milandro
A-List Customer
- Messages
- 395
- Location
- The Netherlands
Very nice stuff although I am not sure who is following whom, whether Nick Fouquet or Sylvester Maria alias “Schaduwloper”.
There seems to be quite a bit of co-inspiration ( co-inspire rather than conspire I’d speculate) among the two, perhaps I look at this only superficially but a quick look at the link you’ve given us above made me think about that/
I was looking around on line and indeed , probably the majority of the hatmakers in the Netherlands are catering for the Ladies’ market en not so much for the Gentlemen's. Sure , there are many more ladies wearing hats at formal and official gatherings, like budget day at the King’s speech or weddings (getting increasingly formal in the NL after years of informality), but even my wife , who’s not interested, has commented that the numbers of the hat wearers ( she isn’t) are on the increase lately.
On the fur felt quality I am not able to comment from a technical point of view but I simply don’t think that price of the raw fur is the dealbreaker ( I have checked on line and and prices are low https://trappingtoday.com/2019-fur-prices-fur-harvesters-march-2019-auction-results/ ) on the hats containing little precious furs.
What impacts profoundly the price of fur felt is labour costs of all the steps leading to a finished hat. The origin of the fur is only a part of the final price. Indeed take an Akubra, made of rabbit, a fur which is plentiful in many countries ( doesn’t need to be Australian rabbit), it isn’t what I would call cheap. At least in the NL they are sold at high prices from shops rivaling with hats containing good amounts of beaver, while they have none.
In the NL by the way we import, seasonally, from Chile large amounts of hares for consumption, so there has to be a source of reasonably priced hare's furs coming from there. But then add up all the other costs to produce the felt and there you go.
A member was so kind to provide me a link to download a book in the book there was an ad saying that you could be starting be equipped for the business with $75 which bought you the equivalent of $2000 these days, well, I don’t think that you ‘d buy the same amount of stuff, let alone paying rent , taxes and for energy at those levels back then.
If one would put as much time in making fur as they did then the labor costs (and not so much the materials) would rapidly making a hat cost more than most could ( or would ) afford (which is certainly true as it is already for most fur felts)
A hat maker was, generally speaking (like most other crafts) expecting to make a honest but modest living. I think that if one, these days, doesn’t target only the luxury market (this is why there are few to no shops left for affordable repairs) cannot survive.
