Felix Culpa

My life has been one long series of questionable decisions.

I still hear my mum asking how I’ve survived this long.

I travelled the world. Studied. Started a fashion label. Became a filmmaker. Wrote stories, directed actors, produced films and spent years trying to turn things that existed in my head into something real.

Somewhere along the way, I started making hats.

And I fell pretty hard for it.

There’s something beautifully stubborn about hatmaking. Steam, felt, pressure, patience. Blocking crowns. Shaping brims. Pouncing felt. Stitching, trimming, pulling things apart and doing them again when they don’t quite work.

It’s an old craft, and I’m still obsessed with learning it.

Strangely, making films and making hats aren’t that different.

You start with an idea. You wrestle with it. Things go wrong. You change course. Sometimes the mistake becomes the best part.

When I look back and slowly unravel the threads of my life, I realise most of the wrong turns somehow led me exactly where I needed to be.

And you know what?

I wouldn’t change where I am for anything.

Every mistake came with a lesson. Every time I fell down, I got back up — usually with a slightly better story.

I’m not interested in perfection. I don’t particularly trust it.

I’m a jingle-jangle collection of accidents, ideas, scars, films, hats and bad decisions.

Somehow, it works.

That’s what I want Felix Culpa to represent.

Hats with a bit of soul. A bit of history. Something slightly unruly.

Things that don’t whisper that you’re different.

They already know.

I’m Kurt Martin.

I make films.
I make hats.
I make mistakes.

And Felix Culpa is one of the better ones.