Celebrity Hat Designer Opens a Sassy New Store in River Oaks District — Entering the World of Teressa Foglia

Flowers, champagne and deliveries of hats have been pouring into River Oaks District since last week when hat designer-renowned Teressa Foglia opened her first brick and mortar store in Texas and only her fifth permanent boutique in the entire country.

Foglia and her artistic partner and beau Tyler Hays Wild swept through Texas last spring and found such a promising audience — not only in Houston, Dallas and Austin but also in Round Top — that the  duo decided to plant roots of a sort in the Bayou City.

This is happy news for hat aficionados who can waltz into the charming 950-square-foot boutique near MAD and Bella Renova Salon, and shop an amazing collection of 250 hats. On this day, Foglia explains that she is receiving hats daily from her ateliers in Laguna Beach and New York so the shelves will be brimming.

The store is stocked with classic flat brims and Western influenced flip brims in felt and in straw. The ready-made hats are available in every color, every style and every size. Personalization is the buyer’s for the asking with bountiful selections of tiny charms in gold and silver, beautiful ribbons, crystals, feathers and other trims that make for the most charming chapeaus that speak to the owner.

Those selecting a hat from the shelves, where there is also a selection of Miron Crosby Western boots, can walk out within 45-minutes with the piece decorated as imagined. Bespoke hats take four to six weeks from order time to delivery. Felt hats are priced from $1,150. The full repertoire includes straw hats and Panamas from Guatemala which begin at $75 and $425 respectively.

Foglia and Wild are in Houston through Rodeo season and will be in Round Top for the spring antiques show. With  rodeo in mind they are working on a new collection, these hats featuring brilliant under brims in glitter, metallics and “cool designs,” Foglia promises.

For the record, this hat maker’s client roster features a host of celebrities such as Keri Russell, John Mayer, Camilla Moore, Cindy Crawford, Gerard Butler, Kate Bosworth and the Avett Brothers.

Visiting with Foglia shortly before the official opening we asked about the resurgence of hats as a must-have accessory.

“I think it’s an accessory that was kind of forgotten about. There weren’t a lot of hat makers in recent years,” she says. “I think there was a very classic take on them, and not a lot of personality coming out in the same way that handbags were having personality in design.”