Best hat shops in New York City

Barbara Feinman Millinery

• Price band: 2/4

The 15-year-old shop has a very old-fashioned feeling to it, with chandeliers, golden lighting and antique-y furniture. The majority of the men’s and women’s hats are handmade in the store, but milliner/owner Feinman rounds out that collection with a few manufactured lines. Prices range from $195–$400 for blocked hats to $200–$400 for dressier evening and cocktail hats. “I use a lot of antique findings in my hats, like vintage one-of-a-kind buckles and ribbons,” says Feinman. “When I say that the elements in a hat are exclusive to that hat, it’s really true. When it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Cha-Cha's House of Ill Repute

• Price band: 2/4

Owner Dina Pisani is heavily influenced by New Orleans, which is evidenced by both her designs and her studio (exposed brick, chandeliers, gold velvet chairs). The fedora is Pisani’s perennial bestseller. “For fall we do felt [$200–$250], and for spring we do straw [$180–$220],” she says. “We’re in New York, so neutrals [sell] the best: black, browns and charcoals.” Top hats cost from $275–$400, depending on embellishments, and porkpies and bowlers are priced between $1805–$250.

Ellen Christine Millinery

• Price band: 4/4

Ellen Colon-Lugo has a flair for creating ornate headpieces: Says the milliner, “Something different to me means a patent-leather orchid sitting in the middle of some lime-green fur fashioned as a cocktail hat.” Her “jewel box of a shop” opened in 1995, where in addition to creating the bestselling fur hats ($450-$950) and fur felt cloches ($245) that fly off her shelves each season, she has fashioned hats for such runway shows as 3.1 Phillip Lim, Jil Stuart and United Bamboo.

The Hat Shop

• Price band: 2/4

Milliners Guild founder Linda Pagan opened this shop 18 years ago, and stocks her own designs, as well as though by Tracy Watts, Heather Huey, Jill Courtemanche, and Cha-Cha’s House of Ill Repute. Most of the inventory is priced between $158–$350, says Pagan, though “you can also buy a $20 beret or a $900 Kentucky Derby–style hat.” The clientele is mostly female, but Pagan boasts of an ever-loyal male customer base.

J.J. Hat Center

• Price band: 4/4

No one knows more about hats than the men at New York’s oldest chapeau shop, where you’ll find classy gents outfitted in berets ($25–$110), fedoras ($50–$625), newsboy caps ($30–$225), rain hats ($50–$125) and porkpies ($50–$200), the flat-brimmed toppers made popular by jazz musicians. Around since 1911, the wood-paneled store feels entirely masculine, like a place Don Draper would frequent, but ladies are welcome and encouraged to try out the unisex offerings, including 100 percent wool berets ($25) and straw panama-style hats with striped bands ($150). Since prices can go as steep as $625 for Italian fur-felt fedoras, the spot-on sales team will teach you how to care for your new headgear (keep it away from heat and brush it counterclockwise), so that it’s sure to last you for years to come.

Leah C. Couture Millinery

• Price band: 4/4

Leah Chalfen prides herself on the one-of-a-kind pieces she creates in her private studio (she operates by appointment only). She specializes in bridal, black tie and cocktail hats, which often feature intricate feather work, detailed trim techniques, silk veilings and vintage elements. Although Chalfen’s hats range from $250–$1,250, the average price hovers in the $325–$525 ballpark.

Lisa Shaub Fine Millinery

• Price band: 2/4

“There are not many places you go where someone is hand-sewing sequins onto something,” says Lisa Shaub of the hat shop she’s owned since 1998. “I do heavy lifting like dyeing and blocking and things that are messy at home, and I do finishing work like wiring and beading at the store’s studio.” Soft roll-up hats that are packable like cloches and fedoras range from $180 to $350; blocked and cocktail hats cost $227 to $350.

Suzanne Couture Millinery

• Price band: 4/4

Suzanne Newman’s Upper East Side showroom and atelier has been kicking around for a quarter of a century. Known for extreme and unusual women’s hats, her custom-made creations start around $400 and can reach into the thousands, especially when Kentucky Derby season rolls around. Well-known among New York society, she’s also made pieces for Beyoncé and Tina Knowles, Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn and several royals.

Victor Osborne

• Price band: 4/4

Victor Osborne’s Lower East Side shop and atelier opened its doors in 2009 with an ample selection of handmade hats for men and women. In addition to collaborations with Diesel Black Gold, Trovata, Andrew Buckler and the Blonds, Osborne partnered with Opening Ceremony on a capsule collection of spring pieces. Non-custom hats range in price from $100 to $225.

Plus, one very special milliner: Albertus Swanepoel

Albertus Swanepoel, a 2009 CFDA nominee for the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design, is lauded in the fashion industry for his runway head dressings; notable clients include Alexander Wang, Carolina Herrera, DVF, Proenza Schouler and Thakoon. His almost six-year-old company is predominantly wholesale at the moment, but his fedoras ($250-$400) are available at Barneys New York and Odin. “I don’t like the idea of a hat looking incredibly new,” says Swanepoel. “I like things that look vaguely sort of distressed or like you’ve had them for a while. It looks like something that you can make yourself, but it’s designed and executed in a way that you couldn’t.”