A hat manufacturer asks where straw comes from

Hattastic is, obviously, an ethical brand that continnues to use upcycled materials and mainly, at the moment, vintage materials because I am totally in love with them! So I tend to use vintage straws, ribbons - anything. And if I source a load of hats that are broken and in dis-repair, I literally take them apart and make them into something that can be worn again.

I try capture that, sort of, timeless feel because I feel that fashion can be worn here-and-there. Specially with a hat. It may be something that may only be worn once, and I want to get people to wear hats over-and-over-again. So any of my pieces can be worn with a modern or vintage feel about it.

I basically find my materials, and then they inspire me to design my next collection.

Q Are they material-based then? - in terms of what drives the end-product?

Yes.

Interesting that you talk about wearing hats more than once, because when I heard that I immediately thought - yeah: my god! that's really something that people tend not to do!

So is that a combination of producing something that is wearable in lots of different ways, and then also this kind of recycling-aspect of your business? Sorry - I'm not explaining myself very well. What I mean is that perhaps when somebody has worn a hat, there is the potential for you to sort of re-work it for them into something that then became wearable again?

Yes. Absolutely. I relish that. I relish when people also contact me and say
"I've got a bit of fabric that's cut-off my dress. Can you pop it in the hat to finish-off the outfit?"
Because it's frustrating when you see brides, for instance, altering frocks, and they cut off the sleeves: and that's gone. And you think "that could have been so useful - to finish it off". When they are, trying to find a headpeace or something to finish-off the outfit, and it's already there for them.
[...] Having been a bride, and, you know, going to events and things, and trying to find something that's inexpensive; that's, you-know, and interesting design. Something that's a bit different. That's when it happened, and to start with it was a hobby, but then it became a big thing, which is all rather exciting!

Q What's next, then, for Hattastic?

Well at the moment - I did quite a few events last year which was fairly exausting and very exciting and lots of things were happening - so I knew I was going down the right route. This year I'm concentrating on finding a way (because my pieces are one-off and unique) to make my designs repeatable. So I'm looking into expanding it, and I'm collaborating with designers to make it into a brand that you will see. If you see there [on the slide] the pink hat, that's very popular and I am sure that if I had a way that I could make a hundred of them they would sell-out. It's very frustrating not to be able to do that when you've got such limited supplies! So that's what I am investigating at the moment - is finding a local supplier that will be able to supply me large quantities of straw in a varied amount of colours. Or a recycled fabric that I could use, like straw, or like Buckram, as I am continuously trying to make [hats] more sellable to the wholsale market.

I see. So really working on some kind of production line or process that you can use in a more regular way. Fascinating! What a good place to be at.

You can imagine that this is quite difficult, because nobody else has done it! I think I am the only one.

Q Absolutely! I think when people have started to work with finds - with one-off items...
You've then got to sort of go back to the drawing board in terms of where you are actually sourcing everything from. So it's not easy but very exciting.

Yes it is. It's very exciting