The History - since 1786

 

 

This story began in 1786 in Brixham, Devon when the original Thomas Smarte was making hats with his apprentice Robert Maynard.

In 1812, the second generation of the Smarte family, also named Thomas, started trading English made hats and materials with mainland Europe.

By the 1890s, the 4th and last generation Thomas Smarte moved the business to Luton, the centre of British hat making at the time, with over 20,000 hat-makers.

This is where Thomas taught a young man from Iraq, named Elijah Zloof, the finest details of how to craft a British hat. 

Elijah returned to Baghdad where he introduced fedoras, homburgs and flat caps to the locals and passed these skills on to his son.

In 1966, Elijah's grandson, Michael, moved to the U.K. and set up his headwear and accessories business in Shoreditch, in the East End of London.

In 1996, after a short-lived and very boring career as a lawyer, Michael's son, Allon, joined an international clothing accessories company. Five years later, Allon set up his own company making private label hats, gloves and scarves for designer brands and high street retailers.

In 2013, a long overdue conversation took place between father and son, when Michael revealed for the first time, this history behind the family's hat making traditions. 

So, in 2014, Allon revived the Tom Smarte brand creating hats and caps back in England where it all began, using the traditional techniques handed down eight generations over two families. 

Today, Tom Smarte uses those same techniques used by the original Thomas Smarte to create premium hats updated with a modern edge.