry at room temperature well away from any radiator, brim turned down, and can then be steamed back into shape over a kettle.

Visit https://www.lockhatters.co.uk to explore the range. The last hatmakers persist because the hat itself persists, not as fashion statement but as a functional, flattering element of dress. A man in a well-fitted hat carries himself differently.