Paul Ventress-Bespoke Hatter

Paul Ventress-Bespoke Hatter Hand made bespoke fashion and costume hats, made to the highest standard from the finest materials .
(5)

UK based hatter with 10+ years experience, creating hats for fashion, reenactment and costume. Drop me a message to discuss having your dream hat hand built and custom made.

08/07/2026

You all asked if I can make this hat, now we can find out.

Another work of art created by the team at .

Do you know what hat I'll be making using his block?
Drop it in the comments.

All will be revealed soon.

02/07/2026

Is this the greatest pirate hat ever?

The Captain Barbosa inspired hat

So while Johnny Depps Jack Sparrow gets all the attention it's easy to forget the Geoffrey Rush 's Captain Hector Barbosa is the absolute, perfect pirate.

The character, for me, is what brings balance to the pirates of the Caribbean movies and the performance by Rush is as good, if not better, than Depps Sprarrow.

Making a hat like is difficult for a few reasons. Firstly finding a quality fur (not wool) felt that will make a 15cm wide brim as these felts are not widely available.

Secondly is getting it into shape as when you do find an extra wide brim felt it's usually intended for a cowboy hat which means it has a tall crown. This results in hours of steaming and stretching to create a short domed crown and get the brim all in to shape.

Creating the classic swooping brim requires a brim flange/block like you see me use here and I had a set of these blocks designed and custom made specifically to make this hat by .

This is one of my favourite hats and I'm always on the look out for felts big enough to make it.

These are currently listed on my website and I've got enough felts to make around 7 of these at the moment.
Once those felts are gone, I don't know when I'll be offering this hat again.

Felt -.felt.hat.bodies
Hat crown block CB7 open crown block
Ostrich feather
Pheasant feather .adam kindly foraged from the wild

Waggon Boss.Inspired by the hat worn by Shea Brennan, played by Sam Elliott, in the TV show 1883.These are available to ...
30/06/2026

Waggon Boss.

Inspired by the hat worn by Shea Brennan, played by Sam Elliott, in the TV show 1883.

These are available to order on my website

#1883

28/06/2026

You name it, I'll make it...

As long as you pay for it. I can't be making free hats.

This one was great fun and I really wish I could have filmed the making of it but I was already filming two other videos while making this and I can't delay customers orders just so I can film it.

These are available to order on my website made in Western weight rabbit fur felt.

25/06/2026

Is this the most iconic hat ever?

25 years ago making music was full time for me and our band rehearsed and wrote almost every single night.

If we noticed it hit 9:50PM (10 to 10) one of us would shout "cowboy time"and we'd start playing sweet home Alabama.
If you don't get that Google it 🤣.

Ronnie's hat really is one of the most iconic and it gave him a instantly recognisable silhouette.

I know a lot of people are going to comment on the snakeskin band not being rattlesnake but laws are in place to protect ALL animals and I'm all for that. Even rattlesnakes deserve to be respected and only traded sustainably.

Felt - western weight rabbit
Hat block- CB23 long oval crown block
Curling shackle
Brim cutter-


Clean or dirty?Even when a customer has asked for a hat to have some wear and distressing I'll often send photos over of...
19/06/2026

Clean or dirty?

Even when a customer has asked for a hat to have some wear and distressing I'll often send photos over of the hat before I distress it, just to check that they don't prefer it clean.

This time I got a definite ' It's too clean' reply so added some distressing to give some character.

Open road style in rabbit fur felt with sage green ribbons to match the customers YouTube channel logo.

Felt from FEPSA | Felt Hat Bodies
Ribbons from Petershams Millinery Supplies
Sweatbands from Fern Thatcher Co
Hat block Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks CB23 open crown block

VV for Vendetta replica made in western weight fur felt.This one a huge 26"/66cm head size with a 12cm brim.
18/06/2026

V

V for Vendetta replica made in western weight fur felt.
This one a huge 26"/66cm head size with a 12cm brim.


12/06/2026

Would you dare wear this hat?

This shape is so iconic but it was very 'of it's day'.

It's so rare to see these being worn anywhere these days so I was very excited to make this for one of the coolest guys I've ever met who lives right here in the UK.

Thinking back to the days of silent movies, the actors had to express their story and character through other means and costume would have played such a bigger role in giving separation of each character and what their story was, so it's no surprise the hats were so over the top.

I loved making this hat and it's been great fun working on something different and so larger than life.

Felt- rabbit western weight in willow
Ribbons- grosgrain in aged bronze
Hat block CB309 – Carlsbad
Brim shackle
Sweatbands

06/06/2026

Can you play pedal steel on a telecaster?

Well, someone probably can but it's fun trying.

Waiting for felts to dry so I decided to have a play with my new .

This is like a whole different instrument and feels completely alien. Picking the notes, doing a swell with the volume pedal and manipulating the levers to do the classic country sweeping pitch shift is harder than rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time.

Brick crown with an old skool retro brimThis one in 100% beaver in granite with a braided horse hair band.
04/06/2026

Brick crown with an old skool retro brim

This one in 100% beaver in granite with a braided horse hair band.

Address

York

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Paul Ventress-Bespoke Hatter posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Paul Ventress-Bespoke Hatter:

Shortcuts

Share

Category