SALT FISCHL DEADMANS HAT
$250.00
Tax included.
FISCHL DEADMAN HATS
Conceived by The Church co-founder Eric Fischl and created by Sag Harbor knitwear and jewelry designer Gretchen Comly, the DEADMAN HATS were born.
The inspiration for these hats was a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where Eric saw an exhibit of about 10 of these “muts”, the Dutch word for a knitted or crocheted hat. From 1619 to about 1657, these uniquely distinctive knit caps were worn by the whalers stationed in one of the coldest places on the planet, Smeerenburg, Svalbard, where a whaling processing station was located until the demise of the overfished Bowhead whales they had depended on closed it down around 1660.
The hats were found buried with their wearers in a gravesite during an excavation of this small and nearly mythological colony of whalers. Freezing temperatures had maintained the caps’ colors, and the men had identified each other by their caps while bundled to the hilt year-round.
Knocked out by the designs, and feeling the kinship Sag Harbor’s whalers and mariners would have had with these Dutch adventurers, Eric wanted to bring these beautiful artifacts back to life, so he contacted knitwear designer Gretchen Comly to create them. All FISCHL DEADMAN HATS are designed and hand knit with care and historical consideration, using colors sourced from the original hats themselves.
All the hats’ cashmere and merino wool is hand dyed in Milan, after which they are created in Sag Harbor.