If like us, you subscribe to the ideology that colourful hats provide positive thoughts when you wear them, this should interest you.
Artist, Sunil Pawar, has teamed up with Manchester-based tailor, Mike Holmes, aka The LongShot Exp to produce a headwear collection titled ‘Double AA Side.’ The pair met in 2021 through their shared love of fashion, hip hop and design, and it’ll come as no surprise that this trifecta is what heavily influenced the collaboration.
A bit of background on those two names before we proceed with the juicy details.
Sunil Pawar is an artist who runs a progressive studio that sees his creations inhabit a wide realm of mediums, he boasts an impressive portfolio in the fashion industry having worked with the likes of Junya Watanabe, Comme Des Garcons and Woolrich.
Mike Holmes has facilitated the headwear side of the collection, his work as The Long Shot Exp focuses on only using premium fabrics to handcraft the finest hats on the market. We’ve got a real appreciation for the craft that goes into creating the perfect piece of headwear, all too often you’ll see a hat online, be excited to receive it, only to find out it looks like a swimming cap when you put it on. Mike places a large emphasis on the shape of his hats as well as using hardwearing materials to make them last as long as possible.
The collection itself consists of a pair of hats that blends Sunil’s portrait paintings with Mike’s headwear know-how, the result is one bright bucket hat with pops of orange and pink alongside a more muted version with pale greens and beige. They sort of remind us of contemporary explorer hats, think along the lines of what Indiana Jones’s dad wore in The Last Crusade. As for the construction, the hats are made from 100% cotton drill fabric coming in at a hefty 255gsm.
If you’re after one of these, you’re going to have to wait a bit until the weather turns nicer, be silly wearing either of these when it’s pissing it down anyway. Both are set to release for SS25, to find out more about the collab click here.
