Charlie Arnold

Hat Designer-Maker
Saint Etienne, France

Charlie Arnold designs and makes unique, contemporary, fabric hats for all weathers, including bérets, cloches, newsboy caps, and rain hats. She works from her studio in her 1920s converted factory home, 'ZUTusine' in central France. All the fabrics she uses are natural and sustainable, high quality and often hand-woven. Since 2013 she has sold over 1600 hats from her successful Etsy shop and is now excited to be running her own online store zuthats.com

Charlie has a Master's degree in Fashion from the famous London Art and Design School, Central Saint Martins. As well as making hats and apparel she has also previously worked as a print designer, an arts administrator and a craft curator organizing national and international touring design exhibitions.

All ZUT hats are designed from scratch and made personally by Charlie herself to ensure the highest standards of quality and workmanship.  After prototyping, developing and finalizing a new design in fabric, she creates definitive templates in 3 sizes for her standard hat models.  Favourite fabrics include Harris Tweed, Indigo union cotton from the London Cloth Company, British Melton and vintage French moleskin workwear fabric. 

"Over the years I have experimented and developed numerous hat styles that I always give a French name prefixed by ZUT, so they are easy to identify when discussing custom options. The most popular for women are the ZUTbelle-manon - an elegant deep cloche with a dramatic, sweeping asymmetric brim and the ZUTirina - a swirled 8-piece asymmetric cap.   My best-selling béret is the ZUTtam, a classic, voluminous Scottish Tam, suitable for men and women, with plenty of room for long hair that is available in several versions of Harris Tweed. 

Please check out Charlie's 5 star reviews on Etsy and do get in touch via email  if you have any queries or would like to discuss custom options.