Music veteran Claire West, who once served as vice president of Curb Records, has returned to Music City to relaunch herself with a custom hat-making business.
Megan Cencula
During her 35 years in the music industry, people would associate West with her hats.
“I was looking for ways to create a style, and a visual for myself and hats did that for me,” West shares. Later, hats would serve to function how she moved in public as a cancer survivor. “[Hats] helped me to feel better when I was healing,” she explains.
West’s expansive hat collection inspired her to learn more about the craft.
Megan Cencula
“[Hatmaking] is a very beautiful old art form and craft that hadn't changed much for hundreds of years, and there was something really beautiful about that to me,” West says.
Her curiosity about the skill presented challenges.
“I tried to get hat makers to show me how they were making my hats, and they didn't want to do it. I found that it was a very secretive, protected craft; there were very few people who knew how to do it,” she says.
A serendipitous encounter in Las Vegas led West to an apprenticeship where she learned the craft and history behind Native American hat making.
Megan Cencula
“[My teacher] had learned to make hats from a Native American medicine man, and he blessed all of his hats. He encouraged me to take those prayers and apply them to my process, and since I had survived a lot it became a big piece of me becoming a hat maker,” she explains.
Using the same centuries-old techniques and tools passed down through generations of hatmakers, West’s design shop crafts custom hats using materials that help tell her client’s story. She works closely with her clients to “create a hat that isn't just beautiful, but usable.”
Hats range from $1,200 to $2,000 and can incorporate things from a client’s history or family heirlooms.
“When you go to buy something that's custom and bespoke, you're buying time, you’re buying workmanship, you’re buying craftsmanship and the provenance of somebody working with you to tell a story. That’s hopefully a very priceless experience for people,” West says.
Megan Cencula
A Claire West Design will take about eight to 10 weeks with each hat taking 25 hours of handiwork.
“I want it to be a magnet for them, for them to feel that when they put it on, it makes them magical and amazing,” West says. The attention to detail and the special meanings the hats have is important to her process, and she will work on the design until it’s just right. ”I'm not happy until they're happy. I will rework something 20 times until it's absolutely beloved to them,” she says.
West’s exploration of the world inspires her to use materials from the past, the present, and from foreign places. She uses Winchester felt from a family-owned company based in Tennessee. She often uses vintage trim from Italy, indigo from Amsterdam, some materials from Peru, and vintage silk ribbons from the 1920s.
Megan Cencula
“When people go and they want to talk about what their hats are made out of it gives them this unique story to tell,” West says.
This summer, Claire West Designs will move to a storefront in Germantown at 1309 7th Avenue North, which will feature a collection of accessories, perfume, and housewares from makers from around the country. clairewestdesign.com