If you try to find a nice, casual hat, it can take a really long time to find just the right one. In Hakata, there is a woman who works as a freelance hat designer under the brand name Miki Matsuo. Hat design is an unusual field to freelance in. Let’s take a look at what she’s all about.
Interviewed by Takafumi Suzuki
Translated by Claire Tanaka
I understand you were originally aiming to become a fashion designer.
Yes, I was originally in the garment industry. I graduated from a trade school and got a job at an apparel maker as a pattern maker. I decided to go into hats because I felt the garment industry wasn’t a good match for my personality.
Why did you change your path?
A fashion designer always has to have her antenna tuned to the changing fashion trends around the world. Also, clothing manufacture requires a lot of detailed work. It’s on the millimeter level. I always thought I had a very exacting personality, but I’m not fussy enough for the fashion world. Now why hats? It just seemed like a good fit for me. I can decide it all myself, and it’s just the right amount of fussiness for me.
I understand you didn’t learn the hat trade in Japan.
I studied hats in Paris, France. France always held a certain appeal for me, and I was determined to find a way to spend some time living there. I went to France when I was 22. Reflecting on my time there now, it was, in a word, “delightful”. I was so enamored of it as a place to begin with, just to be able to be there, to breathe the air, that made me really happy. I didn’t really prepare at all before I went.
What? You didn’t prepare at all?
Yes, not at all. (laughs) Originally, I thought that France must have tons of hat design schools, but that’s not the case. When I went, the only one I found was CMT. (laughs) I couldn’t speak French at all when I got there and I went to a language school for several months and got to the point where I could understand what people were saying to me. Then I entered CMT.
Choice of fabric is an important part of making a good hat
The French influence is evident in her work
Going to a hat design school in France, that’s not an experience just anyone gets to have.
One thing that surprised me about the school was the slow pace of the lessons. The pace was set so that the slowest student could keep up. I had already studied apparel and I’d worked as a pattern maker, so that’s probably why it seemed so slow to me. The Japanese students in the class were all quite quick with their hands. I really saw how nimble Japanese people are during that time. On the other hand, the French students had lots of fun ideas. They were full of variety, and their use of color was really beautiful.
It seems like you benefited a lot by your time in France.
At the end of my stay, I participated in a hat design contest. More than a hundred people participated from all over France. I had a lot of confidence in my work, but I didn’t win any prizes. That was really tough. But, after it ended, a lot of people came up and talked to me and said to me (in French of course) “would you come work for us” and things like that.
A hat with a unique brim
The Miki Matsuo brand blends casual style with unique embellishments
It must have been hard to make a living as a freelancer right after coming back to Japan.
I thought it would be hard to make ends meet just by making hats. After I came back to Japan, I thought I would have to get a part time job and make hats on the side. But actually, right after I got back, my friend invited me to sell my hats at a flea market. The other things on sale there were in the few hundred yen range. Honestly, I didn’t think that I’d be able to sell my hats, which cost over 10,000 yen each. But surprisingly, they did sell. Not just one either, I sold several. Four or five. That’s where I got confident that I could make it work.
So is that where you decided to go independent as a freelance hat designer?
I held a gallery exhibition and when I displayed what kind of hats I could make, people started to come up to me and ask me to make a particular hat for them, and I got orders from boutiques as well. I think I had really good luck.
Just by wearing one, you can change your whole style
A simple yet elegant design
You’re not interested in mass-produced hats at all?
I don’t think I could do the work it takes to make a mass-produced hat. I did talk to the president of a hat company, and he said “I’ll give you free reign of a part of the factory, so why not make some of your hats here?” but I just couldn’t get my head around it, so it didn’t happen.
When you make it all order-made, there must be a lot of annoying things to deal with.
During the time I’ve been doing it, I’ve had some strange requests. One person was like, “Make the head part out of mesh, but I don’t want to get sunburned, so put something on the back to protect me from the sun, and I also want something shrouding my face. But I want to be able to open the mouth part sometimes, so put a little door there.” (laughs) I thought, this person’s going to look like they lost a bet! But I have learned to adjust my thinking so I can make it the way the customer wants even if it doesn’t match my own taste. The good thing about doing it all by myself is that I can oversee the whole process from beginning to end.
Lastly, what are your plans for the future?
I’m not entirely certain what I want to do, but I do know I want to expand the Miki Matsuo brand. But I think the only reason I’m able to make a living at hat making now is because of my good luck and nothing else.
une plume
1-2-28, Daimyo, Tyuou-ward, Fukuoka city
Miki Matsuo
Born in 1976 in Nagasaki Prefecture. Hat Designer.
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PingMag MAKE is the sister site to PingMag. We use an interview format to put the spotlight on a wide range of people active in rural areas. We document the voices of these unknown heroes and broadcast them to the world. It’s the Japan-based magazine about people and making things, coming out once a week. We’re passing on the passion, ideas, skills, and life stories of people who are building today and exploring tomorrow: craftsmen, engineers, entrepreneurs, and inventors. Stay tuned!
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These are beautiful hats. And the made-by-order gives it a very cozy feeling as well.
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