You might not know Graham Thompson by name, but you’ve probably seen his work.  Based in the South Side of Chicago, he’’s arguably the best hat maker in the US;  his hats have featured prominently in many films, the most recent being Public Enemies. I went to watch Public Enemies purely for the costumes- it’s like hat pornography- and, somewhat unfortunately for the film, costumes wound up being one of the best parts of it.  I was chewing up those chalk pinstripe suits and lovely hats all over the place.

An Optimo fedora. Damn nice windowpane overcoat too.

I happened upon a guy here in So Cal who amassed a huge cache of this magnificent milliner’s work over a few years, but then decided he should sell off his collection.  As luck would have it, this was also a guy who wears the same hat size that I do.

I restrained myself and only purchased one (even used, they’re spendy,) a light weight felt in a ‘Morocco Tan’ colour.  Optimo has a different set of colours every year, and rarely repeats any.  The original owner had the hat made with a high crown, but decided later on that he wanted it bashed down lower profile.  I wanted its original high crown  glory, and had Optimo restore it thus.

Ignore the hirsute appendage

The felt is really something.  Soft, supple, and light weight.  Nice ribbon and bow work as well.  And check out this liner:

Yeah.  That’s some good hat action right there.  They’ve got a light weight felt this year called ‘Seafoam‘ that looks mighty nice.  Might have to pick one of those up…