Tumwater Hat Company

Each Tumwater hat is made to order, to the customer’s specifications, as best we can accommodate them. With rare exception, we use vintage grosgrain ribbon, which, like real estate, they just aren’t making any more of. While we have ongoing business relationships with vintage “scouts,” who are remarkably adept at locating caches of old ribbon, when we use up a spool of such ribbon, the likelihood of our finding another exactly like it is quite remote.

So, no two of our hats are quite alike. But they all bear a family resemblance. We make hats in a wide range of sizes but only a few basic styles. We specialize in the hats we prefer to wear ourselves – fedoras with tall, full, relatively straight-sided crowns, the profile commonly seen in films and street scenes dating from the 1920s through the early 1950s. These are the styles we have learned to make, have equipped our shop to make, and like to make.

We like to think that our enthusiasm for classically styled hats shows in our variations on those familiar themes, be it a sober grey hat with a black ribbon or something considerably more whimsical.

Click on any hat below to see more and larger images.



	Each Tumwater hat is made to order, to the customer’s specifications, as best we can accommodate them. With rare exception, we use vintage grosgrain ribbon, which, like real estate, they just aren’t making any more of. While we have ongoing business relationships with vintage “scouts,” who are remarkably adept at locating caches of old ribbon, when we use up a spool of such ribbon, the likelihood of our finding another exactly like it is quite remote. So, no two of our hats are quite alike. But they all bear a family resemblance. We make hats in a wide range of sizes but only a few basic styles. We specialize in the hats we prefer to wear ourselves – fedoras with tall, full, relatively straight-sided crowns, the profile commonly seen in films and street scenes dating from the 1920s through the early 1950s. These are the styles we have learned to make, have equipped our shop to make, and like to make. We like to think that our enthusiasm for classically styled hats shows in our variations on those familiar themes, be it a sober grey hat with a black ribbon or something considerably more whimsical. Click on any hat below to see more and larger images.
			Body color: Midnight Ribbon: Silver-grey 24 ligne, double bow with cranberry highlight Brim: Two and five-eighths inches, raw edge A versatile style that pairs up equally well with a three-piece suit or a leather jacket and cords. A profile and dimensions reminiscent of the hats popular in the late 1940s.
			Body color: Cream Ribbon: 24 ligne seafoam and peach, pleated bow with sewn navy blue highlight Brim: Two and seven-sixteenths inches, edge bound in 9 ligne navy blue ribbon A “party hat,” made especially to complement a dark blue 1940s- vintage double-breasted tuxedo, with an eye toward lending a touch of levity to the ensemble.
			Body color: Chocolate Ribbon: 18 ligne champagne, single bow with tail and chocolate highlight Brim: Two and one-half inches, edge bound in 9 ligne dark olive ribbon An “everyday” lid that doesn’t ask to be babied, with a diamond creased crown just a tad lower than those on most of our hats.
			Body color: Dove Ribbon: 24 ligne in black, cranberry and gunmetal with white highlight on triple bow Brim: Two and three-sixteenths inches, edge bound in white 11 ligne ribbon Designed with the Desert Inn and DeSoto tailfins in mind, this hat stretched our usual stylistic boundaries just a bit. But the deeper we got into this project, the more we liked it.
			Body color: Chocolate Ribbon: 16 ligne black, single bow with tail Brim Two and one-quarter inches, raw edge A simple, straightforward fedora in traditional colors and dimensions. Proper hats don’t get much plainer, but we like to think of this design as clean and uncluttered.
			Color: Cream Ribbon: 22 ligne deep navy, triple bow Brim: Two and one-quarter inches, raw edge Modeled on a style dating from the late 1920s/early ’30s, this hat has become something of a model itself, as it has served as a jumping off point for several varying iterations.
			Body color: Pecan Ribbon: 26 ligne terra cotta, triple bow Brim: Two and one-quarter inches, edge bound in 9 ligne dark olive ribbon A hat done in sedate, traditional colors, with an elaborate bow adding a touch of flash
			Body color: Cream Ribbon: Steel 25 ligne, triple bow Brim: Two and one-half inches, edge bound in 9 ligne navy ribbon Another variation on what has proven to be a popular style. In this case, it’s done in traditional colors in unusual combinations, accented by what is becoming one of our signature bow styles.
			Body color; Natural Ribbon: Light sea green 18 ligne, triple bow Brim: Two and one-half inches, edge bound in 9 ligne desert ribbon A variation on an iconic style made popular in the 1940s and early ’50s. It’s no mystery to us why the look caught on, and why hat aficionados still seek out fedoras with these proportions.