Founded in 2010, the creative force behind the label’s smart-looking collection of hats are sisters Ilaria and Veronica Cornacchini, who hail from Umbria, and the bearded Matteo Gioli, a native of Pisa who is regularly photographed with a hat elegantly slanted just so, in what appears to be an unconscious homage to his hometown’s famed landmark.

Long-time hat wearers, the trio at Super Duper turned their sartorial hobby into a full-time business after Gioli crossed paths with the Cornacchini siblings at a design workshop in Eindhoven in 2009. “The event was dedicated to wearable technology and innovation in fashion. We got to talking and in the end decided to fall back on what marks us as Italians: old-fashion craftsmanship done by hand,” explains Veronica, whose background is in industrial design like Matteo, while Ilaria studied architecture.

After discovering that they shared a mutual obsession for classic panamas and fedoras—they are now never to be seen without something covering their head when out and about—the group returned to their adopted home of Florence fuelled by the desire to explore the world of millinery, a trade whose roots in the Tuscan city go back centuries. Soon they got their hands on a hard-to-find tome penned by a veteran Florentine milliner that detailed the step-by-step process of hat making. Now committed to the idea of joining Italy’s next generation of artisans, they tracked down the author in hopes of finding a mentor to teach them the craft. “She had no listed number but we found the street that she lived on and rang up neighbours in the phonebook until we got someone who knew her,” recalls Gioli.

SuperDuper Facts

Company Founders: Matteo Gioli, Veronica & Ilaria Cornacchini
Company Established: 2010
What’s in a name: Super Duper was taken from a line in Irving Berlin’s 1929 song “Puttin’ on the Ritz”
Inspiration: L’arte di fare i cappelli by Florentine milliner Anna Maria Nicolini
Hat production:  7,000 hats for 6 separate collections yearly
Notable Accomplishments:
-Won 2013 edition of "Who is on Next?" at the 84th Pitti Uomo menswear trade fair in Florence
-Featured in the 2015-2016 exhibit, “The New Vocabulary of Italian Fashion” at the Triennale Museum in Milan

3 Best-selling hats: The Hobo, Mercurial and their signature round crown model produced each season in lapin fur felt or beaver

Not long after, the experienced hatmaker was conducting courses for the trio at their city apartment to show them the techniques involved in creating a hat from scratch. From sewing to blocking they cut their teeth making prototypes. “In this profession you go immediately from a sketch to making a sample,” says Gioli, showing off his handiwork in the brand’s cozy atelier on the outskirts of Florence. “You need to get a sense of proportions and volume and the best way is to have a physical model in front of you.”

A one-time stable used to house draft horses now houses Super Duper’s headquarters. It’s divided between a small attic equipped with vintage tools that include a 1920s sewing machine and a downstairs office littered with finished goods, many of which are bespoke orders for discerning clients such as a two-tone canary yellow and red fedora made for popular Italian singer Jovanotti.

Donning a stylish dark denim apron, Gioli ventures upstairs where he is surrounded by classic wooden hat blocks that serve to create the final shape of a hat’s crown after much steaming and pressing by hand. For materials, Super Duper relies on everything from lapin fur felt to cotton to make a range of styles from newsboy caps to pork pie models.

In a few short years, Super Duper has turned heads in fashion circles by stylishly reinterpreting everything from traditional boater styles to short brim homburgs. One of their best sellers is the Hobo, made from super light waxed paper straw that is ideal for travellers since it can be packed in a suitcase but then regains its form once taken out.

Success has come quickly for the brand. In 2013, they won an award for emerging talent at leading menswear trade fair Pitti Uomo and were recently selected for an exhibit at Milan’s Triennale Design Museum, dedicated to the new generation of fashion brands that have succeeded in renewing the country’s great artisanal crafts.

This portrait is part of a collaborative series, produced by Freunde von Freunden and MINI and is co-published by Yatzer. These features take a personal look at three Italian design talents behind the MINI Gentleman’s Collection – men’s accessories created for the launch of the MINI Clubman. We tell the inspiring stories behind the design, focusing on the craft used to create these special products.

Read the full interview on Freunde von Freunden.