Domingo Carranza Fur Felt Trilby Hat

Genuine Domingo Carranza fur felt trilby hat processed by my family in our workshop with fur from farms that ethically manage fur for the food industry, textile industry and the control of invasive species in Europe and North America.

Personalized hats for each owner, without fanfare, without burning or torturing unique hats, each detail, each idea, each accessory is developed for a particular hat, for a special owner. We have worked for big stars and anonymous hat lovers, our hats are the result of a long history and absolute respect for things made by hand with love.

What is fur felt and how is it made?

Felt is a unique textile material with a history as old as humanity. This singular material is the only textile that is not woven in its manufacture, there is neither warp nor weft, as in all the fabrics we habitually use.

To felt the fur we are going to use the characteristic most hated by any mother in the world, natural fur has an almost infinite capacity to tangle, now in a controlled process of successive steam baths, cold water, hot water and vigorous massages, we get that tangle is increasingly dense, tight and thick.

Progressively we are reaching the initial basic shape with the necessary measure, we proceed to dyeing with dyes free of iodine salts, for a process that respects the most demanding ecological standards in the sector. Now we have the perfect hat body to block and shape a wonderful felted fur hat made by Domingo Carranza. Domingo Carranza Fur Felt Trilby Hat.

Blocking and shaping of the fur felt trilby hat

The designs of the lasts and molds of each of our hats are carried out in our workshop, each one has been developed from scratch for each collection. The blocking and molding of each one of these special hats is done by hand and without industrial processes, using steam, heat, pressure, shellac, many years of experience and tons of passion for hats.

It is the ethical way with which a hat of this level must be blocked, with hours of work, with the hands, with subtlety. Taking each curve to its place, each stitch to its place, each detail precisely measured. That’s how our hats are, that’s how our work is. Domingo Carranza fur felt trilby hat.

About Domingo Carranza

Domingo, as I call him, is in my opinion and many recognized experts on the subject, one of the most extraordinary artisans of fine hats I have ever known. He was born on December 20th, 1969 in the commune of Pile, Canton of Montecristi. Son of Aura Margarita and Jorge Ignacio, he is the eldest of twelve siblings.

The craftsman’s childhood – Domingo Carranza the origins

Since he was 7 years old, his parents and his grandmother Ana María, taught him the art of weaving toquilla straw. Records of this activity of the Carranza Alarcón family have been kept since 1878, being Domingo the sixth generation of artisan weavers in the family.

Weaving was, and still is, one more of the routines of the inhabitants of the province of Manabí on the coast of the country. Hats were woven for use in the field, for cowboys and muleteers who, with their reams of mules loaded with merchandise, supplied the markets of the provinces. They toured the area habitually and they knew the great quality of the hats of this commune.

Thanks to them it was possible to commercialize part of the incipient production.

At first, the child’s small fingers were trained with thick straws, which became mats. Gradually, the result of hours and hours lying on the weaving bench became finer and more delicate, in the most uncomfortable position that a layman could imagine.

The first hat that passed family scrutiny and quality control to be marketed is still engraved in the mind of that 9-year-old. Proudly, he gave the 90 sucres he received for that job to his mother to make the weekly family market. Since then, his skillful hands have not stopped weaving for a single day, each time with greater skill and talent.

The Carranza’s family

He met Doña Mary more than two decades ago, a woman who, like him, comes from a family of artisans. Together they have formed a beautiful family of 5 children and three grandchildren.

The Fur Felt Trilby Hat by Domingo Carranza

Domingo Carranza Fur Felt Trilby Hat