Under new owners Andrew and Nicola Forrest, hatmaker Akubra will continue to produce slouch hats.
in Paris can be found closer to home. Follow the Macleay River instead of the Seine, take the Kempsey turn off on the Pacific Highway, drive past the Slim Dusty Centre and you will find the unremarkable home of the height of homemade Australian fashion: hatmaker Akubra.
“There’s no two ways about it,” says Ron Palin, Akubra’s general manager of operations. “The highest standard we put out of this place is a slouch hat. It’s not because we are held to a higher standard but because the history behind it transfers to us doing a better job. You don’t want to let them down.”
The contract’s significance goes beyond the sizable order for the Forrests, who purchased Akubra through their private investment arm Tattarang1000 hats are made at the Akubra workshop in a day, passing through 60 pairs of hands across six weeks and enduring 162 steps.“The slouch hat is a source of national courage and pride with a history that is deeply ingrained in Australian families, including my own,” Andrew Forrest says.
“It takes two years’ worth of training to get someone on board,” says Palin. “We find that if they’re still with us in five years that they tend to stay. A few people leave to see what else is out there but find their way back.
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