York hatmaker Paul Ventress: 'Dressing up as Captain Jack started my career as a men’s hatter to celebrities, films and re-enactors'

“There would be a lot of downtime,” he says. “There was going to be this big Halloween party at one of the clubs just outside Hamburg. I decided to make myself a leather tricorn hat so I could dress up as Jack. That started this whole ball rolling.”

He used a cheap mixing bowl and plaster to create a domed mould, bought some old sofa leather on eBay, and made the hat. Pleased with the results, and with leather left over, he made another one, put it on eBay, and it sold straight away.

Some 15 years later, back in York, Paul Ventress Bespoke Hatters is a member of the prestigious British Hat Guild, making men’s hats in designs from the 1600s to contemporary and western styles, using authentic, traditional methods and drawing on Paul’s love for, and research into, period costume drama.

Clients include film productions, re-enactors, celebrities and rock stars, including Jon Fratelli of The Fratellis, Ben Fogle, Alfie Boe, and Justin Hawkins of The Darkness. There are more lined up (which he cannot talk about).

Some clients come via word of mouth. “There aren't many of us in this country, especially men's hatters. We're quite a rare breed, and the skills are very different to millinery,” Paul says.

His YouTube and social media accounts are where he posts mesmerising videos of his hat-making process - with astonishing results. Last month his Instagram account @paul.ventress_hatter had about 8,000 followers. At the time of writing, that figure had shot up to more than 50,000, and rising.

This followed a reel showing Paul in his York studio recreating Sir Gary Oldman's top hat from Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). He posted it on October 1 - the very day, although he did not realise it, the star was knighted. Within two weeks it had achieved more than three million views on YouTube, and more than two million on Instagram.

The reel shows how physical hat making can be, with Paul using his whole bodyweight to stretch the felt over the block. It has been so widely seen that Paul’s wife, Amanda, has had to step in to help answer messages.

“I think people just really find it interesting to see these methods and tools and crafts,” he says.

The hat was made for a client who plans to give it its first outing at next week’s Whitby Goth Weekend, ascending the 199 steps just as Dracula does in Bram Stoker’s novel.

“The closest I could say I've had to any training is that my grandmother was a dressmaker and she taught me how to tie a knot correctly in a piece of thread and how to easily thread a needle,” says Paul.

Now 42, he was born and raised in York. After school, he went to music college in Leeds, and was about to begin a Music degree when Beyond All Reason began getting Radio One airplay, and invited to play at big gigs and shows. 2I ended up ditching the idea of going to university,” he says.

“I spent all of my twenties touring around the country, playing music festivals, doing interviews, photo shoots, for the big rock music publications.”

As the singer and guitarist, Paul was known for wearing his black cowboy hat. When the band got a record deal in Germany, he moved to live there for four years. “Unfortunately, that record deal didn't really pan out. We ended up walking away from the whole thing,” he says.

But it was while he was in Germany, following the success of his Captain Jack hat, that Paul began to research and make historical costume hats, such as cavalier hats and replicas of hats he had seen in films and TV dramas.

“I just persevered and taught myself,” he says. “Back then there was really very little online in the terms of tutorials for hat making. These days there's an awful lot, such as the videos I put on myself.”

In 2013, aged 30, he moved back to York, to the home of his parents, Maureen and David. “So I was then making these hats on my parents' kitchen table,” he says. “They are both musicians as well and both very, very creative. My dad's always been really good at making things and that's probably where I get that confidence.”

Beyond All Reason’s album was eventually recorded in Paul’s bedroom, but momentum was waning and the band took a step back.

“The last time we played together was at my wedding, two and a half years ago, which was great fun. We got to play some covers as well,” Paul says.

Now an established bespoke hatter, working from his at-home studio in York, he makes around 100 hats a year, to order and made to measure, using high quality materials and authentic techniques.

“The cowboy hats I make in exactly the same way that a custom hatmaker over in the US would make it,” he says.

“A lot of it was trial and error, but I've always had fantastic advice from the company that makes all my wooden blocks, Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks, down in Devizes,” he says, adding that Michelle Poyer-Sleeman, Master Hatter at Herbert Johnson Hatters, has also been very helpful.

An old book called Scientific Hat Finishing and Renovating is an invaluable tool, he says.

He buys in the felts (which might be rabbit or beaver, which has fibres that lock together to make the finest, almost waterproof felts), as hat bodies, made by specialists in the Czech Republic, Ukraine and Portugal. “This is what we start with. It's got a rough brim and a rough crown, and it's ready to be steamed and then put into whatever size and shape I need,” he says.

“With a lot of my costume hats, I use leather. I don't generally use leather for everyday wear hats because it's not a good water-resistant material.”

He also uses straws, such as Panama straw (actually made in Ecuador) for Panamas or cowboy hats, and shantung straw, made in China, for some cowboy hats.

Many clients are historical re-enactors, looking, for example, for Georgian styles such as bicorn hats, and pirate hats. He also makes for film and theatre producers, and recently made a Mr Darcy hat for historical costumier Pauline Loven of Crow’s Eye Productions.

Paul says: “I really want to get into making more hats for TV, film and theatre. I love period costume dramas. I absolutely love Poldark. I love Pirates of the Caribbean. I recently watched the House of Guinness - that was absolutely fantastic, especially for hats.”

His website features a core collection of hats, for which he has the materials close at hand, with prices from £180 to £850. Although 70-80 per cent of clients are men, styles are unisex, especially cowboy hats, fedoras and bowler hats. He makes hats for both brides and grooms, and made his own top hat for his own wedding.

Last year, he was accepted as a member of the British Hat Guild. “That was a real honour,” he says.

“I'm hoping to run some hat making workshops next year, if I can get funding for all the equipment needed.

“Men's hatting is on the red list of endangered heritage crafts so it's vital we have new hat makers learning these skills.

paulventressbespokehatters.com