Vimercati Hats

• Prize
  Silver in People/Culture
• Photographer
  Jeroen Nieuwhuis
• Photo Date
  04-04-2022

After WWII, the whole industry changed. The city of Monza has a rich history of producing this wearable art by hand, but unfortunately, they are the only ones left. The modernization that happened in the '50s led to a decrease in production and by the 70s most of the factories shut down. But they never stopped. Pino Vimercati started making hats in the fall of 1953 when his dad and his brother started their factory. At that time he was just 13 years old but fascinated by the craft. The steam that surrounded the felt, the care with which it was handled, and the machinery from the 19th century.

Jeroen Nieuwhuis is a commercial portrait photographer based in the Netherlands. Shooting professionally since the age of 17 (now 31) he continuously works for clients all across the globe and has worked with some of the largest advertising companies such as Belstaff, Harman Kardon, Heineken, JBL, Johnnie Walker, Shimano, and many more. Top-tier brands in the photography industry such as Broncolor (flash equipment) and Phase One (camera brand) widely promoted his imagery and way of working on their websites and social media. Broncolor even took it a step further and made him an ambassador.