The shape of men’s heads
Variations in head shapes exist amongst peoples of the world.
In my work as a bespoke hat maker I have found some general variations exist in head shape. Asian heads tend to be round with fullness at the temples. African heads are elongated like Neferatiti. Anglo Australian heads tend to be oval.
When making hats for clients hat makers must consider the shape of the hole they create to fit the head into. Headsize and shape create what is known as the ” fit of the hat”. This can vary all over the world.
Some of my clients come to me because they have trouble finding a comfortable fit in a commercially manufactured hat. In Australia most hats are made to a standard oval headshape.
Just last week a client came for a fitting.
His head was flat at the back, full at the sides with a snubby proud forehead. When I drew a picture of his headshape it looked like a piece of sliced bread!
Staff at Lock Hatters, London with the conformature
In the glory days of hat selling, hatters had the hat conformer. This gadget measured the size and shape of the clients’ head at the same time.
A minature template was gleaned and hats could be formed to fit exactly to the clients headshape. A very handy gadget for the hatter (Place and order for a hat and have it delivered fitting perfectly.)
Recently in London I visited Lock and Co Hatters in St James St. They have a conformer on show. Interestingly on their walls they have some conformer templates of famous London hat wearers. The shape of these heads shows great variety.
Head shapes of famous London hat wearers at Lock Hatters
Styling men’s fashion hats at Strand Hatter’s, Sydney Australia
I have been witnessing the trend in men’s hat wearing grow over the last few years and as a hat maker I am delighted to see people on the streets of Sydney wearing hats again.
It is a global trend and as more men rediscover the benefits of the weather protection and dress styling that hats offer, the trend will continue to grow.
Strand Hatters were recently in the media with an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about the return of hat wearing as a fashion trend for younger men. See the link below
Strand Hatter’s has been a oasis for the hat lover for years and many times I have called on them to immediately solve a hat dilema for me with my work in the stage and screen industries.
It is a tribute to good business that this specialty shop has survived in a climate where shops that dedicate their merchandise to a few items are now limited.
Big apparel companies selling top to toe clothing options under the one roof are todays’ one stop shopping trend.
Hats off to Robert and Nathan at Strand Hatter’s, offering this specialty hat fitting, styling and sales service.
Recently I visited Strand Hatters with Steven Lewis, a journalist and podcaster from the blog Open Crown.
In the spirit of promoting the wearing of hats,we worked with the Strand Hatter’s staff and a hat client to style a hat that suited this young man. We selected a range of hats to find the ones that best suited his personality and physical features. Below is the podcast of this session.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Beneath the Southern Cross
Passionate about industrial heritage and recently on a trip to Lithgow, NSW I stumbled upon a wonderful collection of Union banners at the State Mine Museum titled ”Beneath the Southern Cross”.
State Mine bath house with union banner exhibit, Lithgow
The rise of industrialism during the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries was cause for pride within the union movement and these giant banners were a symbol of united identity.
The banners proudly depict a range of trade unions with a utopian view that transformed the harsh working conditions of many trades into a pastoral paradise for workers. They were used in street parades and union rallies to headline the relevant unions.
This exhibition is housed in the old mine bath house where 700 workers at the end of their shift from underground coal mining bathed before going home.
An evocative site for this Unions of NSW display of these trade banners.
Would I find a hatters guild represented amongst the banners?
No such luck but I found some affiliated references to the clothing trades with the closest being the Presses Society.
Pressing Union banner
This image depicts a room of men pressing suits with heavy irons that were filled with hot coals .
Also of interest was the Shop Assistants and Warehouse Employees Federation banner showing women selecting cloth from bolts of fabric from gentlemenly shop assistants.
- Shop assistants and warehouse employees federation banner
- Wicker workers, french polishers and mattress makers federation
And the combined banner of Wicker workers, Mattress makers, Chair makers, Upholserters and more!
All hanging from the rafters of the industrial bath house.
Each banner is hand painted and decorated with gold cord work and fringing.
They are a potent symbol of a vast array of trades that once existed in Australia and are cause for reflection upon the granting of the 8 hour work day in1856 which in 2009 has been eroded for many workers with the casualisation of the labour market.
Our October public holiday, Labour day, celebrates this achievement for workers.
If you are in Lithgow, do make the effort to see these glorious hand painted banners in a fascinating industrial site.
On exhibition at the State Mine Heritage Park, Lithgow until October 2009
forming a flat cap
A five piece cap block
Selecting this old 5 piece block , I am currently making a 1930’s inspired flat cap from a waxy, open plait panama.
I aquired this block from a Sydney firm who, for 100 years made the military and aviation headwear for our men in uniform.
By wetting and gently moulding the hat body over the wooden form and leaving it to dry for a few days, it takes on the shape of the cap.
open weave waxed panama wet moulded over 5 piece block
The circumfirence around the top of the form is larger than around the fit line.
So how do we remove the hat from the wooden form without loosing the shape and fit line?
The form is inverted and dismantled into five pieces that can be removed without compromising the newly moulded hat.
Making 5 piece wooden hat forms is a rare trade now. I treasure these old shapes and often think of the former lives they had in the 20th century, before coming into my care.
The midnight blue flat cap is now being finished for it’s wearer.
New York street styling
A spontaneous moment on my research trip in the pursuit of men’s headwear was stumbling across this dude on the streets of New York painting custom made hats on the sidewalk.
He had a brisk trade in spraying logos onto his blank truckie caps. Rap tags and New York skylines were his favorite themes. He was very adept with the spray can, creating on a very small space, logos with clever perspectives and his silver pen highlights finished the images in a slick shiny apple way.
This gig had taken him to Japan where he demonstrated his skills in the hat shops in Tokyo. This has been his living for the last 7 years.
He claimed to be the best hat maker in New York!
I paid up and commissioned one for the road.
custom street styling
Making a top hat
Making a Dickensian leather top hat
After many years of making top hats for stage and screen productions, I am very familiar with this type of hat. Toppers can take a long time to make by hand, but the results are always rewarding.
Hat fittings with the client are required to select the right sillouette and to tweek the style to suit the wearer’s body proportions.
This particular image is of a leather topper for a client. It is made from a pattern and constructed on a foundation material. It will be crushed to give a Dickensian character look.
Usually a topper is moulded around a waisted hat block (visible in the background) to achieve the very handsome curves that give this style it’s unique curved crown.
The brims are often rolled up at the sides, a precursor to the brim lines in the American cowboy hat.
Top hats were a symbol of tradition and status in Victorian times, they chart domination in colonial outposts and have a unique place in our history and psyche.
A highlight of my top hat making careeer was the image in the feature film, Moulin Rouge where all the men throw their top hats in the air as Nicole Kidman decends from the ceiling on a swing in her diamond studded mini top hat.
This scene took months to prepare for and watching it being filmed was a hat makers delight.
Underneath the Eiffel Tower
On my first day in Paris, on the quest of men’s headwear design throughout the world, I accidentally stumbled upon the Musee du quai Branly.
While I intended to seek out this museum to view the headwear of other cultures, I had no idea where in Paris this establishment was. Strangely on this first day, while wandering in this city my radar unconciously took me to its front door, just underneath the Eiffel tower.
A modern organic shaped building designed by Jean Nouvel, sporting vertical gardens, this is Paris’ tribute to indigenous cultures of the world.
Painted ceiling of Musee shop by Australian artists
Musee du quai Branley has a spectacular collection of 300 000 works ”devoted to the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, stemmed from the political will to see justice rendered to non European cultures”. Jacques Chirac
I settled into an afternoon of wonder and discovery as I viewed traditional and ceremonial head dresses from a range of traditonal cultures.
This was a new spin on the old style museums in its layout, presentation and interface and an attempt to redress past politics.However as the evening set in and it was time to leave, an odd feeling of the spirits of lost cultures and the plunder by western colonial powers rose up in me.
This theme followed me around the world as I charted the European hat and it’s passage across the globe with colonisation and the dispossession of native peoples of their lands to the pursuits of colonists (more on this in further posts).
Pictured is a spectacular Native American head dress, a symbol of heroic male headwear.
Native American head dress with spectacular eagle feathers
Spend a day here for a very different perspective of Paris.
Japanese Hat wearers
a bit of style exploration in a Tokyo hat shop
In Tokyo in the depths of winter earlier this year, I was delighted to see young Japanese men wearing hats on the streets.
They seem to have embraced all kinds of styles, from striking black felts perched on top of their dark hair to a range of soft knitted and pattern made hats. There is endless variety to choose from in the hat shops that line the streets of Harajuku and Shibuya.
ca4la is the most famous of these shops and is well stocked with an impressive array of local manufactured styles along with top international brands. ca4la has multiple store in Japan and recently opened a shop in London.
What inspird me about the Japanese was their willingness to be playful with hats as a fashion accessory. They are not afraid to make a statement about what they put on their heads, in fact they proudly experiment, unafraid of what others may think.
I beleive they are leading the way in contemporary hat wearing.
I had some fun with a few hat freaks and my photographic companion, Katerina Stratos one night out in the Tokyo hat shops.
what makes a great hat?
This depends who you are.
For the wearer it must be comfortable and feel right.
For the viewer it must suit the wearer in shape and style, complementing the personality.
For me as a hat maker the hat must have a great shape.
Nothing is more exciting than walking down the street and marvelling at a fabulous hat at it comes towards you.The Jewish men wear their sharp black felts proudly, as do the Indians in their turbans.
A good shape in a hat will turn heads!
How do you get a great shape in a hat?
It starts way back at the design phase where a hat block or form is chosen to mould the felt or straw on.
Recently I was in Italy visiting a hat block maker, Mr Pellucci. He creates shapes for the Italian hat industry and I had the pleasure to chat with him about his work.
His sculpting skill is very specialised and is hugely repected by the headwear industry because without a good form you can not have a good hat. Pictured are some of his sample shapes.
wooden hat forms
Of course once you have bought a hat with a great shape make it your own by tweeking it to suit the real you.