We see all kinds of people at our studios in Burbank. From just good local folks and long time friends who come in to visit; to tourists who have heard about us, or are driving on their way to the countless surrounding Movie Studios, and attracted by our notable burgundy awning, classic landmark neon sign, and displays from our Hollywood Hat Museum decide to drop in; to wonderful fans who travel sometimes halfway around the world just to visit the Baron Studios and meet Master Hatter, Mark Mejia; to true hat connoisseurs who come in for the ultimate in custom crafted hats; to professional costumers, and of course to the glittering parade of celebrities from all walks of the Entertainment Community who have become loyal friends and patrons.

Being professionals, no matter who comes in, we treat everyone with the same attention to their needs. To us, everyone is a star. However, sometimes even we get a bit flustered by just who walks through our doors!

Case in point is the legendary Bob Dylan. We are proud and honored to have made many a hat for Mr. Dylan. Both for his own personal use, and for use on many of his tours. Usually, however one of his assistants will come in and go over Dylan’s exacting requirements for a new look or style of hat. Dylan is as much a perfectionist with his hats, as he is with all walks of his remarkable life and career. Which is why it should not have been any surprise to us the first time Dylan personally came into our studio to observe first hand, the making of one of his hats. He said very little, but just sat on a stool and watched us at work. He especially loved to gaze at our extraordinary seamstress putting the finishing touches on one of his hats. His focus was intense, as he marveled at the almost magical dexterity of her fingers. You could see that this is a man who not only appreciates true craftsmanship, but seems to absorb the world around him like a inquisitive hungry sponge. Everything seems to fascinate him, and he has what seems to be an insatiable desire to figure out how everything in the world works!

When one of his hats are finished, Dylan usually puts it on immediately, then breaks out in one of his rare smiles. There can be no greater honor for us! And better still, he has continued to come back, and always sits and quietly watches the virtually lost art of the miracle of hand made hats!

That is why we have been creating a series of extra special hats dedicated to the passion of Dylan. Already we offer the Outlaw Blues, inspired by the hat we made for him for his last tour, and which he recently wore on the cover of Newsweek.

And now, we are offering our second in the series. A week doesn’t go by when someone doesn’t call or write to us to request it. So it was about time we made it more easily available.

We call it “The Thunderclap”. It is inspired by the unique other-worldly hat Dylan wore during his extraordinary “Rolling Thunder Revue”. The tour consisted of a traveling procession of artists and musicians. It started in the fall of 1975, and continued for several years to enormous success, culminating in one of Dylan’s most brilliant breakthrough albums: “Desire” (which also featured his infamous hat from the tour).

The tour has become a big part of the Dylan legend not only because of its brilliance, but because it was one of the most documented tours in his long history. There were documentaries, photo’s, albums, countless articles, and tons of bootlegs of every kind!

Besides creating some of the finest music Dylan ever produced with a live band, many remember his “look”. For the first (and last) time, Dylan would come onstage in clown-like white makeup. Some believe this was a homage, or perhaps even a parody of England’s emerging “Glam Rock” movement. However most believe the makeup was actually a homage to Jean-Louis Barrault’s character of Baptiste Debureau, a theater mime in Marcel Carné’s 1946 French masterpiece “Les enfants du paradis”. At the time of the Revue,  Dylan had discovered the great classic movie, had seen it many times, and was supposedly totally enchanted by Barrault’s character of Debureau, perhaps relating to him on many levels. Whatever the case, this was a Dylan like none we’d seen, or heard from before.

Along with the whiteface came an amazing hat, part preacher, part sinner, part circus barker, what with its “bol de sucre” crown and Saturn Ring brim, along with the ethereal “chanson des fleurs” hatband, made of both real and fabric flowers and bits of straw grass and wheat. A hatband that grew and changed with each performance, as he continued to “enhance” it.

The hatband seemed to echo a rare natural performance in Dylan, both in his “unplugged” approach to the standards that he sang with his “troupe”, and the fact that he actually talked casually to the audience between sets in a clear and strong voice (something never really repeated again). 

Our “Thunderclap” is a Special Limited Edition. The hat itself will be hand made to order, formed in a special block culled from the notes of the original.  It can be ordered in our 100% Western Weight Fur Felt, or our very special 200XXX 100% Beaver.

The hatbands are individual works of art. They begin with “naturally harvested woven horsehair (we purchase it from horse rescue sanctuaries, who have volunteers who gather it as it sticks to the fences of the pens and stalls, the profits of which go back to helping the horses). Each band is then installed with a beautiful boutique of individually hand crafted “chanson des fleurs” fabric flowers and finished with an assortment of flora (puffs of grass stalks, wheat, etc.) as in the original.

The Thunderclap comes with our special Lifetime Guarantee, a Limited Edition Signed and Numbered Certificate of Authenticity, our custom engraved leather sweatband (a gold etched “Limited Edition”) and silk-satin lining.

And to make the ordering of this extra special hat that much easier, we also offer it with our FlexPay Payment Plan, in which you can order the hat in four equal monthly payments. There is no extra charge or interest for this service, and your hat goes into production as soon as we receive the first payment, so you receive the hat on the same schedule as if you paid in full.

So order one for yourself while our Limited Edition offer is still on, or perhaps give one to that special someone in your life – yes, this hat looks great on both men and women (and boys and girls)! And once you put it on, perhaps you too will understand the enchantment that inspired Dylan to give us such an honest glimpse into his soul.