Alejandro Mateo: "You have to have a lot of confidence to wear a hat"
El almeriense Alejandro Mateo, de 39 años, dijo adiós a los fogones internacionales para centrarse en su pasión: diseñar y fabricar sombreros.Pandemia was the perfect excuse to change radically life and in Black it has found its particular paradise to return to its land 20 years later.
How is one of being a cook to leave everything to make hats?
It was a real chance.I studied cuisine in Scotland and I have dedicated myself to it throughout my career, 20 years, because I liked it and allowed me to travel, which has led me to work in Almería restaurants, Germany, Paris or Singapore.And in my last job, which was like a private chef on the first class flights of an airline of Arab Emirates, the pandemic arrived and all the flights stopped.He caught me in Abu Dhabi and began to interest myself much more in the world of artisan hats, a universe with many history but about which there is no school, so you have to be self -taught and I put myself to it with so much free time.
And captivated him...
effectively.When the pandemic arrived I got fully into the hats to get to know more and, at the same time, put it into practice.Then I made my first design, which I call ‘Gypsy Boy’, a black hat with metal touches, and I took it to a ‘brunch’ where many people asked me where I had bought it.There I saw that there was a future and seeing how the situation was internationally I told myself is now or never and I decided.And I do not regret it, because I enjoy more than with the kitchen and I feel that I have found my vocation.
Why did Black chose for their change of life?
After coming from traveling so much and living in such different places I wantedthat I was going to settle here and so I arrived in this corner in which all my designs are now born: the black.
And has you found inspiration?
Yes, of course.I have been completely dedicated to the hats for more than a year and here I found a perfect place to inspire me.Because it is having the idea, finding creativity, what takes me the longest when making the new hat models.
NEED A GOOD BURP BUT DONT Know How To Force It 😭
— jordan hernandez Fri Oct 20 06:09:54 +0000 2017
How much do each design take from it since he has it in his head until he becomes a reality?
As I have told you, get to the conclusion of what I want and how I want it is what takes me the longest, but then manufacture the hat, which is done totally by hand, it takes me about three days.But all are customized and are made to measure, so each hat Alejandro Mateo is always done from scratch.
In Almería, the hat is stipulated or is it a fashion that resists?
Although general fashion goes in phases, I think the hats are not for all audiences because it is a very striking complement and that focuses all eyes and there are those who do not dare.The hat needs a lot of confidence to carry it, because it is the most differential complement.And in Almería this I see on many occasions, because there are those who ask me, who gets in touch with me or who sees it and says that he loves, but then there are not so many who dare to take him.
Your audience where you are?
I mainly sell out of Spain, although some designs already in some provinces such as Mallorca also take care of me, but here it still costs to see people who dare with a hat.Thus, right now my clients are generally from outside, from countries such as Dubai or Germany and also from other areas such as Saint-Tropez, in France.
Now he also dares with espadrilles.
Yes, through my partner, Buba, which is my greatest support, we have also launched a line of espadrilles made one hundred percent by hand and that it is the one who is responsible for doing them.
