© photography by alexcrossland.com
catherine
a mama of two, custom hat maker & musician. every interaction with cate is like jumping through a blissful portal of creativity and beauty.
Catherine: it's my dad's, he gave me this a few years ago. it's the shirt from his uniform that he wore when he was drafted into the vietnam war, once he got there he mostly wore jungle fatigue. he was drafted at 21, sent to basic and advanced infantry training, he scored 500 on his pt test which is a perfect score, so then was sent to fort benning for ranger n.c.o. school. so yeah, this has some intense family history.
esc: what do you feel when you put it on?
Catherine: when i put it on i'm like, well i don't know, it's an intense piece. i feel the heaviness of what he went through. those two years of his experience in vietman formed our childhood. it's affected all of his five children and who we’ve all become. he was deeply traumatized coming home and, you know, he was a young nebraskan cowboy, in heavy combat during some of the most intensive years of that war. its a hard experience to recover from.
esc: think of all the energy the fabric must carry…
Catherine: It's a lot.
Esc: Why do you think he just passed it on to you now ?
Catherine: I think I remind him the most of himself, I'm his little girl.
esc: I am curious, what gives you your superpowers ?
Catherine: comfort, I feel comfortable covering my cranial, I feel very safe in a hat. I also really love accessories, I do, truly. I love the way hats look. If I want to feel comfort or held, I put on a beanie. I think some people feel weird in a hat where they might feel really seen or exposed. I feel the opposite, there is a protective piece around wearing hats for me.
“I was praying to the universe for years, I knew I was suppose to make something with my hands. One day in Santa fe, I ran into a woman wearing a hat and she said she made it. That was my moment of, like oh, God damn it! I’m making hats…”
