It has been an interesting past few days.
Sandy & Janie (the Alma professors) and Maggie (NG photographer) are not quite sure how they want to run this class, which is a little disconcerting since it is only lasts 6 days. After a few meetings and professor discussions, they finally settled on a topic for us to follow.
Our assignment from National Geographic was to tell a story of Santa Fe. After spending an afternoon wandering around the main part of Santa Fe, we were instructed to select something that interested us for the story.
This assignment turned into me spending a day at the O’Farrell Hat store in downtown Santa Fe, just 1/2 a block off the main square. A one-of-a-kind store, O’Farrell Hats are custom fit and custom made to their owner, produced with beaver fur and made right in the basement of the store. I was lucky to spend a day in the store and basement workshop following the process from conception to completion.
Now owned and managed by Scott O’Farrell, the company was began in Durango, Colorado by his father, Kevin O’Farrell. After many years in Durango and the split from a bad business deal, O’Farrell moved his hat business to Santa Fe, where it has existed for the past 13 years.
After a slow start in the morning and watching the three “hat builders” create one-of-a-kind custom creations in the basement, business picked up in the afternoon.
Photos from my day at the hat shop can be found here.
Many thanks to Scott and the others for allowing me to shadow them for the day.
Last October, I was contacted by the Public Relations department at my alma mater, Alma College, asking for an interview about how I am applying what I learned – both inside and out of the classroom – during my four years at Alma to life after graduation.