Another heritage brand that caters to both the adventurous when it comes to the great outdoors and city dwellers since circa 1695 is Patey Hats. ‘Riding hats as we make them today date back to about the 1850s, and before that people would have worn things like top hats,’ says Trevor Campan, sales manager, in Patey’s shop on Connaught Street. ‘Nowadays the hats you see around the
above: Image courtesy of Bladen; Below: Russian leather trunk, image courtesy of George Cleverley
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Holland & Holland and William & Son are known for their quality too, that a structured blazer could easily be worn for day in town. At Dege & Skinner, in the cutting room, at the back of the shop, senior bespoke cutter Nicholas De’Ath shows me a kennel coat he made for a private hunt in Miami. Country pursuits are still huge in America, too. He unzips a jacket bag and inside is a long, white coat. Popping the collar reveals the initials of the hunt stitched into the underside. The American huntsman who commissioned it will use it solely to survey his hounds. Most wear a white medical-type coat or one of those ducttape brown removal men coats. To have a personalised kennel coat made is extravagant and very unusual, but with bespoke one can be as extravagant as one likes. William and his forefathers have been achieving such quality for 150 years, and to mark this anniversary the company has launched a limited-edition ‘Anniversary Collection’ tweed. Subtle yet distinguished, the range contains cloths woven in Yorkshire and Scotland, each inspired by the Skinner family’s long history in bespoke tailoring and the British countryside.
‘To have a personalised kennel coat made is very unusual’ pony club or on the television came in probably around the mid-1980s, when a proper safety standard was brought in,’ Trevor explains. To conform to the new regulations, Patey developed the ‘PROtector’, a riding hat modelled on the timeless hunting cap design of the traditional Patey, but which offers competition-level protection. It’s a marriage between style and utility. ‘We are quite unique in that all our hats are handmade bespoke, and ours are handmade in our factory in south-east London,’ Trevor tells me. Such is the superlative fit of a Patey hat that, to test it, Trevor jokes he has the customer ‘stand upside down’ and shake his head. At least, I think he was joking… Elaborate and archaic hats, like the top hat, are now the preserve of ceremonial events and ‘heritage’ occupations. ‘We make the Lord Mayor of London’s hat,’ says Trevor. ‘If you look at the State Opening of Parliament, the Queen’s coachmen are all wearing Patey hats… We also make all the Chelsea Hospital hats,’ Trevor continues. ‘When you’re staying in the Dorchester or Grosvenor House Hotel [for example], all their doormen are wearing our