HP’24 Newsletter
This year began a week before I thought it would, in a very particular Wood Village Cigar Shop of the Portland Metropolitan area…
Our market season runs March through Christmas Eve, which means that I start waking up the hats in about mid-February. This year though, a customer called on us earlier than expected. Practically still dreaming, clutching half drunk cups of coffee, the hats loaded in the car and I drove them down to Tim’s Great Cigars. What a time, what an experience. Here’s the scene:
The cigar shop is this totally authentic slice of classic Portland, alive and strong. Boxes of excellent cigars, art, and memorabilia everywhere. Tim sits at his antique wooden desk with matching chairs, all golden with wear and age. In front of the desk two patrons hang out smoking 1” round by 6” long cigars, engaged in easy talk about movies, locals, and whatnot. I have set up myself behind Tim’s desk with some boxes of hats near his collection of blues guitars. I periodically hand him hats and discuss fabric qualities.
He bought some hats and that was wonderful; the experience was priceless. I felt like some kind of butler in the man cave of kings. You can’t believe how big these cigars were, and they kept relighting them with these ultra-tech 3” hand torches.
Along with the link for Tim’s shop above, the two pictures depict a very special hat story that came to us this year. A young man found one of our hats in a second hand store and it inspired him to start working in upcycle fashion. Wonderful. Although 95% of our fabrics are new, the origins of Hat People are strongly with the current inspirations of this young man. There is so much free/cheap/available/under-appreciated fabric kicking around in the form of old clothing. Make a new thing or two people, and remember, sewing machines love you.
My sister just had a baby! Carol Hat Lady and Silver Jim are now grandparents!
As of February 2024, Avery is 7 months old. She is bright, healthy, cute as can be, and the magic of her new world is absolutely interwoven with The Oregon Country Fair.
My wife, puppy dog, and self are now 3 years into a massive homesteading reality. Much of our personal time is spent shaping our studio spaces and doing ecosystem building with the local forests and near garden. Year two showed a noticeable amount of new forest insects, year three brought in the mushrooms! Such beauty and diversity, I was really impressed. This one mushroom pushed right up through the packed earth and gravel where I drive my car! I thought to remove it (and nearby plants) so that animals were not attracted to the roadside area. Got it on film though, made for a dramatic moment. Look for the spots of perfect dew on the mushroom gills…
Thank you so much for your support, all for now,
- Jacob@thehats
HP’23 Newsletter
Leaf Corps Evolutions
…& layered, layered, silliness on Social Media.
Well there was more to this year, but I wanted to start with these two topics so the photos are explained. But really! Wow! It’s 2023! Oregon Country Fair in Veneta Oregon is back! North Country Fair in Arcata California is back! We are now servicing customers with oversized vehicles like RVs and semi-trucks with in person iconic arrangements by appointment at the Talent Truck Stop parking lot in Southern Oregon! (Highway Interstate 5, Exit 21.) And, we have a new Social Media voice, @hatgarden1978 * .
@hatpeople1978 * leans towards business and the vast HatPeoplePeopleHat experience, -(for it is the people and their hats, and the hats and their people, and whom is drawn to our hats are a particular people, and my goodness how interesting they are, and here’s another one and another one post post post post)-
@hatgarden1978 is a lifestyle page.
We are gardeners, nature lovers, DIY enthusiasts, and people who in general live close to the seasons. There’s a million ways you can wear a Hat People hat, but for those of you who ask who we are, we answer with our personal selves this way. There is so much to share when one is in passionate inspired relationship to the earth, and all our hats lend themselves toward this expansive direction. Please see our website www.hatgarden.com for the seed of this entire subject. Please also watch @hatgarden1978 as it develops, each post is sure to be carefully chosen. For example, there is a post from some months back that features a photo of pumpkin vines in a bouquet. It goes on to talk about unconventional harvests, and invites the public to post their own favorite unique harvest; this chain of conversation is earmarked to be a living document that will go on for years to come. So far author, historian, and equal rights activist Jeff Stookey (www.jeffstookey.com) chimed in with a comment about Texas Style Fried Green Tomatoes, there is a link for ethnic Hmong soup using pumpkin vine tips, and so now I ask you- what is your favorite unusual harvest? If you are inspired, please add a comment, recipe, or idea on the @hatgarden1978 pumpkin vine post and be part of the growing celebration.
* Social Media business pages: @hatpeople1978 on Facebook and Instagram.
Social Media lifestyle pages: @hatgarden1978 on both Facebook and Instagram.
(content varies across all four platforms)
This really happened NO ONE in their wildest dreams could make something like this up!
About ten months ago I was presenting at Vancouver Farmers Market, 20 minutes north of Portland Oregon, when this interesting couple showed up in the hat booth. He was a hat wearer, and ultimately purchased one of our hats. At the time it seemed natural to ask if I could take his picture, with the idea of incorporating it into our very homegrown Hat People Media world. He said yes and ))poof(( a stellar photo. Sometime later I got around to incorporating it into our Social Media page @hatpeople1978. He was then solicited by six unknown ladies through our Instagram page, a mighty and random wave of interest like I’ve never seen before or since. This could have been enough, but then his friend, who [by all superficial accounts] seems to wear a cat on his shoulder, took the original picture and photoshopped it so hat guy was shooting laser beams out of his eyes. Well, by then, I as some sort of Hat People advertisement referee, just didn’t know what to do- ricochetting from average nice photo post to relationship advice to snarky park shocker talk laser beams on my photo. Then I thought, it should all go in the HP’23 Newsletter. So I took a screenshot of the last brilliant exchange (look close for the shoulder cat) and called it pure gold. Thank you all parties involved.
The Leaf Opens~~~
There is now a central page where you can view the diverse possibilities of Leaf Corps Hats. Click the link entitled The Leaf Corps to view the page, or find the same link on the Inspired Designs page. It is so great to finally have a cornerstone presence for The Leaf Corps online! Meanwhile, in the studio, my father’s original Leaf Corps’ style continues to evolve. I am so inspired by his skill as an artisan hat maker. Notice in the picture above displaying two hats, one has a new larger brim shape. This larger brim shape will remain a rare style for us, but it is available for both Summer and Winter Leaf Corps. The close up photo of the brim shows a new leaf pattern ~~leaf species if you will~~ sewing machine foot upgrade folks. It is still my Dad’s unique freehand machine embroidery stitch technique, but a little finesse goes a long way when you lean in with the right tool.
Best wishes and blessings to your year, thank you everyone for your support of our endeavors.
-Jacob@thehats
HP’22 Newsletter
What has come to fruition? Well, social media: its difficult to say that without sounding non-innovative, but! Let me tell you! We have always, always, always, striven to do things with a double helping of creativity and unique tone, and our new efforts in developing a definitive social media identity is no exception. I do not recommend starting a Twitter - Instagram - Facebook page just to view what we dew, but if you are already established on these platforms, please like our pages. I do not think you will be disappointed; in a word our intention is to make posts that are both entertaining and timeless. Sounds nice, but I know this statement alone could mean anything.
What I have found with social media is that there is some commerce going on, but mostly people are just watching. But this “watching” is not to be underestimated. Here is an entirely new opportunity for us to deepen and lengthen the stories of our hats and the people who wear them (HatPeoplePeopleHat, if you will). To date, I believe my favorite post is a bit difficult to find, but well worth the journey. On Instagram there is a feature called Instagram Story Highlights, which allows you to post snippet videos up to 14 seconds in length. In this portion of our Instagram Page you will find a video entitled, “AmongFlowers”. This 14 second video was made straight from the exhilaration of Saturday morning, set up between two booths full of flowers at Vancouver Farmers Market. You’ll have to see it to believe it. (If you would like to join our social media pages, look for the Facebook, Instagram, and/or Twitter Icons throughout this website and HatPeople.com.)
“The Adventures of Hoodie Hoodie High Hat and The Insider” on the Media Page has also been a real hoot. In writing this story, I was inspired by Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve always loved how the cartoon stories of C&H could go on and yet we just have these particular little stories. Not sure if in the video it gets across, but the pause before what-seems-to-be yet another “Hoodie Hoodie High Hat and The Insider” chapter is, in fact, a pause before the beginning of an entirely new story about exclusively H4&TI.
Keep watching this page and the “Inspired Designs” page. You will see the hats for sale changing throughout the year.
If you are on the West Coast, please check the Hat People Annual Tour by clicking here.
Close, true reality, without computers: If you are interested in knowing our hats I recommend that you begin by realizing that’s when we say that our hats effect the describe of Old Europe, it is done without plastic structuring. Therefore the usefulness and versatility of our hats comes with time, the hat needs to be worn to make its shape as you have seen it many ways as aged photographs, worn by many names. Hats connected to culture, hats connected to time.
Anyways, all for now.
Thank you so much,
-Jacob@thehats
Contact Hat People at:
hatpeople1978@gmail.com
(541) 535-5362
P. O. Box 722
Talent, Oregon 97540
Pictured here is: Jacob Me, Jim Pa, Sister Rose doing her impression of the Fremont Troll, Carol Mom, and my wife Kazue.
Check out Kazue’s art at: