Becky-Jane Fortin
ARTICLE & PHOTOGRAPHY — Lill Daley
Becky-Jane Fortin does more than just restore hats — she preserves memories. Each hat that comes into the care of Fortin Hats is tired and torn, often in such a dilapidated condition that it would be easier to toss it in the bin. But beneath each brim is often a story spanning a lifetime, something she has learned over her years crafting and repairing fur felt hats. For her, a hat is so much more than headwear.
“Making hats that are made to last is something important to me. I want to create something that is made to be passed down or be worn by others.”
“People notice someone who is wearing a hat,” says Becky-Jane, who designs, creates and repairs a range of formal headwear from her millinery studio in the heart of Central Victoria. “It’s not like wearing a costume per se; someone can put on a hat and feel like an elevated version of themselves. There’s that element of confidence to draw attention in a room that a hat can provide. Obviously, it offers practical benefits like protection from the heat, sun or cold, but there’s also that emotional element and sense of safety — of being able to hide behind a brim.”
“One of my earliest memories was taking apart an old watch in my cubby house and fixing it back together. I don’t like to waste — I make do and repair,” says Shepparton-born Becky-Jane, who learned the value of crafting by hand from an early age. “I’ve always been a tinkerer. I grew up sewing on the machine with my Grandma and learning embroidery and knitting with my Nan. I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers as a child, and I suppose that’s where my love and appreciation of handcraft was fostered.”
Her first handcrafted hat was a black and red saucer-shaped sinamay fabric design, with a matching red ball gown dress she also made herself. “I felt so proud to wear something I’d created myself. It was unique. There was no chance of someone else coming in a similar outfit because there simply wasn’t another one like it available. You couldn’t buy it because I’d made it. I look back on it now and would definitely have made a few changes!” she laughs.
It was during her time working at suit designer and tailor Antons in Melbourne that she began to develop her understanding of millinery, fitting Stetsons for customers. “I was asked by Anton to help design a line for women, as he currently didn’t offer something like that,” Becky-Jane explains.
While working at Antons, a chance encounter with a client whose wife was a psychic pushed her to deep dive into millinery overseas. “I was measuring her husband for some headwear for the races, and she called and asked to be put onto me. She said, ‘I’m a psychic and you should go to Europe and follow this passion of making hats.’ It sounds really spooky, but that’s exactly what I did.”
A workshop internship and training with Coy Plotzki at her studio in central Berlin helped Becky-Jane’s German language skills flourish. “For millinery training, it was either England or Germany. I wanted to go somewhere where I could learn another language and experience a different culture. Germany also has a strong culture of wearing fur felt hats in winter, and there are still a lot of factories there making this fur felt. I found this really intriguing.”
Within four years, Becky-Jane’s role shifted to head designer, and she was responsible for training new staff and showcasing the fashion house’s designs at markets and festivals across Germany. “I got sent to do a millinery master’s workshop with Dillon Wallwork [milliner to the British Royal Family] at Château Dumas, an estate just out of Toulouse in south-western France. We stayed in this little château, ate delicious French produce, and visited the factories.”
The pull to return home to family in Australia was ignited when Becky-Jane’s first child was on the way. “My specialty in Germany was working with fur felt, steaming and blocking it, and I thought, ‘Who do I want to work with when I come back home?’ Akubras are made of fur felt, so it just felt like a natural fit.”
With the seed sown, Becky-Jane got to work during the pandemic, putting a call out asking for Akubras to be sent to her for restoration so she could develop a portfolio to present to them. “The response was overwhelming. I asked for the story behind each hat and made this part of the portfolio. Still to this day, the stories are my favourite part of getting a new Akubra to repair.”
You can count on your hand the number of authorised felt hat refurbishers there are in Australia — and fewer yet in Victoria. “It’s amazing to work with Akubra because they’re such a quality product that has the worth to repair. They last for so many generations because every part of their production process is just such high quality.”
Crafting an Akubra is not a small feat – it takes six weeks to be created, involving 162 processes from start to finish. The main manufacturing base is in Kempsey in NSW, where 120 employees create this iconic garment, with each hat passing through 60 pairs of hands before completion.
Whilst some of the more basic repair techniques — such as steaming, cleaning, stretching and re-shaping — can be done by most milliners recommended by Akubra, advanced services such as inner and outer band replacement, remodelling and brim-edge trimming are limited to a handful of expert milliners, such as Becky-Jane. Each band needs to be replaced and positioned in a certain way. The ribbon needs to be a certain thickness. There is a specific number of stitches that hold the ribbon band onto the crown.
Quick fixes are not something spoken of in the studio, and there isn’t a dollop of glue in sight. “If I used glue, it would lose its stickiness quickly, and I’d find the hat back in here sooner than I would have liked. It’s just not a lasting way to restore or create a hat. Akubra have theirs placed at certain positions around the hat, whereas I hand sew the whole ribbon on in its entirety. It’s a small way I can make sure the ribbon will be fastened for a long time.”
In an age where cheap and mass-produced garments dominate the retail market, Becky-Jane is pushing back through careful repair, restoration and handcrafting of hats. “I had a period there where I was making collections for stores. I was doing multiple hats in the same style. They were generic and lacked the individuality and uniqueness that I see in my designs now. I very quickly realised it didn’t align with me. My hats are made with the person in mind.”
A 2024 report from the Australia Institute notes that the carbon footprint of Australia’s fashion consumption is the largest of any G20 country, with a clear link between the availability of fast fashion and textile waste. With a textile recycling scheme currently missing in Australia — garment waste is exported overseas — recycling and sustainability are vital within the industry, and it’s something Becky-Jane embeds into every stage of the hat-making process.
There’s a bucket of trinkets in her studio filled with items such as feathers, beads, leather trims and buttons thrifted from op shops. “I love taking old buckles or bits and pieces from jewellery and incorporating that into designs. It adds character that a brand-new item cannot bring.”
“Making hats that are made to last is something important to me. I want to create something that is made to be passed down or be worn by others.”
It’s also something you can see so clearly in her workmanship, her choice of materials and the care she takes to get everything perfect. “A drop of glue could position bands or accessories in seconds. It takes me thirty minutes to sew a band on a hat, and that’s after years and years of practice. That’s not something the end client sees.”
Sourcing and using quality felts means hats created by Becky-Jane can be modified and layered many times over, making them a family heirloom that will continue to collect stories of life the longer it’s worn. She continues to source all her felts from the original factories she worked with in Germany in the early stages of her career. “Having spent time there, visiting the factories in person and building relationships with the owners, I know the quality.”
Becky-Jane often works closely with Akubra, who provide advice and guidance around hat specifications such as crown height, band selection, brim width and inner hat lining. “I’m just looking at it now. It’s got a few stains on it, which adds some character. But it looks like a brand-new hat,” Becky-Jane adds. “It’s not just as simple as swapping and changing bands and brim breadth as you please. Each style may have additional unique colours or elements depending on the year of manufacture. I need to be intentional with each element I use in order to be true to the Akubra heritage.”
For Becky-Jane’s clients, an Akubra represents so much more than just a hat. Gippsland local Glen Sheekey sent his grandfather’s hat to Becky-Jane after inheriting it from an aunt. It had come into Glen’s care in pretty rough condition – holes in the crown, a disintegrated brim with an irregular bend, and heavily stained – and then sat for years atop a coat rack.
“I was shocked when it actually fitted me. I find it really difficult to get a hat that fits me. It was perfect, so I thought there must be something in that, like it was meant to be.”
When digging for information around the hat, Glen’s aunt described the hat as ‘most likely stolen rather than purchased’. “I get the impression he [my grandfather] was a bit like a modern-day bushranger. He died when I was five or six. He’s not the sort of bloke that I have a lot of heartwarming stories about,” says Glen.
When asked why he chose to have it repaired rather than purchase a new one, Glen notes, “I want to recognise the past, whether it’s good or bad. There’s sort of a romance when you get a hat that has a bit of past to it. It was part of my family, and I want to stay connected to it. I also just like the style.”
