Grater. Scalpel. Holes.

I've just drawn on a cap for New Era's 90th birthday exhibition. I had grand ideas for this project, but with the cap arriving from New York much later than expected and with only a few days to fit it in, I went with a different version altogether.

This hat is tattooed and tired with piercing holes and injuries. It's had a hard life. I really wanted to hurt this cap; it came out of its box so smugly pristine and perfect and in immaculate expensive packaging that my first thought was 'Grater. Scalpel. Holes'. It was almost begging to be abused!

There is a rationale behind the choice of 'tattoos' on the skin-coloured stitched-together panels but if you're interested to know, you'll have to ask. The fact that the hat isn't made in the USA had something to do with my thinking. And I really enjoyed the sewing, rudimentary as it was - in there you'll find stab stitch, blanket stitch, overstitch, cross-stitch, and a sore finger and numb thumb. Oh and I tagged the box in true street style. I'm not sure I was supposed to do that...

The hat goes into an exhibition in LA and NYC along with some hats designed by students (who clearly had a lot more time to play with theirs - look at these! Oh to be a student again...) and a selection of other artists from Bernstein & Andriulli and Central Illustration. If you're into headwear, and live in the US, you might like it. Keep your eyes peeled for the dates.