There were times when the hat was more than mere headwear. Doffing it signalled respect, courtesy or a greeting – and how you wore it expressed your social standing. Workers pushed cap or hat casually to the back of the neck; the trilby stood for ordinary folk, while the fedora was worn by the ruling class. The more distinguished the man, the more level the hat sat; worn at an angle and slightly rakishly, it signalled a rebellious streak.
Codes
In the early 1980s the hat fell out of fashion for good – at least in our part of the world. A man in a hat could only be a backward-looking reactionary; going bare-headed was cool. Only a few eccentrics and showbiz stars still dared to wear a brim. Today the tradition survives almost only in the closed circle of the Ascot horse races in England, where strict dress codes are firmly upheld. Street style has taken over with the cap, setting its own codes. The sayings, though, have stuck: «hats off» is still said to express admiration – and that is exactly what one wants to say to Julian Huber, who saved the Risa hat workshop in Hägglingen, Aargau, from imminent closure.
A Family Workshop
We meet in the deepest Aargau Mittelland, on the edge of the roughly 2,200-soul village of Hägglingen. Risa has always been based here. Founded in 1929, the old M. Geissmann & Co workshop – named after its founder Marin Geissmann – first made straw hats; the raw material was plentiful in the Freiamt region, as the worthwhile Straw Museum in Wohlen still attests (strohmuseum.ch). In the 1990s Julian’s grandfather Josef Sax took over the workshop together with his colleague Martin Richner, renamed it Risa – from Ri-chner and Sa-x – and refocused it on men’s hats. Julian kept doing odd jobs in his grandfather’s factory while training as a polymechanic; today he can repair the machines, some of which date back to the very beginning.
Taking the Plunge
«I’ve always been fascinated by the craft, and by the old traditions too», says Julian, who also plays in a Guggenmusik carnival band and belongs to his village gymnastics club. In 2010, at just 21, he takes the plunge and – with his mother Gabi’s backing – takes over the business; family ties make the finances manageable. He hasn’t regretted it for a second, even if it takes plenty of enthusiasm and the times haven’t always been easy – first Covid, now the scarce raw materials. As we talk, he expertly shapes a felt hat on the steam press, inspects a straw-hat milliner’s stitching and shows wooden hat blocks dating back to the workshop’s earliest days.
The Craft
Modest in his ambitions, Julian doesn’t want to reinvent the hat: he simply wants to make it salon- and street-worthy again – one head at a time. For Risa’s centenary he had an elaborate book produced, gathering portraits of hat-wearers, fellow travellers and past and present staff, all proud to have stayed loyal to the house. Familiar faces appear too: designer Adrian Daher, musician and producer Dodo, and Dominik Bachmann, owner of the Krenner menswear shop in Münchenstein and an ardent champion of the hat.
«The hat defines belonging to a style-conscious group. And with it you can shape your own expression, reinvent yourself.» – Julian Huber
Try One On
More than any sales pitch, a fitting will win you over. Risa hats are stocked at Loeb in Bern and at Oxblood in Zurich, where the brand also runs its own tiny shop, as well as direct from the factory. Julian designs his collections with his sister Valeria and his designer friend Charly Hänni: from rain hats for road workers to bowlers for a carnival troupe, wedding capelines and trend pieces created with stylist Sandro Marzo. Julian’s parting advice: «Your hat should fit as well as your favourite jeans!»
This article appeared in MEN issue 2/22 (November 2022).
