Over the past nine years we've produced samples and short runs of hats for a number of small and not so small brands. It's always a good chance to bounce ideas round with new people and try out new ideas and fabrics. It rarely involves international travel but then Armando got in touch.
Headwear Research (originally Top Cap) began as a Tumblr account posting the best and most interesting hats from around the web and the world.
May 2023 saw the first Headwear Research product, CPA-6P01. An unstructured baseball cap, hand made in Japan using Japanese Ventile fabric. For CPA-6P02 Armando approached Long Shot to create a cap suitable for the colder months of the Northern hemisphere.
A few ideas for fabric were passed back and forth but when Armando came across some deadstock Italian wool from Gucci's winter coat production, it was clear we'd found a winner. To add winter utility to CPA-6P02 we developed removable earflaps, a nod to the Deerstalkers once favoured by football casuals with a wearable, modern outlook.
The release party for CPA-6P02 took place on 30 November 2023 at the studio of Firm.GS in Milano. Sounds were provided by Alan Tamir and DJ Okovic, heads were in attendance, hats were flying and minds were blown.
Grazie mille to my Milano famiglia, see you in the Spring.
]]>In the months running up to the event we developed a pattern based on our Éclair silhouette and worked with Martina to make sure the construction was open enough to include details from whatever garments we received. A two week window for donations ran up to the event and over the weekend we created 25 unique caps. The event was documented by Liam Chilton and a selection of his images are shown here.
]]>Very pleased to have been featured in the latest episode of our mate Luke Scully's 'Out + About' series of short films. So excited in fact, we made a T-shirt to celebrate the occasion, check it out here.
An introduction to the film in Luke's own words:-
Out + About is what it says on the tin. I go out with artists of all disciplines and find out about them. They choose a location and I shoot them in it.
The next feature in this series; Mike is a milliner and the founder of The Longshot Experiment, meticulously designed and crafted original, modern headwear made by hand one at a time in Manchester.
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As a skater growing up in Liverpool in the early 90’s the city was known for its gnarly skateboarding scene. The skate culture and his experiences at that time had a huge effect on him and his style choices and still to this day inspire the work that he creates. We walked around the city and checked out a few of his favourite skate spots from back in the day, including his favourite; The Tiles.
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I met Mike through a mutual friend about 5 or so years ago and his work always stuck in my head so was super glad to reconnect with him these years later. Top Bloke and wizard on the sewing machine - go check him.
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]]>Mike sat down with Adam and Martene to dig a little deeper.
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Long Shot: I first came across your ‘Time Called’ series of photographs in Cotton and Guns magazine. You have recently revisited this series, can you describe the concept behind these images?
Heiss & Rourke: For us the project is about the social economic causes of the pub disapearing from the british landscape and capturing the visual evidence of this.
LS: The images in the series so far have all been based in Manchester and Salford. Are there any other cities that you’d consider visiting for this project?
HR: When we started we didn't decide to just stick to one area but the Greater Manchester area is so big and there are so many derelict pubs here, we've not really had to venture out. Unfortunately there is no shortage of pubs closing down and since covid the process has sped up. We must have shot close to 50 pubs now and there's only one that's in Yorkshire so far which we shot early on.
LS: You’ve lived in Manchester/Salford, Edinburgh and Hannover. Which city has been most inspirational and/or best suited to your practice?
HR: We also lived in Berlin for a short time. We've found inspiration and projects to work on in all these places. We're drawn to the constant conflict between man and nature and finding visual representations of this struggle in the city. By nature we don't necessarily always mean mother nature i.e. plants etc but also the uncontrolable nature of our system and the way this changes parts of the city in different ways. The visual power struggle of the city can be found in all cities whether its wilderness and humanity or class divisions, at the moment I'd say the Greater Manchester area with its deep routed history and constant visual transformation gives us plenty inspiration and ideas to work on without having to look anywhere else. We've been living here the longest, have had a lot of time to explore it and have seen a lot of changes taking place here. The more you learn and know about a place the more you can say about it.
LS: Your personal and professional work are strangely linked, one documents the spaces that the other is replacing. Are your professional clients aware of your personal work and have there ever been any uncomfortable conversations around the subject?
HR: At present it's never really come up in converastion with our clients. I'm sure it will sooner or later and we look forward to the conversations it will lead to.
LS: The ’Time Called’ series of photographs are all shot from a very straightforward aspect and usually under grey skies. We’ve talked before about the romanticism felt for abandoned spaces, do you have to consciously avoid the temptation to present the buildings in a sentimental or romanticised fashion?
HR: Early on when we decided to start this project we had to decide on a format and style that would best represent the project. At the time we were influenced by the new typographical photographers especially the Beckers and there typographies so we decided to shoot the pubs as a typograhy in a neutral way trying to shoot all the buildings in very similar light conditions giving all the pubs the same treatment.
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To see more visit heissrourkephotography.com
I started skateboarding in around 1988 and can clearly remember spending what seems like hours staring at the Shut Skates 'Shark' board on the wall of Split in the basement of the Liverpool Palace. Skateboarding and skate shops have been an essential part of my education and this film by Jeremy Elkin (featuring an original score by Large Professor) takes me right back to those times and what it felt like. Really wonderful stuff and seriously recommended!
]]>What do you think of when someone mentions ‘Icons of Men’s Style’? Is it the items of clothing like the classic white T-shirt? US fishtail parka? Sailor beanie? Or is it the men wearing the clothes? Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Dean?
Last month, in yet another vain attempt to keep my children from bouncing off the walls, I asked my 8 year old daughter to shoot a look book for the new garment-dyed Bob and Gee hats. She bossed it despite having to use her 'old fella' as a model and she's now giving me Tik-Tok tutorials. We might just crack the "Youth Market" yet!
]]>This one has been in the works for a while now. Originally inspired by some great images of the seminal Japanese film director, Akira Kurosawa. The plan was to create a more 'geometric' bell hat, patterns were drafted and samples made but despite the shape coming together, something just wasn't right. So, the 'Tokyo Zoo Keeper' as it was originally called was put to one side until we got a call from the Good guys over at Good Measure.
Good Measure, if you don't already know, create the finest heavyweight sweatshirts and T-shirts, all made in the UK to the highest standards. They got in touch to see if we could make use of the excess fabric leftover during production of their garments. Now, a jersey bucket hat? Nobody was sure that would work...but it did. Super soft summer vibes, the jersey was a perfect fit and folds down easily into a pocket without creasing. Everything was coming together but it just needed a little sprinkle of magic to make it right.
So, we opened the folder entitled 'Dope hat wearers wearing dope hats'. A quick scroll through and there it was, the MAGIC! A screenshot from the 'Patta 10 Years: Get Familiar' film showing Patta founder, Guillaume 'Gee' Schmidt, rocking a bucket hat. A few pattern tweaks later and the 'Gee' bell hat was finally complete.
'G' for the Japanese 着, 'G' for Manchester's finest sweatshirts Good Measure, 'G' for Gee Patta, and finally, 'G' for a great hat.
*Update* - Here's a couple of links to podcasts interviewing Guillaume 'Gee' Schmidt, co-founder of Patta and a real inspiration. Enjoy!
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