A small microcosm of LA talent is emerging that’s further defining the city’s fashion scene. Their choice of neighborhoods seems to reflect their specific vision. For Nick Fouquet, Venice is the defining element of his Westside ethos.
Tucked away off bustling Lincoln Boulevard sits Nick Fouquet’s store and studio—a space that he’s called home for two years. A few blocks from the commercialized Abbot Kinney stretch (where his first store sat) and minutes from the ocean, the bungalow is the epitome of Fouquet’s world—brimming with craftsman, unsuspecting from the outside and full of soul of in the inside.
“Having started this in a garage basement in Venice 10 years ago and having placed ourselves in Venice is the LA part of our brand,” he explained. “It’s not like I’m in LA, I’m in Venice.”
“To me, it was like the lower Eastside when I moved here with skaters and surfers and graffiti and I could get on my bike to go get tea without having to get in my car,” he added, noting that despite appreciating Abbot Kinney for being the street that gave him his start, it has turned into something that no longer resonates with his brand.
“I hope I’ve given Venice a name,” he said of staking his claim, among a few other Westside designers, on the neighborhood. “The designers that are here are creating some extraordinary things that are being recognized on a local level,” he said. “And when I go to Paris, I know some of these brands are so inspired by what’s going on in LA that it makes me proud. They recognize my contemporaries and are inspired by them and what I do with my brand and the hats in LA.”
The brand is at the epicenter of resurrecting the art of hatmaking. After recognizing a big gap in the market, Fouquet decided to eschew the typical black felt hat with grosgrain that he found uninspired. “You had your Borsalino in Italy or Stetson in America, which I design collections for, and it was just old-timey classic or Stetson was very cowboy,” he said. “I just realized there wasn’t a differentiation between brands all that much, and I sort of fell in love with it.”
Fouquet seized on the opportunity, taking the time to learn the complex craft. “There are a lot of steps involved, but there’s no one way to do it,” he said. “So it was making up a formula of how we were going to block the hats, and sand them, and how we were going to do our bows, and it was just a bit of trial and error.”
The hats, complete with their signature single match affixed to the band, are made of heritage fabrics like beaver fur felts, though Fouquet’s excited to be expanding into straws in time for the opening of his first retail space in Miami, just in time for Art Basel this December.
