ORBIS
Hats
102 shops · 16 Icons & Heritage Houses first. Hand-checked. Walk in.
Hats by city
Craft guide
ORBISTHE HATS ISSUECologne's Diefenthal 1905 designs hats in its own atelier, with bespoke felt fedoras and bowlers among its workshop products. Serrano Hat presents woven straw hats for women and men, continuing the Ecuadorian house's trade under that name since 1905. Sombreros Herederos de J. Rusi shapes felt and straw into the wide-brimmed sombrero cordobes for sale at its Cordoba shop.
This plate lists 102 shops in 30 countries. Cuenca has the most with 4, followed by London with 4. Among these shops, 9 describe made-to-order work and 5 sell online, going by their own descriptions.
Ask to be measured: hat sizes differ between makers, so have your head measured rather than quoting a size from home.
Ask what the hat is made of: ask for the felt or straw and how it will behave in rain and heat.
Ask about blocking and repair: find out whether the shop can reshape or repair the hat after a season of wear.
Use the city plates when they appear below, or open any store for its official door and related ORBIS city and craft links.
Hatters & Milliners · 102 shops, the best first
Altstadt, Hamburg
A fourth-generation hat shop selling hats, caps, and custom-made headwear from its own workshop. Anna Falkenhagen founded the business in 1916.
Best for Fourth-generation custom hats and caps from a Hamburg workshop
London, UK
Bates is a London hatter within Hilditch & Key's shop at 73 Jermyn Street. Its range runs from flat caps to formal top hats and includes styles for different seasons. Shoppers can try on shapes in person and seek advice on choosing a hat.
Best for Trying on classic hats and caps on Jermyn Street
London, UK
Hatmaker since 1773; Prince Albert wore a Christys' top hat in the 19th century, and Marlon Brando wore a Christys' Homburg as Vito Corleone in The Godfather.
Best for Top hats, bowlers, trilbies and British millinery
Christys' has made hats in England since 1773, giving it a claim to being among the oldest continuously operating hat houses in the country. Its early reputation was built on top hats and bowlers; Prince Albert wore a Christys' top hat in the 19th century, helping establish the house among Britain's traditional gentleman's outfitters of the period.
Its most cited modern cultural moment is cinematic rather than royal: a Homburg hat from Christys' was worn by Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, a piece of costuming the brand itself now leans on in its own marketing. Winston Churchill is also cited among its historic wearers.
The house continues to produce its hats — including panamas, fedoras, trilbies and flat caps alongside its original top hats and bowlers — using traditional felt- and straw-blocking techniques, manufactured in England rather than outsourced, which is the throughline connecting its 18th-century founding to its current product range.
London, UK
Lock & Co Hatters traces its London business to Robert Davis's shop in 1676 and the later involvement of James Lock. Its range includes felt hats and caps, with the Coke or bowler forming part of its history. The shop also provides guidance on hat selection and care to help customers consider fit and material before a purchase.
Best for Felt hats, caps and guidance on choosing a hat
Lock & Co Hatters traces its history to the shop opened by Robert Davis in London in 1676. The Lock family became connected with the business through James Lock, who inherited it after marrying into the Davis family. Its St James's Street history is part of the shop's identity, alongside the hats it supplies today.
The present range includes felt hats and caps, with seasonal styles and a separate interest in the Coke, or bowler. The company also publishes guidance on choosing a hat and caring for it after purchase. Shape and fit are practical starting points, particularly for someone who usually buys caps but is considering a more structured hat.
Try the relevant style with the clothes and outerwear you expect to wear, rather than selecting it from a historical association alone. Ask how the actual material should be stored and cleaned before making a final choice. A business with a long London history can still sell products with different material and manufacturing origins, which need checking individually.
Manchester, UK
A Manchester hatmaker tracing to an 1875 acquisition of the Maypole Hat Works, incorporated as the New Failsworth Hat Manufacturing Company in 1903; it made military headgear in WWII and produced Stetson-licensed hats from the late 1940s, and now trades as Failsworth 1903.
Best for Caps, flat caps
Failsworth's roots trace to 1875, when the business acquired the Maypole Hat Works and, in 1881, moved to a site on Claremont Street in Failsworth, near Manchester. It was formally incorporated as 'The New Failsworth Hat Manufacturing Company' on 2 December 1903 — the date now used in the brand's own '1903' name — starting from modest output of about 25 dozen hats a week. Growth was substantial over the following decades: by the 1940s the company was producing around 5,000 dozen hats weekly. During the Second World War, normal civilian hat production was restricted, and the company instead worked on Ministry of Supply contracts, making headgear for the armed forces and leather flying helmets and aircraft components for the RAF. In the late 1940s, Failsworth agreed a licensing arrangement with the American John B. Stetson Company to manufacture men's hats under the Stetson name in Britain, a partnership that lent the company additional prestige in menswear. The company was renamed Failsworth Hats Limited in 1940 and continues today, trading as Failsworth 1903, making flat caps, trilbies and other traditional headwear associated with northern English craft manufacturing.
Mexico City / Zócalo
Mexico's hat house since 1847, still at Plaza de la Constitución 7 on the Zócalo — Porfirio Díaz, Zapata and Villa all bought here, and 'De Sonora a Yucatán se usan sombreros Tardan' still rings true, felt pressed and finished by hand.
Best for A felt sombrero from the shop that hatted the Revolution.
Rome / Prati / Online
Rome’s oldest hat workshop — the Cirri family’s 1936 laboratorio, revived by Patrizia Fabri; the only hatter honored as a Historical Shop of Rome, blocking on original wooden forms in Via degli Scipioni.
Best for Hand-blocked Roman hats on 1930s molds.
San Francisco, USA
American hat maker since 1895—family-run producer of trucker caps, fedoras, flatcaps, and papa caps in seasonal and specialty materials.
Best for San Francisco animal-patch trucker caps and proper fedoras since 1895.
Goorin Bros. hat tradition began in 1895 when Cassel Goorin sold his first hat from a horse cart in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He moved from the street cart to a shop corner and taught his two sons Alfred and Ted the craft and business. The brothers formally established the Goorin Brothers Company in 1921. The business relocated to San Francisco in 1949, where it remains a fixture. A pivotal moment came in 1960 when Goorin Bros. became the official headwear supplier for the Winter Olympics held at Squaw Valley, a partnership that solidified the brand's standing. After 50 years without new retail locations, the company opened its first hat shop in over five decades in San Francisco's North Beach in 2006, launching the campaign 'Bold Hatmakers since 1895.' Today, Cassel's great-grandson Ben Goorin leads the company while maintaining deep connections to its heritage. The current product line spans seasonal truckers, papa caps, fedoras, flatcaps, and specialty collections featuring materials like terry cloth and pleather. Goorin Bros. operates a store locator and maintains multiple retail locations across North America.
Parte Vieja, San Sebastián
A hat and menswear shop selling hats, berets, and clothing in San Sebastián’s Old Town. The San Sebastián tourism board identifies it as the Basque Country’s oldest hat shop. Established 1838.
Best for Hats and berets at the Basque Country's oldest hat shop, since 1838
Kempsey / Australia / Online
Australian hat maker since 1874 — the fur felt hat, outback heritage, and the hat that symbolises rural Australia. Manufacturing moved from Sydney to Kempsey in 1974; the Akubra trademark was registered 7 August 1912.
Best for The iconic Australian fur felt hat
Alessandria / Piedmont / Online
Italian felt-hat maker founded by Giuseppe Borsalino in Alessandria in 1857; won the Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris Exposition and grew to a 300-hatmaker factory by 1888, still producing in Alessandria today.
Best for Fur-felt fedoras and panama classics.
Giuseppe Borsalino opened a small hat workshop in Alessandria on April 4, 1857, applying felt-making skills learned during a Paris apprenticeship, and formally launched Borsalino Giuseppe & Fratello with his brother Lazzaro in a courtyard on Via Schiavina. In 1870 he developed a soft, high-crowned felt hat with a front indentation that became the template for 20th-century men's formal hats. The business earned a top medal at the 1868 Turin Exposition and moved to a larger, purpose-built factory on Corso Cento Cannoni in 1888, spanning 2,000 square meters and employing 300 hatmakers producing around 2,000 hats a day. It won the Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. The company has changed ownership several times in the past two decades but continues to manufacture in Alessandria.
Monte Cristi / Ecuador / Online
Six generations of the Carranza family weave Montecristi Panama hats by hand in the village of Pile, Ecuador, each from a single toquilla palm and graded by fineness from a four-week Fine to a year-long Jewel. Hats are woven to order and sold directly through the online shop, with a companion line of hand-blocked fur-felt styles.
Best for Montecristi Panama hats hand-woven from a single toquilla palm
Oloron-Sainte-Marie / Online
Oloron-Sainte-Marie's last beret factory since 1840—handmade French wool berets in two days of work, French army supplier and world symbol.
Best for Wool berets made in Oloron-Sainte-Marie since 1840, once a French army supplier
Laulhère, established in 1840 at the foot of the Pyrenees in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, is today the last historic beret factory still in operation in France. The making of a Laulhère beret involves approximately ten manufacturing steps carried out by skilled craftspeople and takes two full days of work, sometimes more, with numerous checks and adjustments that make each item unique. All wool is sourced exclusively from French breeding, and all production occurs in Oloron-Sainte-Marie. Once the cradle of the beret with a dozen manufacturers, Oloron-Sainte-Marie now maintains three active factories. Laulhère has long supplied the French army and stands as the perpetual guardian of over 180 years of French beret craftsmanship tradition.
Stewarton / Online
Scottish knitwear maker in Stewarton, Ayrshire - the 'Bonnet Toun' - founded in 1845 by Robert Mackie, continuing a local bonnet-making trade centuries old. Now the town's last bonnet manufacturer, producing Glengarry and Balmoral headwear alongside broader knitwear.
Best for Scottish knitted hats
Stewarton, in East Ayrshire, has been known as bonnet-making country for over 400 years, with nearly the whole town once involved in the trade. Robert Mackie's own family connection to the industry began through Thomas Mackie, who arrived from Irvine to supply feathers and dyestuff to local bonnet makers and started a spinning and dyeing business. In 1845, Robert Mackie moved on from that family enterprise to found his own bonnet-making concern, producing traditional Scottish Glengarry and Balmoral headwear. Where the town once supported many such workshops, Robert Mackie of Scotland is now the sole surviving bonnet manufacturer still operating in Stewarton, and the company has diversified over time into broader knitwear production while retaining its historic core craft.
Palma De Mallorca / Spain
Open since 1898, this Palma hat shop on Carrer del Sindicato has trimmed and sold hats and accessories for well over a century. The small family business marks its 127th year still dressing heads from its city-centre counter.
Best for Hand-trimmed hats and accessories from a Palma shop open since 1898
Montappone, Marche, Italy
Family hat-making house founded 1922 in Montappone, Marche by Attilio and Ester Sorbatti; now run by the third generation from a factory at Via Leopardi 18 in the town's International Hat Center, producing felt, panama, and flat-cap styles.
Best for Handcrafted hats, Panama
Sorbatti was founded in 1922 in Montappone, in Italy's Marche region, by Attilio Sorbatti and his wife Ester. Montappone and the surrounding area are historically known as one of Italy's principal hat-manufacturing districts, and Sorbatti has operated there continuously across three generations: from founder Attilio to his sons Filippo, Ermanno, and Nerino, and on to grandchildren Marco and Attilio, who run the company today. The factory operates from Via Leopardi 18, within Montappone's 'International Hat Center' industrial zone. Sorbatti produces men's and women's hats and caps, including felt hats, panamas, and flat caps, describing its process as attentive from raw-material selection through final packaging. The brand is sold through specialist hat retailers internationally, including US retailer Hats in the Belfry.
Innenstadt (Friesenwall / Severinstrasse)
A Cologne hat house dating to 1905, Diefenthal designs in its own atelier and runs a hat workshop making bespoke felt fedoras, bowlers and panamas for its Diefenthal & Sohn and Diefenthal & Tochter lines. It works with heritage cloths such as Harris Tweed and keeps shops on Friesenwall, Severinstrasse and Kettengasse.
Best for Bespoke felt hats and caps
Cuenca (heritage hat house)
A Panama hat house trading under the Serrano name since 1905, presenting woven men's and women's straw collections through a bilingual Spanish-English catalogue. The 1905 founding date places it among the long-established Ecuadorian families of the toquilla-straw hat trade.
Best for Long-established woven straw hats
Cordoba
Herederos de J. Rusi is a Cordoba hatmaker producing the wide-brimmed, flat-crowned sombrero cordobes alongside other traditional Spanish hats and caps. The workshop shapes felt and straw hats and sells them from its Cordoba shop.
Best for Traditional sombrero cordobes
Psirri, Athens
Savapile is a family hat workshop in Psirri, near Monastiraki, run by Lisa Sarigiannidou, who learned the trade from her father. In business since 1960, it makes handmade Greek fisherman's caps and straw hats, including custom pieces for adults and children.
Best for Handmade Greek fisherman's caps and straw hats from a Psirri family workshop running since 1960
Savapile is a hat-making workshop tucked down an alleyway in Psirri, close to Monastiraki in central Athens. The business has been operating since 1960 and is now run by Lisa Sarigiannidou, who inherited both the workshop and the craft from her father. Its core product is the Greek fisherman's cap, a flat wool or cotton cap long associated with Aegean sailors and fishing communities, made by hand on the premises rather than sourced from a factory. Alongside the fisherman's caps, the workshop produces straw hats — Panama-style and boater shapes among them — made to order for both adults and children, letting customers choose brim width, band color and sizing rather than buying off a fixed rack. The shop's own Instagram account cites coverage in Vogue, Madame Figaro and Harper's Bazaar, situating the small workshop within a wider fashion-press narrative about Athens' surviving hand-craft trades. Because the business runs at appointment- and walk-in scale, with no large retail footprint, it has stayed dependent on word of mouth and repeat local customers rather than tourist foot traffic, despite sitting close to one of the city's busiest tourist crossroads at Monastiraki.
Mitte
Fiona Bennett is a Berlin milliner whose atelier hand-blocks sculptural hats and headpieces, from felt fedoras to her transparent 'Nude' hats worn on stage and screen. Working in Mitte, she is one of Germany's few remaining couture hatmakers and a recognised Homo Faber artisan.
Best for Couture hats and headpieces
Buffalo, New York / United States
Founded in Buffalo, New York in 1920 by Ehrhardt Koch as the E. Koch Cap Company and renamed New Era in 1922, the headwear maker became MLB's official cap supplier; Koch's son Harold developed the 59FIFTY fitted cap in 1954, and it reached the public market in 1980.
Best for The 59FIFTY cap, official MLB headwear since 1920
New Era was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1920 by Ehrhardt Koch, who borrowed $1,000 from his sister Rose and $1,000 from a co-worker to start the E. Koch Cap Company, producing caps on the third floor of a building on Genesee Street with a staff of 14, including Koch's sister and son. In 1922 Koch renamed the company New Era Cap. The company's signature product, the 59FIFTY fitted cap, was developed by Ehrhardt's son Harold Koch in 1954 to standardize on-field caps across Major League Baseball; by the 1970s it was worn by the majority of MLB teams, and it went on sale to the public in 1980. New Era remains headquartered in Buffalo and continues to serve as official on-field headwear supplier to MLB, alongside licensed caps for the NFL and NBA.
Calgary
Smithbilt has blocked and finished felt and straw hats in Calgary since 1919, and its white cowboy hat became the city's civic emblem and a Stampede fixture. The workshop still steams, shapes, and sands each hat by hand, building custom fits alongside its signature ten-gallon whites.
Best for Custom felt and straw cowboy hats
115C Harrington Street, Gardens, Cape Town 8001, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
The Harrington Street shop shares space with the working Hat Factory, so ready-to-wear headwear sits close to production. Visitors can try the range in person, including felt berets and sun-focused raffia shapes.
Best for Locally made hats and millinery.
Marienstraße 69, 50825 Köln-Ehrenfeld, Germany / Cologne / Germany
Hats handmade at Marienstraße 69, Köln-Ehrenfeld, since 1968; Ute Flemming took over in 2013; one of Germany's last working hat factories (Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger; RTL 2023).
Best for Hats handmade at Marienstraße 69, Köln-Ehrenfeld, since 1968.
Cuenca
Handwoven toquilla-straw hats, made to order by master artisans in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Best for Textiles
El Centro (Gil Ramírez Dávalos 3-86)
Producers and exporters of paja toquilla hats working from Gil Ramírez Dávalos 3-86, with named blocks such as the Aliso, Estrella and Fresno and a palette of more than twenty dyed colours. The premises pair a working warehouse with a hat museum, and finished pieces ship worldwide.
Best for Buying a finished Cuenca Panama hat with a factory-museum visit
Gil Ramírez Dávalos
Established in Cuenca in 1939, K. Dorfzaun makes hand-finished toquilla-straw hats with artisan weavers and sells them from its Gil Ramírez Dávalos storefront. The company emphasizes long-term work with weaving communities, social responsibility and environmental sustainability.
Best for Export-grade toquilla straw hats with a documented family history
Denver, Colorado
Coleen Orr hand-shapes custom rabbit- and beaver-felt hats at Cowboy Up Hatters, which has worked in the Denver area for over twenty years after starting in Alberta. The by-appointment shop also cleans, re-blocks, and restores older hats.
Best for Custom felt cowboy and dress hats
Detroit / Online
Detroit millinery — handmade hats from the Motor City, shown in Pitti’s Detroitissimi program.
Best for Handmade Detroit hats and statement millinery
Vuorikatu 4 A, 00100 Helsinki, Finland / Helsinki / Finland
Founded in Vyborg 1901 by Elis R. Wahlman; Wiipuri.fi and MyHelsinki confirm a Helsinki walk-in still selling handmade Finnish doctoral hats, ylioppilaslakit and classic felt hats.
Best for Locally made hats and millinery.
Ullanlinna, Helsinki
éN Hats, a Finnish millinery studio, sells handmade felt hats — pillbox, fedora, cowboy, bucket and round styles — and straw hats including panama, capeline, boater and crochet designs.
Best for Handmade felt and straw hats
Warren Street, Hudson, NY
Milliner Behida Dolić hand-shapes straw and felt hats to order from her Hudson studio-shop, alongside a small line of ready-to-wear garments. The workshop sells directly to customers rather than through department stores, keeping production small and made-to-measure.
Best for Custom straw and felt hats
Innsbruck, Austria
Held has shaped felt hats in Innsbruck since the late 1800s and describes itself as the only hat manufacturer in Tyrol, run by the fourth generation of the founding family. Some of its wooden hat blocks are more than 120 years old, and its archive of over 2,000 historic forms still supplies traditional-costume groups across the Alps.
Best for Handmade felt hats and Tracht headwear
Jackson
Sing Hat Company is a woman-owned and operated custom hatmaker based in Jackson Hole making bespoke felt hats and ready-to-wear felt hats from $875-$975, plus palm leaf hats. Hats feature beaver fur felt bodies, satin linings and gold-stamped leather sweatbands, with materials sourced in North America.
Best for Custom felt and palm leaf hats
Kyiv
Ruslan Baginskiy specialises in hats, from chain-trimmed baker boys to straw and structured millinery. The range treats headwear as the central purchase, with size and shape worth testing in person.
Best for Chain-strap baker boy hats and couture straw millinery from Ukraine
PRINTEMPS
Italian hat maker founded 1905 in Salento, Apulia (Maglie, Lecce province) by the D'Oria family; handmade fedoras, panamas and flat caps in the Salento tailoring tradition, still made in Italy.
Best for Artisanal fedoras and experimental sculptural brims from an Apulian hatmaker
Doria 1905 traces to a small tailoring workshop run by the D'Oria family in Maglie, in the Lecce province of Apulia's Salento peninsula, in the early 20th century. The workshop formalized as Sabino D'Oria and Figli in 1937, initially producing children's clothing before specializing in hats. The brand marked its 110th anniversary in 2015. Today Doria 1905 makes handcrafted headwear - panama hats, fedoras, wide-brimmed and waterproof styles, baseball caps, bucket hats, and traditional Salento coppole - using panama straw, linen and leather, all made in Italy.
London, UK
London millinery house founded in 2009 by Zofia, with hatmaker Alex joining shortly after, based in Covent Garden's New Row. Hand-blocks hats and caps from British cloth for ready-to-wear, bespoke, film and fashion-week commissions.
Best for Hats, handcrafted
Laird Hatters was founded in London in 2009 by Zofia, who opened the label's first shop selling ready-to-wear headwear soon after starting the business; hatmaker Alex joined shortly afterward as the house's principal maker. The company is built around traditional hand-blocking techniques — shaping felt and other materials by hand over wooden hat blocks — and sources cloth specifically from British mills as part of a stated commitment to supporting UK textile manufacturing rather than relying on imported materials. Laird operates several stores across central London, including its shop on New Row in Covent Garden, alongside a bespoke service for custom headwear. The company has built a reputation beyond retail through collaborations with British fashion designers, with its hats and caps appearing at London Fashion Week and London Collections: Men. It also produces bespoke pieces for television and film productions, work that sits alongside its retail and ready-to-wear lines. The Covent Garden location places Laird within one of London's historic retail and craft districts, and the brand markets itself specifically on British craftsmanship and material sourcing as points of differentiation from mass-produced headwear.
Hollywood / Online
Heritage headwear line from the Bailey Hat Company, founded in Los Angeles in 1922 by Kansas-born George S. Bailey. Known for dressing 1920s-40s Hollywood leading men including Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper; now made in the USA under Bollman Hat Company ownership since 1986.
Best for Fedoras, flat caps
George S. Bailey, born in Salina, Kansas in 1897, founded the Bailey Hat Company in Los Angeles in 1922. The company built its name dressing Hollywood's leading men - Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper among them - popularizing fedoras, derbies and other classic styles through the 1920s. The Bailey brand was acquired by the Bollman Hat Company in 1986 and has since broadened into Western and outdoor collections. The 'Bailey 1922' line is positioned as the brand's heritage collection, emphasizing American craftsmanship.
Los Angeles / United States
Baron Hats has made hats one at a time for over fifty years, supplying film, television, and stage as well as walk-in customers from its Los Angeles workshop above B. Black and Sons. It sells handmade pieces such as Panama straws and hemp cloches and offers cleaning and restoration, with appointments recommended but walk-ins welcome.
Best for Hats, millinery, hatmaker
Madrid / Spain
Founded on the Plaza Mayor, this is a Spanish hat shop, stocking sombreros, berets, caps, and military-style pieces alongside collector's curiosities. Customers shop in the historic store or order online with shipping across Spain.
Best for Hats, caps, berets, military surplus
Madrid / Spain
The Spanish hatter Medrano makes and sells Panamas, fedoras, flat caps, and berets, plus bespoke commissions for theatre, film, and ceremony. Its Calle Imperial shop in Madrid is backed by an online store carrying hundreds of styles.
Best for Hats, caps, berets, handmade hats
PRINTEMPS
Marseille millinery label founded 2014 by designer Victoria Sanguinetti; wool-felt winter hats and Ecuadorian toquilla-straw summer hats made in France, sold at retailers including Paris's Printemps department store.
Best for Heirloom-style ceremonial hats and bridal crowns
Van Palma was founded in Marseille in 2014 by Victoria Sanguinetti, a young designer from the city who chose to pursue hat design over a business degree. The brand's winter collection is made from 100% merino wool felt in a Stetson-inspired silhouette, produced in one of the last remaining traditional millinery workshops in France; its broader-brimmed summer hats use toquilla straw sourced from a women's weaving cooperative in Ecuador. Pieces are assembled in workshops in Marseille's 8th arrondissement, and the brand markets itself as 100% made in France. Van Palma hats are sold through a number of retail partners, including Printemps, the Paris department store - but Printemps is a retailer carrying the brand, not the brand's own base, which is Marseille.
Milan / Italy
Founded in 1888, Cappelleria Mutinelli is a historic Milan hat shop stocking hats and caps of every style for men and women. Its Corso Buenos Aires store pairs the selection with expert fitting advice.
Best for Hats and caps in every style with expert fitting advice, a Milan hatter since 1888
352 Sainte-Catherine East, Montreal, QC H2X 1L7 / Montreal / Canada
Founded 1932 by Honorius Henri and Jean-Maurice Lefebvre; The hat store still reblocks hats.
Best for Locally made hats and millinery.
Moscow / Online
Lilia Fisher is a millinery brand founded in 2012 making handmade felt, fur and leather hats, veils and headpieces, many produced as single pieces, with runway credits at Milan, Paris and London Hat Week. The designer sells worldwide through her online shop and has staged pop-ups in Moscow, New York, Miami, Dubai and Paris.
Best for Millinery, designer hats, headwear accessories
Nairobi
Kamili Designs, based in Nairobi, sells soft furnishings such as cushions, kitchen wear and women's and kids' items including hats and aprons, described as colourful home furnishings with patterned, brightly-colored textile designs.
Best for Patterned cushions and kitchen textiles
New Orleans
Maria Etkind Millinery in New Orleans makes custom handmade hats, fascinators and headpieces from felt and straw brimmed hats, using hand-dyeing and wooden hat blocks to shape crowns. The studio has sold hats to costume designers working in the New Orleans film industry and makes pieces for Mardi Gras, the Kentucky Derby and weddings.
Best for Custom handmade hats and headpieces
New York City / United States
A New York hat store, open since 1911, JJ Hat Center sells fedoras, flat caps, Panamas and beanies from its Fifth Avenue shop. Heritage brands like Borsalino and Stetson sit alongside its own JJ Hats line, with worldwide shipping through the online store.
Best for Hat shop, hats, caps, milliner
Casco Viejo, Panama City
Victor's Panama Hats was created in 2009 by Victor Hernandez Sarmiento. It distributes hats nationally and internationally. The site lists Ecuador Panama hats, foldable Panama hats, straw hats and superfino hats among the styles it sells.
Best for Panama hats, including foldable and superfino styles
Paris — Rue Tiquetonne
Anthony Peto is an Anglo-Parisian hatter making panamas, trilbies and felt hats on rue Tiquetonne.
Best for Panamas, felt hats
PRINTEMPS
Despite its name (French for 'waxed concrete'), this Paris brand - not a construction-materials company - makes docker hats, caps, beanies and scarves in France from organic, GOTS-certified fabrics, founded 2013.
Best for Waxed-concrete kits and finishes for a mineral-look home surface
Contrary to the concrete/mineral-finish product implied by its name, betonxcire.com is a French headwear brand - Beton Cire, founded in 2013 by Amelie Le Roux - that makes docker hats, caps, beanies, rain hats and sun hats, along with bandanas and scarves, rather than any waxed-concrete building material; the name plays on that material's aesthetic rather than describing what the brand actually sells. Products are made in France using organic materials, with the brand citing Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certification and EU manufacturing compliance; its signature piece is the 'Miki Docker' hat. The range spans seasonal fabrics - wool, linen, hemp, cotton and denim, plus rain-resistant technical fabric. The brand ships internationally and lists physical stockists in several countries while operating primarily as an e-commerce business out of Paris.
Paris / Online
Paris hat atelier making felt and straw classics to order in bright color combinations.
Best for Custom fedoras and panamas made to measure.
Pasadena, Texas
El Toro Boots on Pasadena's Main Street sells cowboy boots, shaped hats, workwear and the shop's own ETB caps.
Best for Boots And Workwear in Pasadena.
Phoenix / United States
Heritage Hats, run by owner Rich Glisson, is Arizona's largest hat store, stocking western, fedora, Panama, and Australian outback hats along with restoration and cleaning services. The Cave Creek Road shop in Phoenix serves local and tourist customers with custom-made and brand-name hats.
Best for Accessories, Hats, Custom Millinery, Restoration Services
Nový Jičín / Prague
Czech hatmaker founded 1799 in Nový Jičín by Jan Nepomuk Hückel; the name derives from 'TOvárny NA Klobouky' (hat factories). A European hat manufacturer, still producing felt hats and caps today.
Best for Czech felt hats and berets
Tonak's history begins in 1799, when Jan Nepomuk Hückel established a hat-making manufactory in Nový Jičín, a town in what is now the Moravian-Silesian region of the Czech Republic. The town already had an established hatters' guild by 1630, when its articles were confirmed by the local town council, giving Nový Jičín a headwear-making tradition that predated Hückel's factory by more than a century and provided a base of skilled local labor. The company name, TONAK, is an acronym of the Czech phrase 'TOvárny NA Klobouky' — 'factories for hats.' Over more than two centuries the company weathered changes in ownership and political systems, including nationalization during the socialist era, while continuing production through techniques such as wool- and fur-felt forming, blocking, and finishing. Today TONAK a.s. operates as a joint-stock company with production based in Nový Jičín and a second facility in Strakonice, and is counted among the oldest continuously operating hat manufacturers in Europe. The brand continues to produce felt hats, caps and other traditional headwear, having marked 220 years of production as documented by regional press in 2019, and remains closely tied to Nový Jičín's civic identity as a historic center of Central European hat-making.
Parte Vieja, San Sebastián
A family hat shop selling hats, caps, and Basque-made Elósegui berets. The official tourism route says the business dates to 1932.
Best for Basque-made Elósegui berets, hats and caps
1518 Western Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101 / Seattle / United States
Herman Helmun opened Eclipse Hat Shop in the Sanitary Market in 1949; Sharon Hagerty apprenticed then took over in 1996.
Best for Locally made hats and millinery.
Chorsu, Tashkent
Karakul lamb-fur hats and caps across styles and qualities are a traditional Chorsu market speciality.
Best for Karakul lamb fur hats and caps in various styles
Tokyo / Online
Tokyo hatmaker — handcrafted headwear with Japanese precision. From wide-brim fedoras to casual caps, each piece is cut and sewn with obsessive attention.
Best for Handcrafted Japanese hats and headwear
Seilergasse 10, Vienna / Online
Hatmakers since 1903, fourth generation — the Viennese blocks on Meryl Streep and Brad Pitt; modernism you can wear in the rain.
Best for Hats of quiet fame; caps, hoods and headbands
al. Jerzego Waszyngtona 30/36 lok. U8, 03-910 Warsaw, Poland / Warsaw / Poland
A Warsaw hat workshop; its men's-hat shop opened in 1864 on Chmielna; moved 6 Sep 2019 to al. Jerzego Waszyngtona 30/36 opposite Park Paderewskiego. Gazeta Polska Codziennie: still run by Alina Cieszkowska.
Best for Oldest Warsaw hat workshop, first men's-hat shop opened 1864 on Chmielna.
Calvo / historic center, Sucre
Alpaca Andina makes handmade textile accessories from 100% alpaca fiber, including toreras, chullos, neck pieces, mittens, headbands and gloves, priced from S/15.00 to S/45.00. It describes itself as a small emerging enterprise supporting artisan associates.
Best for Alpaca fiber accessories and hats
Via Galliera
A hat shop on Via Galliera since 1870, Antica Cappelleria Malaguti sells and restores handmade hats and caps for men and women. The business traces its origins to felt-making in Bologna's old ghetto quarter.
Best for Handmade hats and caps
USA
American hat maker founded in 1922, known for fedoras, pork pies and Panama hats once worn by Golden Age Hollywood stars including Fred Astaire and Humphrey Bogart. The modern Bailey 1922 line uses the brand's water-repellent LiteFelt finish.
Best for Hats, contemporary
Bailey of Hollywood has made hats since 1922, building a reputation on West Coast style paired with old-world felting and finishing techniques. Its fedoras, flat caps and pork pies were worn by Hollywood stars of the studio era, including Fred Astaire and Humphrey Bogart. Bailey 1922 is the company's classic dress and everyday collection today, made in premium wool felt, fur felt and straw. A signature feature is the LiteFelt finish, a treatment that takes natural, unstiffened wool felt and makes it water-repellent and better able to hold its shape.
Downtown Beaufort (722 Bay Street)
The Beaufort location adds beach-equipment rentals and surfboard repairs to its retail floor. Swimsuits, hats, souvenirs and accessories cover the rest of a beach day, and the shop operates year-round.
Best for Surf gear and beach apparel
USA
North American hat brand founded in 1917 in Guelph, Canada, known for fur-felt fedoras. Acquired by Dorfman Pacific in 2011; production shifted to the US-based Milano Hat Company from 2012, which continues the brand's felt-hat styles today.
Best for Fedora, caps
Biltmore was established in 1917 in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, taking its name from New York's Biltmore Hotel. It became a leading name in Canadian hatmaking, known for fur-felt hats. After 95 years as a Canadian company, Biltmore was acquired by Dorfman Pacific in 2011, and from 2012 its hats have been produced by the Milano Hat Company, a US-based Dorfman Pacific subsidiary.
1019 Main Avenue, Durango, CO
A downtown Durango Western wear shop on Main Avenue specializing in premium cowboy boots and hats from heritage brands. The store presents itself as a destination for refined Western style in southwest Colorado.
Best for Western boots and hats
Padua
Zin & De Lucia has sold hats in central Padua since 1879, a few steps from Caffe Pedrocchi, stocking everything from top hats and cashmere caps to Sicilian coppolas. The historic shop carries prestige brands like Borsalino and Stetson and now runs an e-shop.
Best for Hats, caps, headwear, Borsalino
Baixa
Opened in the late 19th century near Rossio, Chapelaria Azevedo Rua still fits customers for felt and straw hats from glass display cases that have held stock since the shop's early years, and it is name-checked in a poem by Fernando Pessoa, who bought his hats there. The shop continues to work with Portuguese hatmakers rather than importing mass-produced stock.
Best for Classic Portuguese-made hats
Avignon
Family-run since 1923 in a Monument Historique-listed Avignon shopfront (trading since 1860), Chapellerie Mouret sources Panama hats directly from Ecuador and stocks parasols, umbrellas, canes and gloves alongside Borsalino and Stetson.
Best for Parasols, umbrellas, canes and gloves alongside Borsalino and Stetson
Chapellerie Mouret has traded from 20 rue des Marchands in central Avignon since 1860, and the Mouret family has run it since 1923. The interior - Louis XVI in style, with gilded detailing and wooden shutters closed each evening with an ornate key - is listed by France's Monuments Historiques, making the shop itself as much a heritage site as a retailer. Hats are the core of the business, carrying established houses including Borsalino, Stetson, Kangol and Bailey, and the current owner has traveled to Ecuador roughly a dozen times to source Panama hats directly from the artisans who weave them, rather than through an intermediary importer. Around the hats, the shop keeps a genuinely broad accessories counter: braces, walking sticks, bow ties, driving and ceremony gloves, mittens, mantillas, balaclavas, and - the category relevant here - parasols and umbrellas, sold as part of the same formal-dress and ceremony wardrobe rather than as a specialty in their own right. The shop has drawn coverage from French outlets including TF1, Le Figaro, Telerama, Geo and Elle, and counts actors Robin Renucci and Daniel Auteuil and former prime minister Lionel Jospin among past customers. It is, first and foremost, a hatter with an unusually complete accessories range - its parasols and umbrellas are real and in stock, but secondary to the Panama hats and heritage shopfront that define the address.
Bridge Road
Bridge Road boutique specializing in game-day and fan gear, accessories, and customized trucker hats. It builds bespoke hats and stocks apparel geared to West Virginia sports fans.
Best for Custom trucker hats and fan gear
Cody, Wyoming
Cody's Cowboy Hats blocks and finishes custom felt and straw hats, shaping each crown and brim to the wearer's head and style. The shop also cleans, reshapes, and restores older hats.
Best for Custom-shaped cowboy hats
Signa
Consorzio Il Cappello di Firenze has represented Florence's hat manufacturers since 1986 from its seat on Via Valfonda. Its member firms include Angiolo Frasconi, Fratelli Reali, GREVI, Inverni, F.lli Marzi and Raffaello Bettini.
Best for Florence hat manufacturing consortium
Sicily / Online
Francesco Mascari's berrettificio — personalizable hand-made coppole from a Sicilian cap-maker's bench.
Best for Personalized Sicilian caps.
Garland (Dallas metro)
A hat maker producing western headwear including 6X wool-felt cowboy hats, fine straw, palm-leaf and leather styles for men, women and children. Models range from felt cowboy hats to Panama and fedora shapes, some finished with silver buckles and set stones.
Best for Western felt and straw hats
Cache Creek, British Columbia (Hat Creek)
Historic Hat Creek is a preserved 1860s roadhouse ranch on the old Cariboo Wagon Road just north of Cache Creek, with heritage buildings, a blacksmith and stagecoach rides. Its shop carries local crafts and period goods tied to the site's gold-rush past.
Best for Cariboo gold-rush heritage and local crafts
Salt Lake City
JW Custom Hats in Salt Lake City claims custom hats since 1853, crafting felt hats including a 50/50 beaver-rabbit felt option, with complimentary custom design appointments and Make Your Own Hat workshops. The company also runs a professional tooling division supplying hat-making equipment nationwide.
Best for Custom felt hat making
Cleator, Cumbria, UK
The 504 flat cap of hip-hop and Samuel L. — British millinery turned street icon, kangaroo and all.
Best for Caps, iconic
Dingle, Co. Kerry
Milliner and designer Kathleen McAuliffe has made hats, accessories and contemporary jewellery in Dingle since 1993, alongside her own encaustic wax artwork. Her shop favours ethically produced Irish accessories.
Best for Handmade hats and accessories
Hvammstangi
KIDKA knits Icelandic wool into sweaters, cardigans, ponchos, hats, mittens, socks and blankets at its factory in Hvammstangi, alongside horse rugs and saddle pads. All items are made in Iceland from Icelandic wool.
Best for Icelandic wool sweaters and knitwear
Faenza
Lea Emiliani's Maestri Maiolicari Faentini has hand-painted maiolica since 1978 from Via Granarolo 63 in Faenza, using colors, brushes, glazes, and stenciling (colori, pennelli, smalti, spolveri). Patterns include Garofano di Faenza, Penna di Pavone, Melograno, and Berettino Rinascimentale.
Best for Hand-painted renaissance maiolica patterns
Lindenberg im Allgäu, Bavaria, Germany
Founded in Ulm in 1800 by Leonhard Mayser, the hat maker moved its headquarters and design studio to Lindenberg im Allgäu, the Bavarian town whose felt and straw hat industry it helped build alongside dozens of other 19th-century hatters. The line still runs from classic felt hats and straw panamas to caps and beanies, carrying forward a firm that once turned out 3.5 million hats a year at its Lindenberg works.
Best for Felt hats, straw panamas, caps and beanies from a founding hat-town firm
St. Charles Avenue
Historic hat shop since 1894, offering a vast selection of headwear.
Best for Vast headwear selection at one of America's oldest hat shops
Monte Cristi / Ecuador
Modesto Mero and his family weave fine Montecristi Panama hats from toquilla straw at their shop on the corner of 9 de Julio and Olmedo in Montecristi, Ecuador. Classic, fedora, gambler and openwork styles are made to order and sold in store or shipped worldwide through the online catalogue.
Best for Modesto Mero and his family weave fine Montecristi Panama hats from toquilla
Spot Bay, Cayman Brac
NIM Things in Spot Bay makes native island handmade items, including silver thatch palm baskets, hats and placemats.
Best for Silver thatch palm baskets and hats
Beverly
Master hatter Graham Thompson makes bespoke fedoras, homburgs, and Panama hats by hand at Optimo's South Side workshop, blocking and finishing each felt or straw hat to a client's measurements. The studio, set in a former Beverly firehouse, continues a Chicago custom-hat lineage Thompson inherited from mentor Johnny Tyus.
Best for Bespoke handmade hats
Old Bisbee (47 Main Street)
A working hat atelier at 47 Main Street where felt and straw hats are blocked and finished by hand using old-world techniques and original equipment dating to the 1880s. The shop makes contemporary and period styles and also cleans, re-blocks, and restores antique hats.
Best for Handmade and restored hats
Estonia
Crafts.ee sells Estonian folk textiles including wool shawls, silk scarves, knitted hats, mittens and traditional folk clothing, plus knitting kits with wool yarn and patterns. Designs are credited to artisans such as Kadi Pajupuu and Christi Kütt, from a shop at Pikk 22, Tallinn.
Best for Estonian folk textiles and knitting kits
Great Western Arcade
A hat shop in the Great Western Arcade selling fedoras, trilbies, flat caps, panamas, and berets for men and women, plus scarves, gloves, and ties. Staff also carry out hat care and grooming in store.
Best for Hats and headwear
Downtown
Founded in 1911 by Tom and Jim Peters as a shoeshine stand that grew into hatmaking, the shop has occupied its Houston Street location since 1933. Fifth-generation hatter Brad Peters now shapes custom felt and straw hats on the premises.
Best for Custom-shaped Western hats and fedoras
Stockyards
The Ryon saddle trade traces to 1944, when Little Windy Ryon opened his shop in the Stockyards, and each saddle is still built by hand for a specific horse and rider. The store also hand-creases hats and stocks Western goods on North Main Street.
Best for Hand-built custom saddles
Sean Ryon Western Store & Saddle Shop stands at 2707 North Main Street in the Fort Worth Stockyards. The trade behind it starts with Windy Ryon. He rodeoed for several years and then bought the Joe Edelbrock saddle shop. A few years later he sold it and opened his own store, named Windy Ryon's, in the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1944. The Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame records it as a gathering place for cowboys and ranch hands, with Windy usually in the store and trading stories. His friends held the first Windy Ryon Memorial Roping in his memory in 1973, and that roping still runs each year with a scholarship programme attached. In 1959 Windy expanded the business with his son Don Jackson Ryon III, known as Whistle. In 1989 Sean Ryon continued the family line by opening the present store. Saddles are built by hand and fitted to a horse and its rider, and the shop points customers to its own gallery or to a show pen to see the work. Hand creased hats and made to measure boots complete the trade. One family has kept the shop in the Stockyards for three generations.
Oviedo / Online
Sombrereria Albinana is a century-old Oviedo hatter dealing in hats, caps, and headwear for men and women. Its site covers the trade and the workshop, and it sells online through its shop at sombrerosybanderas.com.
Best for Hats, caps, headwear
Old Town
Sombreros López is an Ecuadorian family hatmaker dating to 1920, producing handmade toquilla and felt hats with custom options. The shop is most useful for buyers who want construction and material choice rather than generic souvenirs.
Best for Family hatmaking spanning more than a century
Garland / Texas / Online
American hat maker since 1865 — the cowboy hat, fedoras, and the 'Boss of the Plains'. An icon of the American West.
Best for The original American cowboy hat
Germany
European Stetson operations are run under license by German company FWS since 1998; the original US John B. Stetson Co. stopped manufacturing in 1970, with American production now handled separately by Hatco in Texas.
Best for Western hats, classic
'Stetson' the hat brand traces to John B. Stetson, who founded his hat company in Philadelphia in 1865 after noticing that felted fabric similar to his tent material was waterproof. The original US company stopped manufacturing in 1970 and converted to a licensing model; American production of Stetson-branded hats is now handled separately by Hatco, Inc., which bought the manufacturing license in the 1980s and consolidated production at its Garland, Texas facility in 2004. In Europe, the Stetson name has been under license since 1998, when the German company FWS (Friedrich W. Schneider) became the brand's exclusive European distributor and shortly after its official licensee — an arrangement FWS still holds, operating the business as Stetson Europe. The European operation runs independently of Hatco's US manufacturing and produces its own range under the license, spanning traditional felt, straw, leather and panama hats, peaked and flat caps including the Hatteras line, baseball and trucker caps, and accessories such as belts and gloves. Because the European and American businesses are separately licensed, product ranges and styling can differ between the two despite sharing the Stetson name.
San Miguel de Allende
Suki Palomina is a hat atelier in San Miguel de Allende offering custom-made felt and straw hats by appointment. Vogue and Travel + Leisure have both named it a defining hat-maker of the city.
Best for Bespoke felt and straw hats made in-house
Suki Palomina runs a hat atelier in San Miguel de Allende built around appointment-based, custom-made pieces rather than off-the-rack retail. The brand's own site organizes its offering around three distinct in-person 'experiences,' each a different way of engaging with the atelier, and describes the founder's design language as rooted in the cowboy culture of Sonora, in northern Mexico — a heritage the brand carries into hats it calls its 'three patent designs.'
That regional framing has drawn outside attention: Vogue USA described the label as 'deeply rooted in Sonora's cowboy culture,' offering 'a glimpse into traditional Mexican craftsmanship,' while Travel + Leisure singled it out as 'one of the best souvenirs from San Miguel de Allende,' recommending visitors book the one-on-one atelier appointment to have a felt or straw hat made to size.
The brand's own tagline, 'sombreros para tu alma' — hats for your soul — points to the same positioning both outlets picked up on: this isn't a hat shop selling stock inventory, but a maker offering a bespoke, made-to-order process, with the appointment itself treated as part of the product.
Leavenworth, Washington, USA
The Hat Shop occupies its own storefront on Front Street after splitting from the neighboring Wood Shop, stocking hats for the town's year-round festival crowds. It remains an independently run specialty shop rather than a chain outpost.
Best for Hats for every Bavarian festival on the calendar
Rapa Iti
Tinamoe Teravaro, known as Mama Viriamu, weaves the finely worked pandanus 'chapeaux de Rapa' for which her island is known, a craft she learned at the Oremu youth weaving school. The Polynesian cultural magazine Hiro'a has profiled her among Rapa Iti's makers keeping the signature hat alive.
Best for Handwoven pandanus Rapa hats
Otavalo
Unay Muchiku is a family workshop and shop in Otavalo, Ecuador, making hats and ponchos from sheep and alpaca wool. It says its hats are made entirely by hand.
Best for Textiles
Prishtina
Vlerë, a Pristina-based fashion brand, makes limited pieces such as sailor hats priced €60-65 and a sculptural 3D-printed heart-shaped bag with a built-in music player, alongside experimental textile art shown in its Lost&Found...Again exhibition.
Best for Limited-edition sculptural fashion pieces
Pismo Beach / United States
Wildflower on Price Street in Pismo Beach carries high-end denim lines, along with knitwear and hats.
Best for Premium denim and knitwear
Illustrative still-life generated for ORBIS; not a photograph of any shop.
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