Four Millennials Embrace The Lost Art Of Hat-Making

Hats went out of style in the late 1950s, and Abbie Dwelle has a long list of what’s to blame: JFK forgetting his top hat at his inauguration; people showering more; people eager to show off their hairstyles; car roofs getting lower; clothing becoming more casual.

But none of this stops her from making beautiful hats at Paul’s Hat Works in San Francisco.

Not much has changed at Paul’s Hat Works in the past 100 years. The hatters (that’s industry-speak for hat makers) are still using the same techniques and offering the same services. The address is the same. Even the phone number is still the same. The only change? The original owner has been replaced by a group of women.

On New Year’s Day in 2009, Dwelle wandered into Paul’s Hatworks with friends, still wearing their New Year’s Eve costumes from the night before.

After talking with owner Michael Harris about the shop for a while, they learned that he was ready to retire and was looking for a successor with no luck. The four women, with combined backgrounds in fashion, textiles, costuming, invention and cooperative business, jokingly agreed that they’d be the perfect folks to take over the shop.

A joke turned into a serious conversation, and before they knew it the four were the proud new owners of a hat shop. “We were drawn to his business because of its legacy; the thread of skills, tools and customers collected and passed down over decades; and the functional longevity of the product he was producing,” says Dwelle.

Dwelle remains as the main hatter, with Hove serving as a consultant.

The Legacy of Paul’s Hat Works

Though no one who’s ever owned the shop has been named Paul, Dwelle and her business partners decided not to mess with a near-100-year tradition. "I feel like we came in and took on the responsibility to keep it alive. Respecting what it was when we found it was part of that," she says.

Respecting the hat-making process is also what has kept Paul's going while so many other hat shops failed. In fact, Paul's Hat Works is the only remaining neighborhood hat shop in town.

Keeping the name consistent has also brought some new unexpected customers. "It’s pretty magnificent when someone finds an old Paul’s Hat with the address in the sweatband. They come looking for us and we’re still here," says Dwelle.

The Art of Hat Making

Dwelle says making hats isn’t an art that you can learn in school. Instead, you learn from a master. For her, that master was former owner Harris.

The four new owners worked with him for about six months to learn everything they needed to know about the art of hat making. Thanks to their backgrounds as seamstresses, costumers and sculptors, the art came naturally.

Today Dwelle works as the main hatter with hatters-in-training Diana Hartman and Clarkie Kabler at her side. The hatters aren’t the only artists helping to create these hats, though. Dwelle makes annual trips to Ecuador to source the best quality handwoven materials and make connections with famous weavers. “It’s a pretty epic skilled tradition passed down through families,” says Dwelle. “There are only five people in the world who can weave the Fino Fino ‘Panama Straw’ Montecristi.”

Once the materials are in, it usually takes about two or three weeks to make a hat from start to finish. The hat process starts with a hat body, as well as leather, ribbon and thread. The hat is blocked on a hat block using steam, water and irons, plus the hatter’s hands, hips and muscles. The leather and ribbon for each hat is cut and sized to customers’ specific measurements, then gold embossed and hand stitched into the hat.

Tradition vs. Mass Production

To further extend the life of their high-quality hats, Paul’s Hat Works also offers cleaning and repair services. “We make a long lasting, functional product that that can be worn to land’s end, washed, cleaned, repaired, and then worn to the end again,” says Dwelle.

For Dwelle, making and wearing a hat of this quality has changed the way she thinks and lives. “You start asking where things came from, whose labor, in what conditions,” she says. “Instigating this train of thought is another reason to keep this process of product creation close by and to keep the tradition alive.”

While mass-produced hats still involve a lot of hands and humans, they also involve a lot of machine blocking. Dwelle says this process is faster, but it’s also a hotter, more difficult and harsher process for the material. This is not only damaging to the hat itself but also to the person who is operating the machines.

The problems don’t end with the production process. Since these cheaper materials can’t hold their shape, things like stiffeners, glues and wires are also added. The hat itself will break faster, but because of the additives in the materials, the hat won’t break down very quickly in a landfill.

Dwelle wasn’t always a hat wearer herself. She collected hats for years, but she thought she looked ridiculous wearing them. Avoiding her reflection, she got used to the feeling of something on her head and started sneaking peeks in the mirror. “Because I felt comfortable, my reflection looked right,” she says.

If you think you can’t pull off a hat, Dwelle thinks you’re wrong. She gives the same piece of advice to every new hat wearer: Wear the hat for two weeks without judgement and get used to how it feels on you.

In 2018, Paul’s Hat Works will celebrate its 100th birthday. “If you haven’t been in the shop yet, stop what you’re doing and come down,” says Dwelle. “Everyone is designing their spot to look like it’s 100 years old. Ours actually is, and it’s a functioning work space.”

As for what you’ll find there, only time will tell. “There’s so much that can be done under the context of Paul’s Hat Works,” Dwelle says. “We’ve only just gotten started.”