The world’s oldest hat shop, Lock & Co, opened in 1676. Hats sold there initially catered to the tastes of the British upper crust, and over the next few centuries, customers would include Beau Brummell, Jackie Kennedy, Winston Churchill and Admiral Nelson.

Nelson bought many of the shop’s hats before being fatally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar. His heroic status is cemented in British history, and something of Lock & Co’s legacy is recorded, too, in the bicorne worn by his statue on Nelson’s Column.

Having seen war, the brand’s hats owe their success in part to the functionality and versatility they have historically offered.

In the 19th century, William and Edward Coke commissioned the company to create a durable and protective garment for gamekeepers on their estate, whose top hats could not be reconciled with low-hanging branches. To that end, the company invented the bowler (then called the Coke) hat. The story goes that Edward jumped on the hat to test its durability. The design shortly rose to fame and has made notable appearances in René Magritte’s surrealist magnum opus The Son of Man, Charlie Chaplin’s slapstick comedy, and movies including The Thomas Crown Affair and Goldfinger.

This year, descendants of the bowler in Lock & Co’s autumn/winter 2022 collection share their ancestor’s functionality. The collection’s streetwear pieces, for instance, are built for purpose and longevity in high-quality technical fabrics. The collection also draws on the stylishness of the company’s products to which the most fashionable among us have been drawn for centuries.

In 1882, Lock & Co sold a black fedora to Oscar Wilde, whose fashion is renowned for having been as flamboyant as his prose was ornate.

One imagines Wilde would find today’s collection as beautiful as the pieces he wore centuries ago. Crafted from heritage fabrics and inspired by such vintage silhouettes as appeared on the writer’s head, many of the pieces in the autumn/winter 2022 collection are adorned with details such as ornate ribbon embroideries and decorative crushed velvet.

The Rupert fedora, for example, is encircled by a luxurious striped silk ribbon. Its emerald felt will add a splash of colour to the wardrobe throughout the darkest months. Other fedoras in the collection have stylishly monochromatic bands. These hats strike an elegant balance between the traditional and the modern. Heritage tweeds are given a contemporary look with new colour combinations.

There is the traditional style of the Tremelo bakerboy cap, whose simplicity makes it a versatile item, or the new Sandwich basket-weave bakerboy, which, like the Rupert fedora, comes in 100 percent wool. With two yarns crossing alternately, the cap’s deep texture is beautiful both to hold and behold. Having an exaggerated shape wider than the typical bakerboy style, this piece makes more of a statement for those of us who strive to be modern-day counterparts of the dandies and aesthetes Lock & Co’s clientele once comprised.

Lock & Co has in recent years introduced pieces such as its cashmere beanies for younger customers, but the autumn/winter 2022 collection continues its refined structured style.

lockhatters.com