A Hatful of Secrets: Talking Quiet Rebellion and Sartorial Wit with Klaus Mühlbauer.

Let’s be honest: hats are tricky. They teeter dangerously close to costume, elicit strong opinions from strangers, and - if worn badly - can age you faster than a poorly lit Zoom call. And yet, there’s one name that makes wearing a hat feel less like a risk and more like a well-timed punchline delivered in silk-lined felt: Mühlbauer.

Born in Vienna in 1903 and still making heads turn more than a century later, Mühlbauer doesn’t follow trends - it quietly outlives them. Their headwear isn’t about making a scene - it’s about making sense. You won’t find their pieces screaming for attention. Instead, they raise a brow, tilt at an angle, and smirk quietly across the room. For those fluent in fashion’s more subtle dialects, a Mühlbauer hat is a passport stamp into the world of cultivated cool - where craft trumps hype, and elegance doesn’t try too hard.

My gateway into this world wasn’t some glossy fashion week moment or an over-filtered influencer post. It began in Vienna - naturally - where the streets are cobbled, the coffee comes with a philosophy degree, and people dress like they still believe in the poetry of tailoring. One day, somewhere between a melancholic stroll through the Museums Quartier and a too-intellectual slice of Sachertorte, I saw someone glide by in a hat that defied logic. Angular, architectural, deeply unbothered - it was less a hat, more a manifesto. I had questions. The hat had answers.

When your hat’s got more attitude than your ex and twice the structure.

The obsession deepened at Trunk Clothiers in Marylebone, London - a boutique that speaks fluent understatement. There, tucked between Japanese selvedge and Scandinavian tailoring, was Mühlbauer again, perched on the shelf like a well-travelled secret. I tried one on. Suddenly I wasn’t just wearing a hat - I was conveying a mood, an intention, a refusal to be rushed. It fit like good advice: quiet, necessary, and just bold enough.

In the following conversation, I speak with Klaus Mühlbauer, the fourth-generation hat whisperer behind the brand. He’s not here to sell you tradition in a glass case, nor is he ripping up the rulebook just to cause a stir. Instead, he crafts with intent - for rebels with restraint, romantics with edge, and anyone brave enough to wear their mind on their head.

1. Your family has been making hats since 1903 - what’s more challenging: keeping tradition alive or resisting the urge to toss the rulebook entirely?

Klaus Mühlbauer: Neither, really. I can’t take credit - or blame - for the tradition and history of the house. It's something we carry with us, whether we want to or not. And unfortunately, there’s no rulebook that tells me how to create tradition. I am working in the here and now and often think about the future: how will we do this or that going forward? For a company with this kind of history, it would be dangerous to dwell too much on the past - you lose touch with the present. And for a fashion business like ours, only the present matters. That’s the only way we can survive.

2. In an age of trend-chasing and TikTok styling, how do you craft a hat that feels timeless - yet makes someone stop mid-scroll?

Klaus Mühlbauer: Catching someone mid-scroll probably has something to do with the special charisma of a handcrafted product expressed in a contemporary way. How exactly we create such a hat is one of our best-kept secrets. Otherwise, everyone would be doing it...

3. Do hats have personalities - or are they more like mirrors, quietly reflecting the secrets of the person beneath them?

Klaus Mühlbauer: I wouldn’t give hats a special status compared to the rest of our clothing. Headwear - like fashion in general - is a mirror of our personalities. It shows how we are feeling, how open or closed off we are, how formal or casual, which group we identify with, how fashion-conscious, practical, unconventional, and much more. But personality always lives in the person - not in the hat or the dress.

4. Vienna has a reputation for being refined and restrained. How do you sneak a little rebellion into something as dignified as a hat?

Klaus Mühlbauer: I think that’s a lovely, if slightly romanticised, description of Vienna. And I agree - Vienna can handle a bit of rebellion. Rebellion perhaps arises from being different. In that sense, we at Mühlbauer constantly strive to do things differently in the world of headwear, to rethink the familiar. Sometimes that means, for instance, leaving off a band where there is usually always one - shedding weight to make something feel fresher, lighter. Or placing a beautiful big flower on a men’s hat. After all, why should flowers only belong on women’s hats?

5. You’ve said, “A hat doesn’t have to shout.” Be honest – do you secretly enjoy when it whispers something slightly scandalous?

Klaus Mühlbauer: No, I am not drawn to scandal. But I do like rebellion - a bit of going against the grain. So yes, I’m quite happy if my hats whisper a touch of rebellion. I also have a fondness for humor - in clothing, and especially in headwear.

Plotting a felted fashion takeover or just casually showing off his hat army - what’s Klaus Mühlbauer really scheming in his studio lair?

6. If you could design a hat for one fictional character - dead, alive, or entirely imagined - who’s getting crowned?

Klaus Mühlbauer: By the end of my career, I’d like to be able to crown myself. There’s a legend that says good hatmakers don’t have hat faces. That’s true for me. I’ve made perfectly fitting headwear for so many different people, but when it comes to myself, I seem to get in my own way. A number of the hats I’ve made for myself fit well, some quite well – but none has fit perfectly. Not yet.

7. You’ve collaborated with some of the world’s most daring designers. Which past partnership might have scandalised your great-grandfather?

Klaus Mühlbauer: I’m not sure about “shocked,” but the turquoise patent leather pillbox we created for the artist Jakob Lena Knebl - worn on her painted body - or the “burka hat” we designed for artist Werner Reiterer might certainly have raised a few eyebrows.

8. What’s the modern man or woman doing wrong with hats - and how gently do you steer them back to sartorial grace?

Klaus Mühlbauer: No one does “wrong” with hats. And I’m not trying to lead anyone back to hats or elegance. What drives me is the question: what kind of headwear do people today actually want to wear? I’m interested in the fashion of everyday life - that’s what I design for. And I want the pieces we create to feel accessible and easy-going, so no one needs extraordinary self-confidence just to wear them. I simply want to dress people well - on the head.

9. Imagine you’re designing a hat for a rogue time-traveller - which era inspires the silhouette, and what futuristic flourish are you slipping in?

Klaus Mühlbauer: Right now, peace is what’s on my mind most. More than anything, I wish for the wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and everywhere else to end. The flower - the iconic symbol of the 1960s peace movement - is at the heart of our latest collection (spring summer 26) for that very reason.

10. In a world obsessed with convenience and conformity, why is wearing a hat still such a radical act of self-expression?

Klaus Mühlbauer: Let’s take a broader view of this topic. Don’t just think of “hats,” but of headwear - caps, scarves, beanies. And suddenly, that “radical act of self-expression” dissolves. That’s why at Mühlbauer, we don’t just make hats - we make headwear that anyone can feel comfortable wearing, in a way that suits their personality.

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Words by AW.

Answers courtesy of Klaus Mühlbauer.

Photos Courtesy of Mühlbauer.