In the movies, as in life, clothes define character. And with Harrison Ford's iconic archaeologist and adventurer, Indiana Jones, it's all about the hat. Having worn hats all his life — growing up on a cotton farm made them a necessity — Stephen Delk, a soft-spoken grandfather from Columbus, Mississippi, always appreciated good headgear but was too busy with his job as a custom cabinetmaker to indulge his inner hatter. Then, around 1991, a friend showed him a 10-year-old film on VHS, conceived by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg, called Raiders of the Lost Ark. Delk remembers thinking, "That is the coolest hat I've ever seen." After spending $7,500 on hats that never quite matched his imagination, Delk made a fateful decision: "Heck, I could learn how to make these things."
Three years of trial and error — "Hatters don't share much," he asserts — and Delk, using arcane instruments like tollikers, brim flanges, and crown irons, had the Adventurebilt: a thirties-style brown fedora made from the finest beaver felt, with a 5 ½" straight-sided crown, dark ribbon, and a dimensionally cut brim (2 ½" sides, 2 ¾" front and back).
On his quest, Delk discovered a crucial secret: It was the block shape of the original Raiders fedora, found by costume designer Deborah Nadoolman at the Herbert Johnson hat shop in London, that made Indy's lid so distinctive. So like the old-school bespoke hatters who stretched raw felt bodies over worn wooden blocks, Delk carved out a properly shaped form by hand and got to work.
Fast forward to last year: Bernie Pollack, costume designer for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — the fourth film in the series — gave him a call. Spielberg, after viewing test shots of Harrison Ford in an Adventurebilt, had made up his mind, and Delk beat out Hollywood hatmaker Baron Hats for the contract. Along with his partner Marc Kitter, he worked up 48 hats for the film. And while many of his customers are Indiana Jones fans, 80 percent of Delk's business comes from purists, those rare souls who still appreciate a handmade hat. (He insists on doing all of his stitching by hand, taking over eight hours in his backyard camper workshop to produce each one.)
Delk isn't sure yet if he will attend the premiere of Indy IV. But if he does, he'll be hatless — so as not to show up the guy on the screen.
