Hat’s Off: Meet Nick Fouquet, The Artisan Making Rad Hats In Venice Beach

Hat-making wasn’t always Nick Fouquet’s calling, but it found him at the perfect time. The traveler and hatter at heart spent much of his time touring the world and learning new cultures while also dipping his toes in the world of colors, designs, and natural aesthetics.  

After graduating from Rollins College with a BA in Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, Fouquet planned to reside near forestry or in the isolated peaks of Colorado’s mountains as a field worker. Now, the French part-human part-animal with a Huck Finn spirit works out of the West Coast in sunny Venice Beach, Los Angeles, where he crafts and designs eclectic handmade and detailed hats. 

Nick Fouquet is also part Native American, and the psychedelic adventurer deep inside is what keeps his creative gears turning. Fouquet always wants to ensure that he remains a humble gentleman, and the creations on his head are an appropriate reminder of who he is at heart.  

Hat-making wasn’t always Nick Fouquet’s calling, but it found him at the perfect time. The traveler and hatter at heart spent much of his time touring the world and learning new cultures while also dipping his toes in the world of colors, designs, and natural aesthetics.  

After graduating from Rollins College with a BA in Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, Fouquet planned to reside near forestry or in the isolated peaks of Colorado’s mountains as a field worker. Now, the French part-human part-animal with a Huck Finn spirit works out of the West Coast in sunny Venice Beach, Los Angeles, where he crafts and designs eclectic handmade and detailed hats. 

Nick Fouquet is also part Native American, and the psychedelic adventurer deep inside is what keeps his creative gears turning. Fouquet always wants to ensure that he remains a humble gentleman, and the creations on his head are an appropriate reminder of who he is at heart.  

You can trust that each fashionable design by Fouquet was created with his heart and soul. Utilizing his brand as a creative outlet, Nick Fouquet prides himself on that reliable, creative process where he unconsciously releases a free streaming flow of his personal designs, all of which stem from traveling, art, love, family, and self. Fouquet dubs it “a psychedelic bourgeoisie bohemian experience.”

Fouquet uses a different kind of material for his hats that’s not commonly seen. By using 100% sustainably harvested beaver fur felt, he’s able to add that much more of an authentic and “Nick Fouquet” touch. His inspirations span far and wide from things, places, and people, but mostly travel, gutter punks, Tom Sawyer, Keith Richards, The Sappers in the Congo, his father’s style, and love.

That said, there is one inspiration in terms of design, and Nick Fouquet described exactly what hat he would make the one and only Ralph Lauren. “A distressed western style hat with leather binding, a boro hatband, and would sprinkle it with turquoise and silver trimmings and have a bullet hole in the side of the crown,” reads his website. 

Overall, Fouquet is at his happiest when he realizes that he’s in the moment of something great, smack dab in the midst of creating something he or someone else will cherish for eternity. He left us with one reminder. When asked, “what’s the sexiest way to wear a hat?” Fouquet reminds us that it’s all about confidence, baby. No matter what the hatter has on his head, his spirit is what rocks it.