Colby Hebert Uses Custom Hats to Tell a Story in Lafayette

Big city trends, like water draining down the Mighty Mississippi, can take their time reaching Louisiana, but like a shard of driftwood turned over countless times by the river currents, those trends are uniquely changed during their journey down South.

A decade ago, Colby Hebert was early to pick up on one of these fashion movements among his film industry colleagues from Los Angeles. While working in the wardrobe and props departments on movie sets in New Orleans, the New Iberia native noticed one curious accessory that artists around him liked wearing. Unexpectedly, the former actor found a new way to combine his love of storytelling, his flair for fashion and his deep roots in Acadian culture.

“It was Holy Spirit, light bulb and lightning bolt all at once,” Hebert says. “I was struck. I knew I wanted to learn how to make hats. Approaching them from a designer’s perspective, getting personal, individualized and more stylish with them wasn’t very common at the time. In New York and L.A. maybe, but it hadn’t clicked in the deep South yet.”

Largely self-taught — though he’s quick to credit the seasoned milliners who shared invaluable advice along the way — Hebert was experimenting at home with fur felt, shaping and design work while still working on movies. With his thick Cajun patois, friends started calling him “The Cajun Hatter” on sets, and the nickname stuck.

In 2016, he launched his first line, and now “The Cajun Hatter” is the name on the outside of his shop on Jefferson Street in the growing creative enclave that is downtown Lafayette. Inside is a wild wonderland centered around the reassembled remains of an 80-year-old fishing shack, complete with vintage furniture, a bar and an island sprouting all manner of fabrics, found scraps of nature and colorful stalks of feathers for patrons to choose from. Naked straw and beaver and nutria fur felt hats gaze down from dark green walls like an adoring crowd.

“We can sculpt what someone wants on the spot — we call this the swamp,” says the married father of three, moving swiftly to the back of the shop to his finishing nook filled with tattered suitcases of ribbons and thread, a chalkboard wall, a classic Singer and an ASM Industrial sewing machine and a few dozen colorful spools standing guard. “Hats have always been about craftsmanship, skill and tradition, and that’s a beautiful thing. But designers are on the opposite end, divining something that hasn’t happened before. I appreciate both.”

He encourages clients to bring their own ideas and memorabilia to weave into their hats.

“Even though he’s Cajun and I’m Sicilian and Romanian, we are cut from the same cloth,” says Sammye Pisani, who walked into Hebert’s shop when it was on Magazine Street in New Orleans, and ended up collaborating on events with the hatmaker. “We just sat and had a cocktail and got to know each other, and the hats that resulted were amazing. He’s easy to connect with.”

Hebert’s first collection, called Louisiana Icons, displayed the unique charm of the state with pieces like Magnolia and Carnaval. “At first I just wanted to reflect the culture and tell everybody, ‘This is who I am, and this is where I’m going with this,’” he recalls. “As I moved forward, the custom hats help people tell their own story. It’s mutual. It’s a collaboration.”

Fascinated by the Southwestern landscape, writer and marketer James Ludeau brought in a turquoise and sterling silver band made by a Native American artist in Santa Fe, a clutch of pins from New Mexico and a hawk feather.

“It’s like a scrapbook and a conversation-starter,” Ludeau says. “And they are like tattoos, you’re always thinking, ‘I gotta get another one.’”

Hebert’s Shades of the Swamp collection features natural dyes he creates using plants harvested from the Atchafalaya basin.

“My vision has always been to define the fashion of deep south Louisiana, in an elegant but badass and unique way,” he says. “How does a hat promote a culture? Well, if it makes someone proud to be Cajun, or Creole or from South Louisiana, that’s one way.”

Hebert calls the aesthetic “swamp chic.”

“Acadiana is lucky to have a quality hatmaker here, because it’s still rare,” says the well-traveled Ludeau, who has had five custom headpieces made by Hebert. “These hats are such an extension of your personality. They’re all like different characters sitting in your wardrobe.”

As highly-personalized works, Hebert’s creations are taken as keepsakes from a proud, communal culture, and thoughtful memories of an individual’s journey; future heirlooms, alive now with the indelible experiences, the resilient verve and the cherished loves held close by each wearer.

Just as fine artists channel their feelings and inspirations into colors on canvases, words on pages or images on screens, Hebert sees hatmaking as an expression of something more esoteric, and in some ways, more real, than the raw materials. His inherent drive to promote the language, music, spirituality and culinary character of Cajun life has never wavered, and at 33, he’s positioned to pass that passion to a new generation.

“The palette is the hat, and that’s the vehicle for it all, but that’s not what it’s about at the root,” Hebert says. “This is a preservation effort.”

Q&A

If you could design a hat specifically for anyone, who would it be and why? My brother who passed away before I started doing this. And lots of historical figures: Jean Lafitte, Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis XIV, Francis of Assisi, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway.

Is it true that some people just aren’t “hat people”? Entirely false. Not only can anyone look good in a hat, but everyone can pull off a variety of hats.You’ve just got to take into consideration the shape, size, proportions, color and style of the hat, and the shape and size of your face and head, the proportions and structure of your body, the tones of your hair, eyes and skin and your personal style.

Personally, what’s your favorite hat and why? My favorite hats are ones that have the same color ribbon on it as the felt. I love the profound and timeless elegance found in a simple, monotone hat.