Reinhard Plank

Reinhard Plank trained as an industrial designer in Vienna before his obsession with felt — a material native to his homeland — led him toward millinery. He moved to Tuscany in 2005 to study the region's traditional hat-making techniques, and has worked from his atelier in the Florentine countryside ever since. Each piece is shaped and sewn entirely by hand, the felt washed, burned, or sculpted to build a worn, expressive character that no two pieces share. Guided by a belief that creativity cannot be rushed, the work sits somewhere between craft and sculpture.