Local Hat Makers: A Tip of the Hat to the Handmade

You don’t need to be at the Kentucky Derby or a Sunday picnic to sport a well-made hat. A hat can be the solution to a bad hair day, a wardrobe mainstay or a protector from the elements.

Hats are used more practically in frigid, windy cities such as Chicago and New York, said designer ElizaBeth Rohloff. But Portlanders tend to wear hats as statement pieces.

“You don’t wear a hat so people will say, ‘Who does she think she is?’ but so they’ll say, ‘Who is that? She looks fantastic’,” said milliner Dayna Pinkham.

“We’re at the height of [our] hat wearing,” Rohloff said. “Portland is really into the fedora, and men are buying the vintage pieces, especially musicians.”

Portland hatmakers follow a few common threads. They craft each piece by hand, they often use organic and upcycled clothing materials, and they reinvent classic shapes with unique detailing.

Pinkham Millinery: Dressing the Decades

There’s an audible rhythm to the work inside Pinkham Millinery: Stitch, snip, press, steam. “There’s no glue, just needle and thread,” said Dayna Pinkham, pinning feathers on a hat. “You can’t just put a bow somewhere. It should appear that the bow is functional... as though it lives there.” Pinkham is entering her 29th year of millinery and her hats fit as easily on a classic movie set as with a hipster’s outfit. “I focus on subtlety, on you and your silhouette,” she said. Most Pinkham hats cost between $100 and $395. “If you choose it wisely, it’s a great investment,” Pinkham said. “We find a hat that fits your personality, wardrobe and day-to-day lifestyle.” You can see Pinkham’s work in her Morgan’s Alley shop in Downtown or at Physical Element’s Fall Fashion Salon & Speakeasy this Thursday and Friday in the Pearl District.
 

ElizaBeth Rohloff: Making the Magic Match

For ElizaBeth Rohloff, a hat is finished once it’s been matched with the right person.
“It’s like having a pair of glasses—you can only have so many things around your face,” she said. This fall she’s highlighting her Goodman cap—a walking cap similar to a fedora—as well as her Three Corner Opera hat, a theatrical piece with grosgrain ribbon and rhinestones. Pieces in the works include a brimmed, close-fitting men’s cap combining the newsboy with the driving cap, and a single-edition winter hat made of Russian-influenced woolens and rabbit fur. Rohloff’s hats are for sale at John Helmer Haberdasher in Downtown and Switch Shoes & Clothing in Multnomah Village.

Flood Clothing: Designing Enthusiasm

One might call Nicole Flood a fabric collage artist. Most of her hats, as well as her clothing line, are pieced together from cuts of upcycled clothing, resulting in “mini and manageable element[s] of self-expression,” she said. “They have a classic energy set within a completely modern look.” Her newest style, The Jupe, debuted Sept. 25 and includes wrap-around layers and a close-fitting brim that are “high-drama in look and style,” she said. Flood’s hats sell for about $45, and are available at Portland Saturday Market in Old Town-Chinatown and floodclothing.com. “My hats represent an investment in the Portland economy,” Flood said. “We can honor our material needs, but with thoughtful decisions about what we are consuming.”

Flipside Hats: Both Sides, Now

Call it a railroad cap, a welders cap, or a biking cap, but Kori Giudici calls her mainstay design the P Town Cap. It’s reversible, collapsible and unisex for adults and children. “I could have a 16-year-old punk kid and a 70-year-old conservative man and both are buying this hat,” she said. She works with recycled or organic hemp, wool, cotton and bamboo, and this fall she’s using recycled knits, wool and cashmere on cloches, newsy caps and beanies. Flipside Hats sell between $30 and $50, and are available at Trillium Artisans in Lents, Presents of Mind in Sunnyside and Clever Cycles in Hosford-Abernethy. Her children’s hats are at Polliwog in Sunnyside.
 

Faith Hats: Keeping It Simple

When Faith Jennings finds a good thing, she sticks with it. She’s been selling hats for more than five years, and bases each piece around one of two original patterns. “I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel,” she said. Even so, each of her unisex caps is unique, pieced together from upcycled clothing including cotton blends, wool, and cashmere. “If I find a sweater I want to work with, there will only be two hats in the world made from that sweater,” Jennings said. Her Original Faith Hat is a soft knit version of the 1920s newsboy cap, and The Drifter is a warm-weather version of that, typically wrapped with a men’s tie or belt. “I use the back pocket of pants on the underside of the Drifter so it has a functional pocket inside,” she said. The caps are for sale at Tumbleweed on Alberta Street, Bonnet in the Pearl District, Dazzle on NW 23rd Avenue or at Jennings’ performances with the March Fourth Marching Band.