Joella Gammage Torres at Texas Hatters in Lockhart, on July 13, 2021.Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Third-generation master hatter Joella Gammage Torres spent much of her childhood in the back rooms of Texas Hatters, a shop founded by her grandfather and known for its creations for musicians such as Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson. As a teenager, Torres learned the trade from her father, Manny Gammage. To avoid sewing, which was her least-favorite task, she threw herself into making hatbands, the decorative piece around the crown. Torres now runs the business with her husband, David—they moved it from Buda to Lockhart in 2006—but she still loves customizing leather with stamps, tooling, and hand-painted designs. “A hatband says something about the person wearing it, just like the hat does,” she says.
This Texas Hatters C&W Rancher features Torres’s Willie No. 1 band, which was the first style she designed for the legendary singer. He was a longtime customer of her dad’s.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
These set blocks go inside the crown of the hat while the initial shape is being made in order to help hold the desired size, allowing for the perfect fit.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Torres has an assortment of stamps in her custom hatband repertoire.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Torres uses a tool to add background texture to a custom hatband at Texas Hatters on July 13, 2021.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
A custom Rancher hat features a Diamond Shoots hatband, so named because the designs in the diamonds look like parachutes (which eventually evolved into “shoots” for shorthand). This band required a combination of paint and leather highlighter to get the customer’s desired colors.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Carving and embossing tools are used to add shapes and textures to give the hatband patterns a 3D look.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
Flanges are used to press the brim of a hat into an initial shape before it’s hand-shaped by the hatter.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
This is one of Torres’s personal hatbands, which she designed circa 2004. It includes two Texas Hatters logos originally created by her father in the seventies and eighties, which she stamped onto the band and hand-painted. The band also includes silver and turquoise conchos handcrafted by the late Joe Fish, a.k.a. Stumbling Bear.
Photograph by Jeff Wilson
This article originally appeared in the September 2021 issue of Texas Monthly with the headline “Band Leader.” Subscribe today.
