- By
- Alexandra Sarabia
- Photography by
- Robin Harper
NICK FOUQUET'S HANDCRAFTED HATS OPEN UP A WHIMSICAL AND PSYCHEDELIC WESTERN WORLD
It was an encounter with a cowboy that inspired Nick Fouquet to pursue the unlikely career of hat-making. “There was something special and unique about the one he had. I could tell it was quality and something completely different,” the young milliner recalls. The hat, it turned out, was handcrafted by the cowboy himself.
Fouquet realized that hats were an oversight in the market and seized the opportunity to start his own brand, despite having only a background in environmental science and sustainable design. He soon discovered that there were a lot of parallels between fashion and the degree he had chosen. “The work and the craftsmanship that we do with the brand, with the hats and everything, are very bespoke and made-to-measure,” he explains. “So in a sense, it is sustainable.”
Hat-making is a trade secret. When Fouquet researched the process, he would call up other milliners for advice, but many weren’t too keen to divulge. “When it comes to the actual hat-making process, there’s no one way to do it,” he says. “There’s just your way and everyone comes up with their secret sauce, and not many people want to give away how they make their secret sauce.”
Fouquet was able to cook up his own secret sauce, and the likes of Madonna, Pharrell, and Keith Richards have noticed, wearing his bespoke pieces. It’s not just the music crowd buying into Fouquet’s whimsical and psychedelic Western world but everyone from athletes to stockbrokers and hipsters to surfers.
For many, hats are not easy to wear. To Fouquet, however, it’s all about confidence. “I think you wake up every day with a blank palette and how we paint and dress ourselves is an outward expression of art in our soul,” he suggests. “That could be said about any piece. It’s about expressing yourself.”
For more information, please visit NickFouquet.com.
- By
- Alexandra Sarabia
- Photography by
- Robin Harper
