Founded in 1980 as the flagship of what became the first hat retailer to sell online, Village Hat Shop stocks more than 150,000 hats across 40-plus brands at its Fourth Avenue corner in Hillcrest. Walk-in inventory covers fedoras, Panama straws, berets, derbies, and cowboy hats — finishing pieces that vintage and resale shoppers bring in after sourcing period wardrobe from Buffalo Exchange a few blocks over. On-site steaming and sizing reshape wool-felt crowns and straw brims to exact head measurements, a bench service most department stores have stopped offering. The brand roster spans Stetson, Bailey, Borsalino, Kangol, and Biltmore alongside house private-label lines, with select small-batch wool and straw pieces cross-stocked for the ethical streetwear inventory at HUMANITY!. Bridal parties outfitting groomsmen fedoras, father-of-the-bride Panamas, and flower-girl cloches can complete fittings here in a single appointment without splitting hat selection across multiple vendors. The most involved work handled at the Hillcrest counter is period-accurate costume sourcing for theater, film, and vintage-wedding productions — pulling obscure 1920s cloches, 1940s homburgs, and Western trail hats from deep warehouse stock on 48-hour notice.