On 6th February 2025 nearly 40 World Traders enjoyed an exclusive visit at the oldest hat shop in the world, Lock & Co Hatters, last Thursday evening. The event kicked off with a warm welcome from Ben Dalrymple, Managing Director, and cold glasses of crisp champagne, supplied by their neighbours, Berry Bros & Rudd.
To set the tone, Ben reminded us that the shop was 349 years old, which is 100 years older than the United States, and 11 years older than gravity! Everything still happens exclusively in the St. James’s Street shop, where 36 people work across five floors and service clients around the world. Today, online sales is their biggest activity, and the United States and Japan their biggest markets.
Ben then introduced the Chairman Nigel Macdonald, who is a member of the Lock family. Nigel charmed us with the history of the company as well as a highly informative history of hats and of St. James’s Street itself. Clearly passionate about his family business, Nigel was more than happy to allow us to visit the entirety of the shop, including the workshop on the top floor, where the hatters benefit from the best light to practice their trade.
We discovered how stiff hats are fitted—an incredible Frankenstein-esque contraption called the Conformateur which was designed in 1852 and is still the most accurate way to take a head measurement. It punched out a small piece of paper (1/6th of the size of the head we were told), which is just the beginning of the process. A special room in the back of the shop is dedicated to framed examples of these patterns, and we were able to see the head shapes and preferences of some of their most famous clients, including Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, Jackie Onassis and Penelope Cruz. Whether you are a hat lover or not, a visit to Lock & Co is a fascinating step back into the history of fashion and London. It is an extraordinary national treasure.
