Take a very handsome blue-eyed surf dude, throw in some Alice in Wonderland magic and what you get is a hat maker. Not your ordinary hat maker though…
His name is Nick Fouqet. Born in NY, lived in the Southwest of France til the age of 8, and then moved to South Florida. He studied environmental science and sustainable development, liked to fool around with sewing machines and customizing stuff, ended up in NY to work in fashion – he apprenticed for a few fashion labels and modeled for Ralph Lauren, Guess and Levi’s- but that wasn’t satisfying enough. Then one day he landed in Venice, California and met an old cowboy with an amazing hat. The cowboy told him he made his own hat but that hat making was a lost art. So Nick decided to fuel back some life into hat making, as there were only about 30 hat makers left in the US.
Fouquet learned the craft, acquired a bunch of equipment from hat makers going out of business and opened shop on Abbott Kinney in Venice. He is now the ‘hottest’ mad hatter in town with clients like Pharrell Williams, Madonna and Jared Leto. Each hat is handmade and spun from heritage fabrics such as Ecuadorian straw or beaver fur felt, which is one of the most durable materials. The unique look of a hat occurs after intense distressing, dyeing, chemical treatments or sometimes even lighting it on fire as you can see in the video below:
The Hat Maker from Dean Bradshaw on Vimeo.
Don’t we just love a handsome man with a passion for his craft? Too bad this one is taken by surf pro Kassia Meador already…what a lucky girl!
Check out more form Nick ‘The Mad Hatter’ Fouquet here.