“I’d made a hat and was wearing it around town,” remembers Braeden Paterson, “and someone asked me where I'd gotten it.”

“I told them I’d made it, and that’s how I got my first custom order. Then it happened again—I sold a hat right off my head. That’s when I decided to put everything into hatmaking and see if it would work.” 

Now over a decade into his craft at Vancouver Island-based Paterson Hat Co., Braeden was working as a session musician before finding his way to millinery. 

“I was feeling worn out from playing music,” he says. “When it was good, it was good. When it wasn’t, it was pretty tough. So I was looking for more stability, and I’d decided to go back to school. But then, before I left Montreal, my friend Samantha-Tara Mainville of Heirloom Hats taught me the basics to get me going."

“From growing up on the Island, I was drawn to making hats for the outdoors that could be both beautiful and functional, and I started to seek out hatmakers from the States to learn more about Western hatmaking. The Western weight felts are really built for purpose to withstand the elements. So I’d go down there, get a few bits of information, then come back to Canada until I hit another wall. But for the most part it was figuring it out on my own. I’m happy to have done it that way, and I think it let me create my own style of shaping.” 

“At first I didn’t know how to source new felt,” he says, “so, similar to the spirit of ANIÁN upcycling, I’d buy vintage fur felt hats, strip them down, clean the felt and then rebuild them into a completely new hat. There were a lot of mistakes in the learning process, and I don’t think I would’ve been doing new materials a service at the time.” 

Years later, and recognized as one of the most accomplished by-hand hatmakers around, Braeden crafts his custom hats from weather-resistant beaver fur felt. 

“Now that I’m fully confident in my trade,” he says, “I feel I’m paying the material tribute, building hats that, if taken care of, can last for life and be passed down to whoever’s going to inherit them.” 

With his focus on building by hand and crafting beautiful, durable and functional products, we asked Braeden if we could photograph him in his Denim Chore Coat—sewn here in Canada from a material with as much storied tradition as Western hats for ridge and range.  

“That’s the kind of stuff I’ve really come to appreciate,” he says. “Investing in things that are made with intention from quality materials, marrying style and purpose and looking even better once there’s wear and life within them.” 

Worn in the story: The Denim Chore Coat
Learn more about Paterson Hat Company at patersonhatcompany.com.