| Christy's Hats Christys' is the only company in the world still making high quality top hats and bowlers in the traditional way. Using hatting skills established over 200 years ago, the dedication of the highly skilled craftsmen and women is helping to keep a valuable industry very much alive. Today, the making of quality hats is still a very labor intensive process. With some 45 operation involved, many done by hand, the skills of the hat makers have to be developed over many years of specializing in one operation. The House of Christy was founded by Miller Christy in a small courtyard shop off Gracechurch Street in the city of London; the year was 1773. After serving a ten year apprenticeship Miller had become fully qualified in the "Art and Mastery of Felt Making." He was a man of high ideals and character, a Quaker, so it is not surprising that the little hat business soon acquired something of a reputation and trade progressed and grew steadily. As early records testify even in the infancy of the business Christys' hats were in great demand overseas and Miller Christy had customers as far afield as Virginia. |
