One Thing Done Well: Lock & Co.
Lock & Co. Hatters, the iconic, Royal warrant holders, depart from tradition with the Escorial Wool Bucket Hat
words Will HALBERT
It’s a well-known fact that when it comes to hats, we all have our comfort zones. For some, that comfort zone finds its limit at the humble beanie. For others, it’s the pork pie hat. But the bucket hat? The bucket hat represents a challenge most unparalleled. Singular in its evocation of either fishing trips or music festivals, it’s all too quickly and unfairly dismissed as unfit to make a serious sartorial statement. It’s high time the ol’ bucket hat was given a makeover.
And who better to give it the contemporary treatment than Lock & Co.? Established in 1676, Lock & Co. is the oldest hat shop in the world, and one of the oldest family-owned businesses still in operation. If anyone has the design and style wherewithal to overhaul the bucket hat, it’s them.
And overhaul it they have. The Escorial Wool Bucket Hat offers a novel, luxurious twist on a subcultural classic. For those that don’t know, Escorial is a rare wool from Maghreb sheep originating from the Spanish
Royal flocks of El Escorial. Today, this particular breed can only be found in small numbers in Australia and New Zealand. Escorial offers an incomparable drape and resilience, all the while maintaining a distinctly soft handle. Bottom line? Lock & Co.’s Escorial Bucket Hat offers casual wear elevated to the Nth degree.
Now, this isn’t the first example of classic sartorialism spilling over into streetwear territory, but it is, by far, one of the best examples. The Escorial Bucket Hat doesn’t just deftly tread the often precarious intersection between high fashion and street style, it confidently, unapologetically, gleefully two steps all over it. This is, for the want of a better term, sartorial steez for the modern gentleman.
Lock & Co. have been on the scene for a little while now – 343 years to be exact. By all accounts, it’s little forays into the unexpected such as the Escorial Bucket Hat that keep the family-owned business feeling fresh and new after all these years. EJ
lockhatters.co.uk
