Meyer the Hatter
Inside the “South’s largest hat shop” .
Ask an older New Orleanian about how Canal Street’s changed over the past century, and they're likely to mention the clothes. One of the Crescent City’s most refined districts, Downtown was once a mecca of twentieth-century fashions. Men would dress in suits and ties, women in hand gloves and dresses. And almost everyone wore hats.
There’s a place where this old-time sense of style lives on; just make a right turn on St. Charles Avenue. Tucked between Rubenstein’s—a men’s fashion store that has been open since 1924—and a Marriott Courtyard is Meyer the Hatter.
[Read this: The Cajun Hatter—Colby Hebert makes custom hats with Cajun verve]
Step inside the “South’s largest hat store,” and you’ll be transported: pastel-colored flat caps hang from the shelves, fedoras and straw hats are stacked on top of one another inside of and piled on of display cases, towering to the ceiling. Bowls are filled to the brim with 99-cent feathers in all different colors. At the corner of the store is a spiral staircase, leading to two additional floors where spring and winter hats are stored until the start of each season.
Sam Meyer II, ninety-nine years old and the third-generation owner of Meyer the Hatter, greeted me at the door and led me through the small aisles, picking up a Shantung straw hat along the way—a Stetson Gulfport he designed in the ‘90s.
Sam’s grandfather, Sam H. Meyer, established the original 15'x15’ hat shop on the first block of St. Charles Avenue in 1884—calling it Meyer’s Hat Box and specializing in selling hats made by Stetson, a 158-year-old American hat manufacturer known for its unique cowboy-style looks. By 1934, his son, Andrew joined his father at the family business. In 1937, they moved the shop down the block.
Once they returned from their service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Andrew’s sons, Sam Meyer II and William, began working full-time with their father. In 1961, the Meyers relocated Meyer the Hatter to its current location on St. Charles Avenue. Paul Meyer, Sam’s son, took over the business in 2009, carrying on the 129-year-old family business alongside his father, who still works at the shop three days a week.
Hats have always been part of the fashion landscape—for the most part. According to Paul, they fell out of the mainstream between the ‘60s and ‘70s—until John F. Kennedy reignited the accessory’s popularity by wearing a top hat at his inauguration and holding it in the air at the parade. “It’s been pretty steady since,” Paul said. “The hats still serve a purpose. They complete your outfit.”
The business has expanded since its days of limited collection lines from Stetson, Dobbs, and Kangol. Now, Meyer the Hatter sources its hats from wholesalers all over the world.
The shop’s selection of Panama straw hats comes from Ecuador, the Raffia hats from Madagascar, the berets from France. The Shantung hats come from China and Japan. The Meyers also partner with American factories located in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and California. Of Meyer the Hatter’s entire collection, dress hats—such as fedoras—are the top-seller. “This is our business,” Paul said. “This is our livelihood. We keep it going.”