If you want to get ahead, get a hat.

Few traditional hatters survive in London, but if you need to buy a bowler Mr Boucher can help you out.

Bates' on Jermyn Street, was founded more than a century ago. This shop is one of the few remaining Gentlemen"s hatters in the capital and a Mecca for the serious hat lover. You can get everything here from a flat cap to a fez. It's been going since 1902 when every man wore a hat of some kind.

The shop has its own mascot a stuffed cat called Binks who sits with a cigarette in its mouth and sports a top hat. He was a feral cat that just walked into the shop back in 1921 and was sort of adopted by the shop. According to Mr Boucher who now runs Bates, the cat used to sit around the shop just as he does now - with the top hat and the cigarette in his mouth.

Head measurements at Bates are taken with an ancient contraption called a conformature. It looks like an instrument of torture.   It adjusts to form the shape of your head then with the addition of a card; an impression of the head shape and size is produced. All you need to do then is chose your Homburg, Bowler, Boater or Fez.

 

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