Celebrity heads wear Scone hats

LAURA Hall, Scone’s very own hat entrepreneur officially launched her Main Street store Phylli last night, providing locals with equine-inspired handcrafted hats made out of sustainably sourced materials.

Cleverly named after Laura’s own middle name Phillis and her love for the horse industry, Phylli hats have fitted some seriously famous heads including Delta Goodrem, Collette Dinnigan, Elsa Pataky and Matt Damon, so it comes as no surprise that New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has sought one of her own to wear at the Scone Cup this Friday.

Following a high demand in online sales and a successful pop-up store in March, Laura decided to go back to her roots and open her first store in her hometown.

“I grew up in Melbourne, but it never quite felt like home so I moved around a lot . . . when I saw the opportunity with Covid-19 to relocate from the city, grow my business online and be wherever I wanted to be, I thought it was a prime opportunity to be closer to my family here. Moving to Scone has felt like a missing puzzle piece, I found my groove in Scone,” Ms Hall said.

“In March, I did a whimsical pop-up store with a friend in Manly. It was exciting to be out of home, which is where I used to run my business, on my dining room table. I realised I really enjoyed that interaction with the public and saw it as an opportunity to look for a space in Scone,” she said.

“I wanted to find a creative space large enough to be a workshop, production space, a storefront and a hub for hat parties, but also just somewhere where people could come and see exciting fabrics and try them on,” she said.

“Certainly from colours, textures and aesthetic, there’s a lot of Australian landscape embodied in the pieces. Beautiful plaited, distressed leathers and felts,” said Ms Hall.

Laura drew business inspiration from her late father’s unique hats, which were passed down to her as heirlooms and are now displayed in her shopfront window.

“My dad’s hats and one of my grandfather’s hats from the sixties are in the window display, it was important to be able to have that story to piece it back to together from where it’s all came from,” Ms Hall said.

“With dad, there’s a little sparkle that has been over every milestone of my entire business,” she said.

“Thursday is actually the six-month passing of dad as well, so it makes sense he would put as many exciting wonderful things in there to distract from that,” she said.

On Thursday, Laura will also begin a national collaboration with Australian heritage brand Sportscraft. She said her catapulting success is thanks to the support of her family and the local community who got behind her.

“It was basically all word of mouth . . . Elsa Pataky, Chris Hemsworth’s wife threw a hat party back at her house in February, courtesy of some of the local girls who connected us,” Ms Hall said.

“I made Matt Damon’s wife her fifth hat and now Matt is wearing one as well. To have Gladys come to town, come to the store to pick up her piece, that’s a result of the sensational efforts of Dimity Smith, my marketing strategist,” she said.

“My advice for someone who is looking to go out and follow their dreams, whatever the industry might be, is to hone your craft, have confidence in what you do, know you might not always get it right but as long as you remain passionate about what you do and don’t waiver in what you’re trying to create, keep going after that vision,” she said.

“Follow your gut, always go with what you know within your heart as the right way to do it but take on board as much feedback from as many different places as you can,” said Ms Hall.