Two hands shape a felt hat over a wooden block, pinning it in place; coiled ribbons and an old flat iron lie on the worn bench.

Textiles and clothing

Hat Making

The hat is the first accessory on which another person's gaze settles. It defines a style, a period, a profession, a bearing. Making hats is no small matter: the headwear has to fit the head of whoever wears it, it has to last, it has to have proportions that speak to the face and the body. Artisan hat making — the real thing, made to measure — is an ancient craft that few Italian territories have carried to the level of excellence. Tuscany is one of them.

A paved lane runs downhill between plastered houses with wooden shutters; through an open door, shelves of hat blocks are visible.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

In Tuscany hat making has its historic capital at Signa, in the province of Firenze: here, from the eighteenth century onwards, a tradition grew up around the working of paglia di Firenze (Florentine straw), a very fine and very strong plait of wheat straw, which dressed the heads of the European aristocracy and middle class for over a century. The "cappello di paglia di Firenze" was a worldwide fashion phenomenon between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, exported throughout the West, and it still survives today in historic workshops in the area of Signa, Lastra a Signa, Sesto Fiorentino. The Prato area has a tradition of working felt for men's hats (borsalino, fedora). Pistoia had a hat-making production of popular tradition. Contemporary workshops of signature hat making exist in Firenze (concentrated in the historic centre), Lucca and Siena, where milliners work to measure for a discerning clientele.

On the wooden bench: two hat blocks, a brush, a row of pins, grosgrain ribbon, tailor's scissors, a flat iron and a piece of cream felt.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques define different worlds. Paglia di Firenze calls for a supply chain of its own: the straw plait (once worked by hand in the farmhouses) is sewn in a spiral onto a wooden block, starting from the crown and working outwards to the brim. The blocks — those wooden models that each have a name (gondoletta, panama, wide brim, boater) — are the technical inheritance of the historic hat makers. Felt is worked with steam from a paste of rabbit or hare fur (or wool, for more everyday versions): it is pulled, shaped on the block and finished. Women's millinery makes hats and headpieces with mixed techniques — fabrics, straw, feathers, flowers, appliqués — and produces unique pieces for important occasions (weddings, garden parties, society events). The finishing includes inner linings, sweatbands, outer ribbons and applied decoration.

In the workshop someone finishes a pale hat at the bench by the window, among shelves packed with wooden blocks and tools hung on the wall.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today means moving between a luxury niche and a historical memory. The historic hat makers that hold out do so by holding together traditional production (with the straw plait still sewn onto the block) and contemporary research (designers proposing new shapes and materials). Women's millinery lives above all on select events — every hat is a unique piece — and works a great deal through collaborations with tailors, florists and wedding planners.