Young milliner keeps rare hatmaking craft alive

At 23, Jasmin Hecht has turned hatmaking into her profession, producing traditional costume hats and custom pieces by hand in her workshop in Germering, Upper Bavaria, BR reported.

Hecht works with felt and straw, shaping them with steam over wooden forms and stretching them with millimetre precision. A finished hat only emerges after numerous individual steps.

She originally wanted to become a goldsmith. After deciding that university was not right for her, she searched the Chamber of Crafts website for alternatives and found an apprenticeship as a milliner.

Only four women across Germany successfully completed the apprenticeship in her year. Hecht has been self-employed in her own workshop for about a year.

Traditional costume is central to her work. Hecht owns more dirndls than there are days in a week and says she wants to preserve traditions and keep regional craftsmanship alive.

She makes classic costume styles including disc hats, Miesbach hats and Werdenfelser hats, while also developing modern designs of her own. Customers often arrive with personal ideas, which she turns into one of a kind pieces with them.

Every detail is finished by hand. The fit can depend on a single millimetre when the felt is stretched, while the lining and sweatband should have no visible seams. Ribbons, cords, feathers and other decorations give each hat its individual character.

Many of Hecht’s wooden hat forms come from flea markets or the internet because such tools are rarely made today. New forms inspire ideas for further designs.

Her customers now include more than traditional costume associations. Hecht advises each person individually because a hat must suit the wearer’s face and overall appearance.

Hatmaking is one of Germany’s rarest apprenticeship professions. Hecht is preserving traditional techniques while developing them through her own designs.