I have always been attracted to hats. My grandfather wore them and my father still covers his ancient head with hats of all colors and shapes. Four years ago I entered, by chance (or by causality, from here comes the Italian name of CASO), in the wonderful workshop of Matteo and Veronica, the creators and the soul of SUPER DUPER HATS. That was love at first sight. Since then I have not stopped wearing his wonderful felt creations.
The first thought that came to my mind, when Matteo proposed me this collaboration was about Diogenes, the famous cynic philosopher. He used to laugh at the powerful Grecian ladies that passed by with their perfumed wigs shouting at them that all the time they used (in fact not they, but their slave servants) perfuming their wigs was only for bird’s enjoyment. He was right, since smells are evaporated olfactory molecules and tend to fly up. The idea of perfuming a hat, made me think about creating a perfume for birds. It was a crazy idea. A useless and beautiful one.
But Matteo told me then that his idea was to set an organic cotton fabric inside the hat, to spray the perfume in it. That changed my perspective, and I loved it immediately.
The gesture of putting on your hat, is absolutely personal. Each one of us has a particular way of placing a hat in our head. Some do it with both hands, some others with one. Some they set it with a little inclination (some to the right, some to the left), others a bit backwards. It is a sign of identity. But everybody passes the interior of the hat by their nose. The idea of perfuming that intimate gesture, of granting a special aroma to this common movement I found it incredibly inspiring.
Usually, when we put on a hat it is because we are going out. It’s a gesture that calls to action. In my case, when I put on my hat is because I’m going harvesting, riding or for a walk in the wild. So, it’s always a nice thing to do. I associate this gesture to good moments immersed in Nature. And I wanted everybody to feel a little bit the same way, so when I started formulating I did it with that idea in my mind.
I also wanted to make a perfume that could work specially well with the hair’s segregations, since hats make us sweat in our heads and keep the temperature stable. So a part from perfuming the gesture I also wanted to subtly perfume your hair, so after wearing the hat (after enjoying being outside) you could keep in your hair, the same natural and wild aroma in a gentle extended way.
The other inspiration comes from Matteo and Valeria, of course. From the plants and landscapes that move them and have accompanied them since their earliest childhood in Italy.
The result, is a curious mixture between freshness and warmth, highly aromatic and with a sylvan touch, made with fir, pine resin, lavender, lemon, sage and wild harvested rosemary.
In Spanish we have a saying that goes “ponerse el mundo por montera”. It’s difficult to translate. It literally means to put on the world as a hat, meaning that no matter what others think or say about you, you have to keep doing what you want and follow your intuitions. With this perfumed hat we would like you to do the same, and to be brave enough to follow your nose…or your heart, which is the same.
