Daniel Nyström
How did you become a hat lover?
I fell in love with hats at an early age when I was a teenager. My mother, Ulla-Britt, is an artist, and she always wore something on her head. Often it wasn't easy to understand what it was, but they worked as protection for her. When she knitted hats for me, she always kept an opening in the top, so I was connected to the Universe. I started to collect hats about 25 years ago, and I now have a couple of hundred pieces.
I grew up in the countryside of Sweden, north of Gothenburg, close to the sea. My father was an art dealer and had a gallery. While my mother had her studio at home, and I spent lots of time with her making all kinds of stuff in ceramic, wood, metal, and batik. She would make all the family clothes from her batik fabric with a purple or pink undertone.
She had lots of exhibitions when I was growing up and when I was old enough to enjoy art (when I was around 15). I was by her side when she was producing her exhibitions, and I loved it. And yes! I was teased in school with my hats and pink clothes, but I was lucky to have a lot of good friends, so overall I had a fantastic childhood with them in the forest and by the seaside.
Not many photos exist because my mother gave all her valuable things back to nature when my father died. She took each photo, looked at it, stored the image in her memory, and then burnt them in the fireplace. I asked her now if she regrets doing this? Laughing, she replied that she was still satisfied with her decision.
My mother has been and still is a big inspiration for me, and I love that she still works and comes up with new ideas all the time, even though she is now 89!
My sister Andrea owns a flower shop in Gothenburg called La Fleuriste. My mother created floral headpieces for an in-store event about being connected to nature.
Your collection is so unique. There are no limits to your creativity. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind your creations?
Inspiration! I get it from many different things (art, fashion, product design, architecture), but the most important place I believe is nature and my inner dialog with myself. It's a privilege to be able to talk to yourself.
I grew up on the west coast of Sweden, with the ocean and the forest very close by, with all the creatures inside, this place is with me in my mind wherever I am, and it's still a wonderful inspiration for me.
What do you love most about making things with your hands?
I love when I lose control over my hands, and they start to live their own lives, and I become an observer; this is the best meditation for me. I believe that when hands are working, they have a sense of magic inside.
What project has made you the proudest?
I have this project with waste hats from an old hat factory in Bogota. They are rejected because something went wrong in the production. These hats I buy in garbage bags, and I use their defects to put new life into the hat. I like the feeling of taking care of something that others have discarded, often a long time ago.
How has social media influenced your business journey?
I don't have a brand, I work as an artist, and the hats I create are part of that life project. The only social media I use is Instagram, and it's a great way to make contacts and collaborate with others. I also sell some pieces directly through that platform.
What projects are you currently working on?
My next idea is the Cloud project inspired by the digital cloud that stores all our information. What would happen if everything just disappeared one day?
The cloud hats are a mix of paper and fabric. I will make around 10-12 pieces in exaggerated sizes and shapes. I will continue this theme for the next six months & plan to exhibit them on naked humans.
In these photos, my lovely Julia Peralta & I are the models.
Describe your creative process, from start to finish.
I create my hats as if they are art pieces or small sculptures, only one of each. Making hats is not everyday work for me, and I only do it when I have inspiration for it. When inspiration strikes, I usually work intensely for 5-7 days. It will take a couple of weeks or a month before I do it again. During a session, I will make around 20-30 hats. My process is very much experimenting with the hat shapes differently from tradition.
A couple of months ago, I was lucky to find a large batch of old hat shapes in different colors and sizes. They are approximately 70-80 years old, and all of them are in rabbit or beaver hair. I'm focused on creating a vintage collection to be released at the end of the year.
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