At funerals, weddings, on the beach, in the fields, as part of the uniform… Historians say they were invented before the new era. Slovakian Janko Hlpka has had a hatter’s shop in Sarajevo for 50 years. He inherited the trade from his father, who moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in the middle of the last century. The charming workshop has been in the same place for 70 years. A hat has always been a reflection of culture and status, andtoday?
Janko is the last hatter in Sarajevo, and as he says, as far as he knows, in BiH as well.
When I came to Sarajevo, I was one year old. I have two older sisters who also know this trade. My sisters and I worked until ’73. Then they got married, so me and my wife continued this business until today.
In his workshop, hats are made by hand from the highest quality wool and rabbit hair, just like 87 years ago, when his father, also Janko, started the business in Novi Sad, Serbia.
They moved to Sarajevo in 1954
At that time, there were four private and two state stores of hats and caps in BiH.
A hat has always been a sign of culture and status, as Jankoexplained. The golden age of this craft was in the 60s and 70s of the last century, as well as the time of the ‘84 Olympics in Sarajevo. The Olympic Committee asked for 30.000 BAM so I could use Vucko. When the Olympics started, they called me, they said, Mr. Janko, you don’t have to pay anything, just make hets with Vucko.
Before the war in BiH, there were 4 employees in Janko’s shop. They produced up to 2 thousand hats and caps annually. In successive years, up to 300. He is happy that hats are coming back into fashion.
Janko’s son learned the trade from his father, and he currently lives outside BiH. Janko also has three grandchildren. He hopes that one of them will continue the 87-year-old family tradition, Radio Slobodna Evropa.
E.Dz.
