Photos by Eric Kallen
“Your hat is the last thing you take off and the first thing that gets noticed.”
– Old Cowboy Saying
National Football League linebacker Khalil Mack once said, “I have a big head, so I can appreciate a good hat.”
Scott O’Farrell would likely agree with Mack, even though the football player isn’t a cowboy. O’Farrell understands that heads come in all shapes and sizes and crafts custom hats to fit each unique form. From classic cowboy hats to crossover styles, specialty designs and fedoras, O’Farrell ensures a perfect fit and offers a wide range of custom creations for all tastes and needs.
“Please give Mack my number,” said O’Farrell. “I’d love to make the guy a hat.”
The hatmaker owns and operates the O’Farrell Hat Company in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The bespoke outfit has produced custom, handmade hats for over 30 years. O’Farrell cowboy hats have graced the heads of movie and rock stars, including Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Bruce Springsteen, Dustin Hoffman and Matt Damon, and former U.S. presidents George Bush and Ronald Reagan.
“I read about your famous clients in the Denver Post,” I said, even though I knew that’s information O’Farrell doesn’t share.
“That’s pretty cool,” he said.
The man is tight-lipped and direct when he speaks. I respect that. We moved on to his business story.
“We’re a family-run business that my father Kevin O’Farrell started in 1979 in Durango, Colorado,” he said. “He was a New Jersey boy who learned how to make hats through extensive study with hatters from Oregon to Florida, traveling throughout the South and mostly in Texas. He learned from the old timers how to do it correctly. He apprenticed with five senior hatmakers for over six years and became a ‘master’ hatmaker.’ Then he taught me the craft.”
Kevin O’Farrell sold his original business in 1992. Soon afterward, he launched the O’Farrell Hat Company in Santa Fe. The shop, now in its second generation, is located on East San Francisco Street, where his son carries on the family tradition. Its superb location is half a block from the French Romanesque Revival-style Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in the historic downtown.
Visiting the store is ideal because the staff can take precise measurements and offer personalized service. However, O’Farrell recognizes that not all customers can make the trip to New Mexico, so they have options to accommodate remote orders.
“We’ll take a deposit when you place your order, and we’ll send you a sizing kit with detailed instructions to measure the circumference and shape of your head. We’ll also send you color samples to consider if you’re uncertain about your preference.”
According to O’Farrell, quality hats mean beaver. The more beaver in the hat the better because it yields a tighter, tougher felt. Most mass-produced hats in the contemporary market are made from rabbit and wool. These materials are appealing because of the price, but O’Farrell typically doesn’t deal with them much because rabbit and wool hats don’t last.
“We consider beaver felt a lifetime hat,” he added, “because it will outlast you.”
O’Farrell hats cost $725 for a blend of beaver and European hare, and $1,000 for pure beaver. Hatbands in the shop or on its website aren’t included in the hat’s price and must be purchased separately. However, O’Farrell does include a grosgrain ribbon hatband with your custom order and offers a variety of colors and widths to choose from.
“A real custom hat is one that customers design for themselves. We’ll help you through the process. Everyone has different tastes and ideas on what a hat is, and that’s what we’re here to do. We’ll help you find the crown, the brim, the color and the material—and of course, we’ll customize it to fit your head shape. You’ll get the hat you wanted. That’s custom.”
Everyone has a strange-shaped head, O’Farrell said, from the top down. If you could see your head the way your hat sees your head, its shape can be a circle, an egg, an oval—or something entirely different. Heads also have bumps and dents, imperfections that O’Farrell staff call “nuances.” There are often “dimples” on either side of your head by your temples, which makes it difficult or impossible to find a hat that fits perfectly.
Unlike most hatmakers, O’Farrell Hat Company uses a conformateur, a metallic head-measuring device invented by Parisien Allié-Maillard in France in the mid-1800s. Although the contraption looks like a prop from the movie “Frankenstein” or a torture machine used during the Spanish Inquisition, there’s no pain involved, and it remains an essential tool and the most reliable way to translate the fit of a custom hat into the exact shape of your head. Few hatmakers today use a conformateur, and they’re difficult to find as they’re no longer in production.
I’d read that the left side of your skull comes from your mother’s DNA, and the right side is based on your father’s DNA. I asked O’Farrell about this occurrence.
“That’s a theory,” he said. “I do know the conformateur gives us all the details.”
You try the gadget on while sitting in O’Farrell’s century-old barber chair the way you would wear your hat. The conformateur resembles the guts of a piano and lines up a series of pins that create a punched card with a top-down outline of your head. The mechanism’s long metal “keys” conform to the shape of the skull, measuring a head’s girth at every longitude and punching pinprick holes into a small slip of paper stored at the top of the crown. The staff uses the punch card to create the final fit of your hat. As a result, they build the shape of your head into the hat, so your O’Farrell will fit perfectly.
“We’re here to find what fits into your world and make it for you,” O’Farrell said.
The introduction of the cowboy hat is often credited to John Batterson Stetson, who was skilled in the ancient art of felting. This process involves leveraging the natural “scales” in fur pelts, which interlock when matted together. By repeatedly dipping the fur in hot water and then squeezing it, Stetson created a dense, durable felt that is naturally weather-resistant and long-lasting. This felt became the foundation for the cowboy hat, a practical and iconic symbol of American western wear designed to withstand harsh outdoor conditions.
Stetson brilliantly named his first hat “The Boss of the Plains” and started his business in 1865 with a $100 investment. Recognizing the emerging “cattle class” in the West, Stetson fashioned his original design into a modified version of a Mexican sombrero.
Today’s cowboy hat is a timeless icon in American history and continues to represent the spirit of independence. But there’s more to a cowboy hat than meets the eye. Like anything else, cowboy hats have anatomy, so it’s important to understand the terminology involved in your decision-making if you want to go cowboy.
The Crown
For hatters, the crown is the centerpiece of the hat—a defining feature that should be well-proportioned to the wearer’s face. The crown’s creases, or indentations on the sides, allow for endless customization and personality, with variations to suit different tastes and styles. Creases affect the hat’s overall look and enhance its character, making each custom hat unique and expressing the wearer’s identity.
The Felt
You can choose from O’Farrell’s Pure Beaver Fur (pure means 100%) or Beaver and European Hare blend. O’Farrell staff carefully brush, sand and hand-hone to the finest felt you can buy. This gives the hat a tremendous “memory” to keep its shape in all types of weather.
The Brim
As with the crown, the variety of brim styles—the width, and whether the hat has a pencil roll or curl (a tight curl that rolls into itself and is the diameter of a pencil)—make your hat unique.
The brim has a firmer body for handling, and some styles have a ribbon “binding” along the edge. Never lay your hat down on a flat surface on its brim because you will eventually create a flat area on the front and back. Make certain to turn it upside down on its crown or turn the sweatband inside out and stand it on the sweatband if it’s wet.
The Sweatband
O’Farrell fashions sweatbands from superior porous goatskin or sheepskin, cut and sewn at the perfect angle to conform to your head. This enables it to “breathe” comfortably and resist perspiration stains.
The Hatband
Hatbands are the trimmings, the icing on the cake, and aren’t just after-thoughts. O’Farrell hatbands are from the finest artisans in the Southwest, and each hatband is unique. You can pick from silver, gold, leather, bead, quill, horsehair or French ribbon.
The Lining
Staff will line your hat inside the crown with fine satin displaying the O’Farrell crest.
The Fit
If you accurately measure your head’s circumference (about one-fourth an inch above your ears), the staff can incorporate that as they build your hat. It’s also important to recognize your head’s shape (round-oval, long-oval or extra-long-oval) for them to make it comfortable.
O’Farrell’s commitment to keeping this old-world craftsmanship alive is refreshing, and his emphasis on materials speaks volumes. Quality, rather than expedience, is paramount, and the result is a hat that will outlast its owner.
That’s the cowboy way, and no one does it better than O’Farrell today. His old-school approach applies to any style hat that meets your fancy.
Learn more at ofarrellhatco.com.
