MADRID, N.M. (KRQE) – “I use 1975 or older hat bodies which are getting harder and harder to find.” Charlie Overbey spends his days making one-of-a-kind hats at his shop in Madrid. Each one with a different story behind it. “Doing it by hand, the way that I do it, with no block and no tools, it takes about five to six days a piece.”
But it’s who he creates those hats for that also makes them special. “I have done a lot of hats for music folks, Sheryl Crow, Charlie Starr from Blackberry Smoke, Chris Robinson from the Black Crowes,” he said. And most recently for some familiar faces in the hit TV series, 1883, the Yellowstone prequel that premiered in December. “This was the Faith Hill prototype and this was the Tim McGraw prototype.”
Overbey said it was an honor to be a part of it. “When the show was playing I was like, wow, this is actually pretty cool.”
The show reached out to him through Instagram and the rest is history. “I got chills just even thinking about it, holding Sam Elliott’s hat, you know, as a hat guy.”
But the dream started long before that, making hats for himself back in 1993. Overbey and his other half, Vanessa, who embroiders some of those hats, moved to New Mexico a year and a half ago from Los Angeles. They opened up Lone Hawk Hats and Honeywood, which also sells jewelry and clothing. “The shops sort of found us in Madrid and we knew we couldn’t turn it down,” Vanessa Dingwell said.
For now, Overbey will continue to handcraft these specialties until Hollywood calls again. “There is a hat for every person, I truly believe.”
