Albertus Swanepoel Is Finishing the Hat

There are few avenues within fashion in which Albertus Swanepoel’s work hasn’t appeared. With decades of devotion to his craft and an earnest love for accessories and the arts, he has justly earned his status as one of fashion’s favorite milliners.

Now sixty-five, Swanepoel was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and later moved to Johannesburg, where he spent several years designing his award-winning ready-to-wear label Quartus Manna. He moved to New York in 1989 and later began a glove line with then-wife Shaneen Huxham. During this time, he also began pursuing millinery, cultivating his skills under the likes of former Balenciaga hatmaker Janine Galimard, theatrical milliner Lynne Mackey, and Lola Hats designer Lola Ehrlich.

After several successful collaborations with designers like Marc Jacobs and Proenza Schouler, Swanepoel started his namesake collection in 2006. Since then, he has continued his creative journey while working with scores of other brands. Known for his classic fedora and straw styles, his work combines consistency with artistry, invoking a tireless inspiration. Because of this, designers have continuously turned to him over the years to create pieces that both flatter and impress.

His hats are embedded through years of fashion campaigns ranging from Carolina Herrera’s to Tommy Hilfiger’s. They’ve filled the pages of top magazines, graced Broadway stages, finished off many celebrity ensembles, and even been included in an exhibit at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. He was also the runner-up for the 2008 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and was nominated for the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design at the CFDA Fashion Awards the following year.

Swanepoel’s sweeping body of work reveals that he relishes the variety of techniques which hatmaking allows. Current designs from his collection range from vivid hand-dyed mink fur felt fedoras to traditional straw silhouettes to vibrant faux fur bucket hats. But among all of the variety is an unmistakable balance. The pieces never devolve into dullness, but also never cross into becoming unbearably ornate.

Even on stage, where Swanepoel has helped create designs for shows including Kiss Me, Kate; Mamma Mia!; and The Front Page, he employs practicality first and foremost. “Hats are so much about detail—and in that sense I treat my fashion work and theater work the same,” he explains. “It has to be meticulously done, have a great sense of proportion—this is very important with stage work, taking the actor‘s stature and dress in consideration—but I do hope people look at it as well in daily life.”

And though he is an ardent opera fan, he employs his theatrical eye carefully in his commercial work, in order to make statement pieces that never turn into punchlines. “One of my mottos is that my hats should look modern, not Thoroughly Modern Millie,” he jokes.

A devotee to his genre, and the handcraft attached to it, Swanepoel has always relied on time-tested production methods to create his pieces. His ample inspiration is belayed by perfectionist tendencies, producing designs that are whimsical but perceptibly precise. But this doesn’t mean he’s above experimentation—even with decades of designing under his belt, he says he still is discovering new ways to craft hats. “I like, sometimes, to start by using techniques or concepts that might not work and find a solution,” he says, “or mixing high and low, whether it’s handwork with machine, or expensive materials mixed with cheap.”

And though he recognizes that his chosen field has shifted in popularity over the past century and is underappreciated in the States, he remains ardent about the art form, knowing that it will always provide an irreplicable verve to fashion shoots, shows, and spreads. “I have quoted one of my idols, Christian Lacroix, many times,” he notes. “He said: ‘a hat is the dot on the i.’ Amen.”

Swanepoel now lives with his partner Eddie Marquez in Manhattan, where, along with maintaining his collection, he is currently creating hats and headpieces for a new musical. He is also continuing to experiment with different design techniques and dreaming of more opportunities to showcase the work for which he is famed. “It’s a niche business,” he says, “a dying craft that one must make to be desirable and personable.”

For more information, please visit AlbertusSwanepoel.com.

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