Hat Shop of the Indiana Jones Poet: Herbert Johnson

Herbert Johnson is the hatter that made the fedora Harrison Ford wore in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and in London the place to try one on is the Swaine boutique in Burlington Arcade. Herbert Johnson, at 18-19 Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, London W1J 0PN, shares the shop with its sister brands Adeney leathergoods and Brigg umbrellas, and it is open Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 19:00. The Raiders Poet in rabbit felt is £495, and caps start at £220 for the wool Slim Cap.

The brand's own history begins in 1872, when Herbert Lewis Johnson was apprenticed for seven years to the hat makers Lincoln Bennett. In 1889 he went into business with Edward John Glazier on New Bond Street, and the story the company still tells is that the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, suggested it. The prince's top hat had been blown off in the park and damaged; young Johnson picked it up, repaired it, and was told to set up on his own.

Royal custom followed. The history page lists Kaiser Wilhelm, the Czar of Russia and King George of Greece among the early clients who found their way to Bond Street, and Johnson kept working in the business until he retired in 1928. The house line from that era, that a man in a Herbert Johnson hat is a man apart, still sits on the website. The brand also kept a large military trade. Its dress caps are known for the floating bevel, which grew out of a soft-topped field cap, nicknamed the Jack Johnson, that senior officers including Haig and French asked for in the First World War.

The Poet is the shape to know. It has a tall, straight-sided crown with almost no taper and a wide brim, and Herbert Johnson had been making it since the early 1900s, long after most hatters had stopped. The company says that is why Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford walked into its shop in 1980 looking for a hat for Indiana Jones, and it supplied the hats for the original trilogy. The same crown turns up on Tom Baker's Doctor Who and in photographs of David Bowie.

Ownership changed several times in the decades after that, as rents and outsourcing pressures hit the business. In 1996 the owner of Swaine Adeney Brigg took the brand on, and from 2016 it began a reboot aimed at returning to traditional hat making. Today its civilian hats are made in a workshop recently moved to the Midlands, while military and traditional headwear is still made in London. That is why a London visit makes sense: the arcade boutique is the brand's shopfront for the whole range.

The Indiana Jones collection is the headline. The Raiders Poet in deep sable rabbit felt is £495, and the same hat in beaver felt is £750. The 4th Dr. Who Poet in deep sable rabbit is £595. Several other Poet variants, including the Cairo, Temple and Seaplane, sit at £495 in rabbit. If you want a fedora without the film association, the Adeney Fedora and Swaine Fedora come in a long list of colours, from London Grey to Jaguar Green, at £400 each.

The newest felts arrived in October 2026. The Falcon, in latte, navy or nutmeg rabbit, is £480, and the Origami hats, folded and pleated women's styles such as the Brigitte Ruffle and the Midori Arrow, are £650. The Angel in beaver felt is £850. For something formal, the bowler is £490 and a grey fur felt top hat £390, while the Watts 1874 smoking hat is £490.

Caps make an easier entry. The Slim Cap in melange wool or linen is £220, a linen Bakerboy from the summer 2026 range is £295, and the herringbone Bakerboy Cap that the homepage is currently promoting is £495. Panamas start at £220 for the Strand and Sundowner. A hat brush with the gold or silver emblem is £49, which is the small purchase most people leave with.

Swaine describes the Burlington Arcade boutique as the place to get professionally fitted for a bespoke hat, browse the Herbert Johnson, Adeney and Brigg collections in person, and pick up online orders. The repairs page explains what can be done on the spot. Minor changes to shape or size are handled in store: staff use hat jacks to gently stretch a fitting that has become a little snug, and they can steam and hand-crease a hat to adjust its shaping.

Bigger jobs go to the workshop. For a civilian hat, you email clear photographs to the company first so its hatters can assess the work, and the hat is then sent in for evaluation. The listed services include a steam and brush, a new liner, a new sweatband, new ribbon work, a full reblock and conforming a hard hat such as a bowler or top hat with a conformateur. Repair costs are quoted individually rather than from a fixed price list, so budget for a quote rather than a set fee.

A few points make a fitting go well. Arrive with your usual hairstyle, because a felt hat is sized to your head as you normally wear it. Try the rabbit and beaver versions of the same Poet back to back; the beaver felt is denser and holds a crease more crisply, which is what the extra £255 buys. Customised sweatband embossing is offered only on certain handcrafted models, so ask before you assume a ready-to-wear hat can be personalised.

Weekday mornings after the 10:00 opening are the calmest time in the arcade, and you are more likely to get a member of staff to yourself for a fitting. Saturday afternoons bring the heaviest foot traffic through Burlington Arcade, and the boutique is small. The arcade shop is closed on Sundays; if Sunday is your only day, Swaine's New Bond Street flagship, which also stocks Herbert Johnson, opens from 12:00 to 18:00 on Sundays. Harrods on Brompton Road carries a selection too.

The arcade runs from Piccadilly to Burlington Gardens, and its southern entrance sits right beside Burlington House, home of the Royal Academy of Arts, so a hat fitting pairs naturally with an exhibition. Across Piccadilly, Fortnum & Mason is the obvious stop for tea or a hamper, and St James's begins just south of it, with its old wine merchants and shirtmakers on Jermyn Street.

At the arcade's northern end, Savile Row is a block away, and a walk along it is the best place in London to see how the cloth for a matching coat is cut. If you would rather sit outside, Green Park is a five-minute walk west along Piccadilly.

Address: Herbert Johnson at Swaine, 18-19 Burlington Arcade, Mayfair, London W1J 0PN. Hours: Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 19:00; closed Sunday. Email: burlington@swaine.group. Nearest Tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus.

Prices quoted are the official online prices on herbertjohnson.co.uk: Slim Cap £220, Adeney Fedora £400, Raiders Poet £495 in rabbit and £750 in beaver, The Falcon £480 and hat brush £49. Repairs are quoted after you send photographs. Ask the Karpo APP for a Mayfair lunch or a Royal Academy exhibition to go with your fitting.