I have been a purveyor of fine hats for over 5 decades.

One of my favourites in my collection is the absolute perfect hat I purchased over 25 years ago.

It’s lost a bit of its colour bleached by the sun and a few stitches have come unfastened on the brim but apart from that it’s wonderful and still my favourite.

So imagine my surprise when I spyed the exact same hat (or so I thought from the picture and label) on a secondhand website.

I didn’t waste a second I immediately purchased the hat, no haggling no messing about.

I was absolutely over the moon.

When the hat arrived I had been conned by the pictures.

I don’t know if Suzanne Bettley has sold her company and name to someone else and they are producing her hats cheaper maybe.

The hat on the right is the original, 30 years old, super quality, really well made, incredible. The new addition on the left, the brim first off is a couple of inches smaller in diameter. The fabric is cheaper, the construction is way less architectural, the stitching is more haphazard, it’s just an inferior hat.

The interesting thing for me is how many people have actually heard of Suzanne Bettley.

Buyer beware, they are copying everything.

You used to be able to find the original Suzanne Bettley hats in House of Fraser on Oxford St but it’s closed now.

For someone so prominent in British millinery it’s very weird you cannot find out anything online about her, she doesn’t feature on Wikipedia even no mention on the page about hat making.

It’s like she never really existed except unless you happen to own one of her magnificent hats.