Crowning Achievement

Down a leafy side street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, squeezed between a laundromat and a brownstone, Guy Carsone’s hat boutique is an anachronistic outpost of glamour in a neighborhood better known for cappicola than couture. Featuring custom-made hats in a wide selection of classic and whimsical styles for men and women, the store, called Hats&, offers its customers a chance to unleash their inner movie stars. “A nice hat can really be transformative,” said Mr. Carsone. “It can put you into a different character, a different life.”Measuring just 15-feet square with walls painted in carnival hues and brightly colored caps hung from floor to ceiling, Hats& is a tiny treasure box of a shop. In a small alcove in the back, Mr. Carsone creates hats to fit every mood: straw Panamas, jaunty newsboy caps cut from Chanel suiting, sequined berets, and wide-brimmed swingers trimmed with faux fur. Each design has a name that evokes a familiar figure from popular culture or film – the “Ingrid” is a coffee-colored fedora straight from the final scene of Casablanca and “Bonnie” is a poppy-red straw cloche.A native of the Bronx and a lifelong New Yorker, Mr. Carsone studied at Parsons School of Design in the 1970s and spent his early career as creative director for advertising firms. But as the industry changed and computers began to take over the design process, he found himself losing interest in his work. “I needed to do something handson and advertising just couldn’t offer that anymore,” he said.After leaving advertising, he became interested in accessory design, focusing his work on one-of-a-kind luxury party goods. Naming his venture “Guy’s Holiday Camp,” Mr. Carsone launched a mail-order business that provided extravagant all-season party wear and theatrical costumes to individuals and organizations nationwide.Though his company thrived throughout the 1990s, as the millennium approached and the cultural climate in the country began to shift, Mr. Carsone sensed it might be time for a change once again. “It’s funny, but after all those years in advertising, I just had a feeling that the atmosphere in the country was different, and there was not going to be the same kind of interest in a line of wild, frivolous party accessories. I needed to find a more classic, practical outlet for my energy,” he said.As fate would have it, one of his assistants at “Guy’s Holiday Camp” was also a millinery student. After admiring her work in the studio, Mr. Carsone asked if she wouldn’t mind giving him a few pointers. “She warned me, ‘If you start making hats, you’ll never want to do anything else,’ and she was right,” he said. Mr. Carsone took to the process with ardor and enthusiasm, learning how to block hats around vintage forms as well as using his own fanciful wit to create original modern designs.In 2000, about four decades after hats fell out of fashion in mainstream America, becoming a milliner might not have seemed like a practical decision to many – but for Mr. Carsone it made perfect sense. “Hats are so sculptural and elegant, they never go out of style,” he said. Other than an initial class at FIT, Mr. Carsone was self-taught. He finds inspiration from theater, Hollywood, and the work of classic photographers such as Cecil Beaton. “When I make my hats, I like to think of them as having a story,” he said, holding up an emerald-green felt cloche trimmed with geometric floral cutouts. “Sometimes, it’s just a scenario, like lunch and shopping at Saks.”In his first two years as a hat designer, Mr. Carsone sold his creations through trunk sales at Henri Bendel. Though business was good and he had a steady flow of custom-design orders, he dreamed of having his own shop. On frequent visits to his sister-in-law’s apartment in Carroll Gardens, he noticed a small storefront just steps from Carroll Park and from Smith Street. “Every time I saw it, I’d think to myself, ‘That’s the place,’ but it was never available,” Mr. Carsone said. Finally, on the morning after the 2003 blackout, he drove by and saw the owner placing a “For Rent” sign in the window. “It was an omen,” he said.In partnership with his sister-in-law, Diane Demsky, Mr. Carsone opened Hats& in October of 2003. He has grown even fonder of the neighborhood since. “I owe everything to Brooklyn, to this place,” he said. “The people have been just wonderful, and there are so many creative things happening.”Though his is one of a growing number of fashionable boutiques in the area, after only one year in business, Hats& has already attracted a loyal and diverse group of customers. Young orthodox women, nannies pushing strollers, hip professionals, and graying Italian grandmothers all stop and stare into Mr. Carsone’s shop window. “It’s amazing how the hats seduce people,” he said with a smile. “Since the first day we opened, an amazing variety of people have just wandered in.”Both his classic designs and his neighborly attitude have made Mr. Carsone beloved among his customers. Jane Morgan of Brooklyn has been shopping at Hats& since shortly after its opening a year ago. “Guy’s a great person and his hats are simply superior creations,” she said. “I went to a shop downtown yesterday with people from my synagogue, and it was terrible. Everything was well-made, but they were all very ‘church lady,’ not sophisticated.”“It was very important to me that the hats be beautiful, but not prohibitively expensive,” said Mr. Carsone. “I wanted to be able to cater to the old neighborhood, not just the high-fashion industry.”His styles change seasonally and range in price from $80 for a simple cloche to more than $180 for designs with more elaborate embellishments, such as feathers, bangles, and handmade flowers.Mr. Carsone is happy to help style each of his customers and delights in seeing the reaction on their faces when they see the result. “People look amazing in hats and they just don’t realize it,” he said. “But if you can get them to put one on and look at themselves in the mirror, they always convert!”Hats&, 266 President St., Brooklyn, 718-643-1214, www.hatsbyguy.com.

Crowning Achievement

Crowning Achievement

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