Eastern European Hats and Makers

[Ghost Rider]

OK, so we have German & Austrian Hutmachers and French Hats and Makers, so I thought it’s now time to have a Thread for the Eastern European equivalents.

I was in Ljubljana this week, and rebooked my early morning return flight yesterday to one at a more civilised time, which also gave me the opportunity to visit the Pajk klobuki (Pajk hats) factory shop.

Before I left, I checked their website, which informed me that their factory shop is open weekdays from 09:00 until 18:00, so after a hearty breakfast, set off through a cold, foggy and partly snowy Ljubljana to find them.

After getting mildly lost twice trying out a couple of shortcuts (ahem!), Google Maps on my phone got me there just before 10:00, to find them closed.

It seems that during the winter, they have revised opening times (I see now that their website has been updated) and are only open in the afternoon. At least my wife was pleased that they were closed, otherwise she knows I would have come back “with yet another hat”.

At least I managed to get a couple of photos:

The factory shop:





(Sorry, I've been struggling to rotate the above, to no avail)


and the factory directly opposite:



It seems that they produce mostly wool hats (see their online shop), but if Google Translator is to be believed, some are also from rabbit and wild rabbit.

I did find a couple of examples of their work in a city-centre hat shop. They only had wool versions, which were unlined and not of real top quality, but at €50 I would say offer good value for money.

I also found some hats in a department store in the city. These were wool felt, lined (but with cloth sweatbands) and branded “London”, with no other markings. I’ve no idea where these might have been made.

 

[mayserwegener]

Thanks for the report! It's interesting that they make their own felt. I believe there are a couple other makers (felt and hat) in Slovinia.

 

[ManofKent]

Thanks for the attempted visit. The factory looks pretty small. It's interesting to find out about these little known makers.

 

[mayserwegener]

And they also make felt. This is something you don't see on a small scale. I actually visited a Hutmacher in Austria that also produces his own felt. Some of the processes were still done by hand but he also had small scale felting machinery.

I found this photo (this is a wool body) on this places website.

 

[mayserwegener]

Here is another Slovenian felt/hat source I came across a few years ago. They are close by to this place.

http://textil.stfi.de/partex/detail.asp?ID=60114&bi_lang=6

Here is an article I found. You can put it through Google translator. The translation is rough but it's an interesting interview. Talks about the Chinese buying up all the Belgium rabbit hare and Slovenia's higher production costs and not being able to compete.

http://www.delo.si/clanek/147884

 

[mayserwegener]

Here is a more recent article on ŠEŠIR (Slovenia) that includes some interesting production photos. You will need to run it through a translator.

http://www.delo.si/druzba/panorama/za-gosposkim-pokrivalom-je-veliko-garanja.html

This is an article from 2007 when they privatised. It's interesting that they had to move their fur cutting operation to Belgium due Slovenian regulations.


"How many employees do you have?

When we were 80 employees, while I would like to emphasize that in Šeširju, including the loss of the entire Yugoslav market, the loss of Iranian and Russian market we have never fired anyone and also the country never asked for help. Even when we were due to incomprehensible rules eliminate a plant for the production of hair (now smooth installation work in Belgium with our technology, our machines, even for us) and it was superfluous to 30 people, we were able to redistribute this. "

http://www.gorenjskiglas.si/article/20070206/C/302069939/1082/1035/September