INTERVIEW #87 BONDETT
Based in: Stockholm
Founded in: 2021 (launched March 2022)
Founded by: Elisabeth Ahlström
Stores: Online; www.bondett.com (shipping worldwide), selection of felt hats sold at luxury hotel Villa Dagmar’s concept store “Gazebo” in Stockholm and selection of straw hats sold at interior design store “The Modern” in Stockholm selling vintage & new interiors.
Price range: 1150 – 3450 SEK
Hats off for BONDETT! A warm welcome to A Sustainable Closet! Tell us about your business and why you started?
BONDETT is a Scandinavian luxury headwear brand that sells unisex felt and straw hats with a retro-funk vibe. We are spiritually inspired by the colours, geometrics and grooviness of the 60s&70s, but we keep our products tailored to contemporary style. Emotionally, the idea behind the name BONDETT was derived from what we believe to be the true essence of harmony in our society, which is human (BOND)ing and emotional connection. Days and nights when I’m dressed in a hat I tend to connect with other hat wearers, a nod, an exchange of compliments of each other’s headwear, or having an actual conversation that starts about what we’ve crowned our heads with almost always take place. I love that feeling.
The brand was founded in 2021, and launched in March 2022 through our own e-shop, to this date we also have a selected range of hats available at Stockholm-based luxury hotel Villa Dagmar’s concept store “Gazebo” as well as the interior design store “The Modern Sthlm” in central Stockholm. We sell both felt hats and straw hats in different brims and sizes. Our felt hats are produced at a 200-year-old hat factory in the eastern Czech Republic where my family is involved, whereas our straw hats are manufactured in Florence, Italy.
The reason why I got into hat-making came naturally from the fact that my family has been in the industry since the mid-90s. In the beginning, I was on a journey to create a new luxury headwear brand that would be a B2C sub-brand to our hat factory in the Czech Republic. However, as I continued to develop the business idea I got so passionate about it that I thought it’d be more fun to found and run my own brand, something I’ve wanted since my early twenties.
When did you discover your love for hats?
Since high school I’ve been wearing hats & headwear occasionally, I’ve never been an everyday dedicated hat wearer, but if you’d ask friends of mine they’d probably tell you that I’m the one who's always been wearing something on my head that has not been a beanie or cap. Obviously, since the hat factory has been in our family for more than twenty years I’ve been accustomed to the idea of wearing something extra on top of my head as a complementary outfit accessory. I guess the feeling of boldness that a hat can convey is quite addictive. It’s as if you become a part of a little secret club, meet other hat wearers on the street, and have a mutual understanding. I believe it is the only accessory or fashion wear that actually can transcend that connection with another human being. It’s quite fascinating actually.
We are curious about the design and manufacturing process, spill the beans!
Our felt hats are produced in the B2B millinery factory in the eastern Czech Republic, the factory itself was founded in the late 1700s before Napoleon lost at Waterloo, and it is still in operation in the same Czech city and on the same spot since 1799! Imagine how much history has taken place! Some of the machines that are still running are dating back to the 1800s, talk about longevity. The factory itself was founded by a German-Czech family named Hückel, they got incredibly wealthy and served very notable clients from the Habsburgs monarchy to Winston Churchill. In 1893 they were awarded the title of “Imperial and Royal Commercial Supplier'' and by the end of the 1800s, they employed more than 1200 workers. During WWII the Nazis profited from the factory during their time of occupation of then Czechoslovakia, and after WWII the Soviet Communist Party condemned the Hückel family as traitors, drove them away from the Czech Republic, nationalized the factory and re-named it. In the 90s after the fall of the Soviet Union, nationalized companies were open to investment by foreign investors, and that’s where my family came in and got acquainted with the factory and its various factories. It has really been through some history, and that’s what I love most about the business. The handicraft is not that different from 100-200 years ago, out of 150 processes 80 are made by hand, hence why every hat is unique even if it’s manufactured in a factory.
All our felt hats are made in mulesing-free wool, meaning the sheep the wool originates from in Australia has not been exposed to a practice called mulesing: where part of the back of the sheep’s skin is cut out to prevent parasite infection flystrike.
After the production is finalized in the factory the hats are shipped to our studio in Stockholm where we assemble the latest decorations by hand, for example, suede ribbons or metal accessories. I work alongside a very talented milliner in Stockholm, I create the vision & design of each headwear and she brings them to life.
Our straw hats are produced in Florence in Italy, we use raffia, bao and Panama straw. After the hats are manufactured and shaped just like our felt hats shipped to our studio in Stockholm. For our straw “SS22 Zoi Collection” we wanted to add small doses of psychedelic vibes by attaching pearls in trippy colours to metal accessories that were put on the straw hats. The imaginative journey surrounding that collection was quite exhilarating.
Who is the typical Bondett customer?
I would like to say “anyone” but that would be quite naïve I guess. What I mean is anyone is welcome to join our club of hat wearers. People tend to say “I’m not a hat person”, but if you are comfortable wearing beanies or caps, the step to a hat is not that far. I think we have this idea of who is a typical hat wearer and how that person should look, but for example, when my 60-year-old mother puts on a hat she looks cooler than ever. I don’t think there is any age, look or style that is needed to become a hat wearer, however, I do believe that the person that buys one inhabits some kind of interesting integrity. Or the hat will give the wearer those characteristics, who knows?
Where do you find inspiration?
Mostly from seeing the world and having conversations with new and old friends. I have always been very excited about history and all its tales. Especially the 60s & 70s vibrant music, colours and fashion. I like to combine the past with the present. When designing a new collection I try to contemplate what music I am most inspired by. For the “Jazz Fusion Collection” I listened a lot to the Californian 70s rock band “The Doors”, the lyrics are quite miserable but strike a nerve and created a feeling of nostalgia, melancholy and sensuality. I thought about Jim Morrison (the leading singer) sewing his own stage clothes, what buzz that created (his clothes were at the time quite provocative), and what he was thinking when he wrote his lyrics, I wanted to think about that when I was choosing the colours, the style and the vibe for my own designs. What creative journey did he (Jim Morrison) go through in the process of finding what was true to him? I’m trying to walk my own way without going too far while maintaining a style that will feel natural for people to wear in today’s fashion. It’s a fine balance.
What have been and are the major challenges of starting your own business?
Always maintaining high quality in our products demands a lot of time and patience to re-model and re-think every detail that comes with each product. We want our hats not only to look good but also to last a lifetime and not be an item of throw-and-waste, without having to compromise too much on the cost of production. That is one of the reasons why our hats are quite expensive. Another personal challenge has been the loneliness of being an entrepreneur regarding workload and the ups and downs. I would never have imagined what I was getting myself into when starting BONDETT, luckily I work with very talented external people that I almost have a daily dialogue with, and it’s been such a fun ride so far.
What has been and are the largest gain?
We were accepted to exhibit during Premiere Class – luxury accessory trade show in Paris during Paris Fashion Week this September. That was a mile-stone I anticipated would come in a couple of years, definitely a large gain for a small brand like us. And finally, our customers are our largest gain, without them, we would not exist, so the hat off to them.
What do you think needs to change in the hat industry to make it more sustainable?
Luckily the hats that are made of wool, fur, etc. in our factory are made with a savoire-faire of hundreds of years of hat making and quality, they last a life-time. What I would like to see in the future however would be hats made of plant-based alternatives such as fungi, waste of citrus peels or other sources that are very much under discovery in the fashion industry currently. At BONDETT we are now looking at how we can alternate our hats with detachable accessories. Our customers would be able to change the face of a hat whenever they grow tired of the style without having to buy a new hat.
Hats come in all different shapes and designs, but they're not super common in the Scandinavian fashion scene, this is certainly something BONDETT will change, but why do you think hats are not used more widely here?
Haha, you are right and that has obviously been a challenge for us. In Scandinavia we tend to feel that we are dressing for a masquerade if we wear a hat, I guess we are a bit too afraid to stand out. It’s a bit funny because Scandinavia actually has the best weather to actually use a hat during longer periods over the year, it is not only stylish but keeps the heat and shields the face from the wind. We want people here to feel that they are completing their look like they do in Paris, Milan, London, etc., rather than over-dressed.
The best thing about Bondett?
Quality hats without compromising on style – and having fun while wearing them.
What's up next?
Apart from preparing for PFW we are currently preparing a new small selection of bucket hats!