Victor Osborne: A Hat Empire Grows in Brooklyn

View Gallery Consider the hat. No other item of apparel has the ability to transform one's look so drastically in an instant. "A hat frames your face like a picture frame," explains Victor Osborne, whose signature line of headgear -- ranging from tight caps to fedoras and even berets -- has been making waves since 2006. The 26-year-old Brooklyn hatter has found a comfortable niche in a "weird corner of the fashion industry," and his atelier on a sleepy block of Leonard Street in Williamsburg is a hive of activity, turning out hats for the wholesale, retail, custom, ready-to-wear, and "crazy editorial" markets (see full gallery). Recent credits include a line of hats for the Diesel show at Fashion Week, a holiday collection for Barneys, and even a hat line for Barbie's 50th birthday.

And while many of his customers fit the mold of New York fashion plates, demand for his high-end lids comes from all over. Osborne points out that Tokyo’s Isetan department store has been outfitting Shinjuku scenesters with his Zip B-Ball for several months. “And last week I sent a top hat to Idaho,” he notes, amused. While fashionable society is hardly in the midst of a hat renaissance, Osborne’s workshop, with its mix of modern art and antique hat-making equipment, enjoys a steady stream of customers, with Osborne and one assistant turning out a parade of men’s and ladies’ hats on a seasonal basis. So what’s big for 2009? Apparently the same thing that was popular in 1959. “Everybody wants a cropped fedora,” he says, betraying a fondness for Sinatra’s style. As to whether hats are fated to have a nostalgic quality, he posits that “we need to find a hat for each generation.” And, given the high-profile clients who frequent Osborne’s shop—an A-list fan-base that include Katie Holmes (pictured here sporting ”The Marlene” from Osborne’s Fall 2008 collection), Rihanna, and Evan Rachel Wood—he might just be the one to create it. “Some of the smallest celebrities have the biggest heads,” he says of his superstar following. “And I don’t mean ego-wise!”