Heads up Lexington, these two custom hatmakers are seeing a ‘Yellowstone’ effect
Hat wearing may be coming back. Certainly hat making is, at least in downtown Lexington, which will soon have two artisan hat shops.
One, The Headquarters of the Bluegrass Hatter Society, opened at 144 Short St. last year, featuring elegant bespoke hats from hatmaker Nick Godbehere.
The other, T. Higdon Studio, coming soon to 218 N. Martin Luther King Blvd., will feature the artistic efforts of metal sculptor Tony Higdon, who took up sculpting felt while recovering from a car accident. Now he’s making one-of-a-kind, custom-made hats for musicians including Town Mountain and C.J. Cain, a guitar player with Tyler Childers.
“Seems like hats are coming back,” Higdon said. “Even the Western hat is coming back, like on ‘Yellowstone.’ (the popular TV drama show about a family of ranchers) ... I think I’ve always wanted to be a cowboy. My hats are part Americana, part outlaw, part Kentucky back roads.”
Higdon was looking for a new hat online when he found someone making them and thought, I could do that. “I’ve always worn hats,” Higdon said.
He found that a lot of metal sculpting transferred to felt. Both are heated and become malleable, he said, then stiffen as they cool.
Now he’s about to open a new studio to sculpt hats and ran an exhibit of his hats at the LexArts Gallery on Mill Street called “Forging Felt.”
“It turned into something way bigger than I ever thought it would be,” Higdon said.
His favorite part and the aspect that is most different from metal sculpting: “I love the interaction with the patron,” he said. “When you make a sculpture you might not ever meet the person who buys it. But a hat so different, it’s a personal item.”
Higdon says he makes hats that incorporate family heirlooms. “A gentleman had a ring that belonged to his grandfather and he didn’t really wear rings. So we took the stone out and had it reset to sew into the hatband,” Higdon said. “That was really neat and those are really fun.”
He’s also been incorporating his expertise in metal, adding copper band riveted to the hats in what is becoming a signature piece for the artist.
His hats range in price from $400 to $1,000 and are made from high-end beaver fur that Higdon steams and shapes into a hybrid style somewhere between fedora and Western hats. They have unique embellishments such Art Deco designs burned into the brim or even Kentucky agate pieces set into the felt.
For the gallery show, he created hats that he thought would be over the top but a surprising number have sold, he said.
Higdon said he and fellow Lexington hatmaker Godbehere help each other out whenever they can.
Like Higdon, Godbehere, who goes by the name Panda, has always loved hats but really got into the business only after a serious injury had him using a wheelchair for two years. As he relearned how to walk, he “went full-scale into obsession” with hats. First opening a hattery in his garage and then at pop-up shop at Greyline Station and finally into the storefront on Short Street where his black-and-white cat, Patches often graces the front window.
He said that he loves working contemporary and experimental designs into his hats, which are made from sustainably sourced nutria felt. His hand-made hats sell for $700-$850 and take 25-30 hours each to make.
Panda said he called his shop The Headquarters of the Bluegrass Hatters Society for a special reason: “I really want to encourage more people to make hats. And wear them.”
Godbehere said he uses fire to surface the felt to a smooth plane and to lure the color back to the felt.
“It also redistributes oils in the fiber to the surface to make it more weather resistant and resilient,” he said. He also uses a process of repeatedly steaming and cooling the hat on the block to tighten up the felt as well as ironing it on the block.
“The thing about what I do is every step shapes, textures and strengthens the material and gives it a luxurious feel and look to it while prolonging its lifetime,” he said.
The Headquarters of the Bluegrass Hatter Society
Where: 144 Short St.
Hours: By appointment
Call: 859-955-0463
Online: bluegrass-hats.com
T. Higdon Studio
Where: 218 N. MLK Blvd.
Hours: By appointment
Online: Instagram.com/thigdonstudio
