About Nick New

I: Sonata/ A Hatmaker Rises...

In Nick Fouquet's own words: "It's a passion that became an obsession that became the business." Growing up with five artistic sisters, Fouquet spent much of the early part of his life in admiration of what those around him manifested. It wasn't until later on, near the back side of his twenties that Fouquet's own creative quest first revealed itself, his fires stoked by what seemed an almost lost art and dormant accessory, the hat. From the get-go designing, Fouquet conjured the entire universe of the subject who would eventually rock his lids; what car they drive, what music they listen to, what food they crave, what lovers they chase, and gradually, a hat would emerge, hand crafted to the character's flow and raison d'etre. On his quest to master the craft, it was essential that the finished object be imbued with a hand-touched feel. Whether it be beaver, mink, hare, wool, or straw, the end result had to possess a pulse.

Equally paramount for Fouquet, who never formally trained, is the idea that each and every hat represents a step in the evolution of his own creative pilgrimage. That said, Fouquet remains wary of formula. And almost never renders a preparatory sketch. The hat begins when Fouquet lays hands on the felt, the subsequent shape a kind of living, sculpted document of inspiration, gestures, and impulses while engaged with the materials. To that end, Fouquet refrains from clocking current hat styles to avoid imitation, opting instead to seek inspiration in other mediums such as painting, sculpture, music, nature, the stich of a piece of furniture, adhering to his instinct that aesthetic authenticity is best expressed by transposing inspiration from a wide and varied array medium, so when a design finally lands, says Fouquet, he feels like he just discovered the moon. That said, an equally crucial element of Fouquet's process is philosophical, that being the humility he retains, his ad hoc mantra and constant refrain being simple and direct, he is forever a student of the discipline, despite the fact he has come to enjoy quite significant critical and commercial validation.

II: Andante/ Dropping Roots...

What started as a spontaneous creative spark has steamrolled to the point where Fouquet is now recognized, not only by peers and allies in the US, but, also, with the more highbrow fashion enclaves in Europe as well. Along with that recognition have come collaborations with esteemed outfits such as Rochas, Jacques Marie Mage, Borsalino as well as also being tapped to generate head gear for the Givenchy runway show in 2020. The distinction further confirming the undeniable, westward looking eye of global fashion over the last few decades while, also, reiterating that Los Angeles continues gathering momentum, barreling towards a more three-dimensional cultural maturity that includes not just the time-tested staples movies and rock 'n' roll but, also, art, food, fashion, technology as well as, also, the always expanding ethnic palate of the city's vast population. "The west coast has been getting props and nods for years but to ask a dude from Venice to make hats for their ultimate expression?" Feeling both fortunate and proud to be a part of LA's new wave, Fouquet feels compelled to keep pushing the city's aesthetic envelope. "No doubt people take the LA-influence seriously, but do they take the LA Designers seriously? Has anyone from LA really popped off with work that embodies the city's current DNA?" Fouquet expressing the idea that, despite garnering global eyes, no brand has fully captured the current LA luxury vibe, that elevated style that once and for all motors past the stale Sunset Strip tropes of yesteryear, incorporating elements of what and where the city is right now, a jumbled plethora of flavors that give props to the sand and the sea while, at the same time, throwing nods to the Echo Park Art Girl, the Boyle Heights Badass, the Leimert Park Chef, never mind, say, the Topanga Canyon Skater Shaman posted up in a tricked out Geodesic Dome which, by the way, is exactly where Mr. Fouquet comes in, having recently refurbished a dome originally erected in the early 1970's. A labor of love which when Fouquet closed escrow, "had a heavy Flintstone vibe but has since inched much more into Jetsons territory." Confessing he still misses the grimy funk of his old Venice digs, Fouquet says his daily trek down the coast to his new brick and mortar atelier on Abbot Kinney, poised mischievously on the other side of Lincoln boulevard offers a welcome balance to his nightly sojourns back up to the eternally witchy Topanga Canyon where Fouquet can then plug into the eternal vibe generator and higher power that is mother nature.

III: Scherzo/ NF Aspen...

Given his penchant for the invigorating and replenishing qualities of the great outdoors, it was a no-brainer when Fouquet was presented with the opportunity to launch a satellite in Aspen. In fact, it was the first, next piece of a concept that had been brewing for years, the desire to set up shop in a plethora of cultural enclaves such as Aspen, or Paris, possibly Mexico City, each one possessing their own mystical pull and connection to Fouquet's personal story. "Being in Venice, I feel like I've got LA covered. Given the bespoke nature of what we're doing, if you're in LA, my mission is to make the trek to Venice worth the trip." If Topanga offers a daily respite, the majesty of the Rocky Mountains provides a kind of mad scientist level refuel coupled with a local population aesthetically inclined toward Fouquet's arc. "The challenge with Aspen was to embrace and feel the strong vibes of the community while, at the same time, being inspired to offer them something different, not just another gourmet cowboy hat." To ensure that NF Aspen outpost gets its proper oversight, Fouquet has even secured a pied de terre which will help the hatmaker to keep his hands and eyes on production with not just hats but, also, a thoughtfully growing arsenal of belts, bags, wallets, masks and scarves and more to come...

IV: Allegro/ Ready, Steady, Wear...

Fouquet's steady ascent has generated a windfall of opportunities. "There were things I almost jumped on but, at the last second, I was like, no, I can't which, by the way, wasn't always the most rational or reasonable way of operating. But I had to do what I had to do. My gut instincts have always been my North Star." Remaining discriminating about alliances and associations was part of how Fouquet skirted falling prey to fashion's most recent epidemic, the collab, knowing even from his earliest ramen noodle-adjacent days that being in it for the long haul -- blood in, blood out -- sometimes a quick hit to facilitate a short-term cash infusion can yield jaundice repercussions that linger on long, well after the money's gone, running the risk of gumming up future dreams. For Fouquet, you see, even from the start, the hat was always the finishing touch. And what could possibly be more maddingly exciting than the concept of working back to the beginning? "People who wear hats are a kind of rare, naturally selecting tribe. A hat is not a necessary element, like a shirt or a shoe. And, in that way, it attracts and identifies the intrinsically unique." Which is to say while Fouquet labored away, creating dazzling skull attire, he was simultaneously concocting the schematics of his ideal future ready to wear clientele. As these items begin revealing themselves, we can be sure that, like the rest of his output to date, Fouquet will express an eclectic, signature path, separate and apart from both the three chord copycat tendencies of current streetwear trends and, also, the "let's all wear black" pack. Ultimately, Nick Fouquet puts a premium on commitment to the craft while, at the same time, regarding creativity as a kind of cosmic muscle where every big breakthrough is a function a thousand small moments piled one on top the other. The elegant and the sublime is the result of the dogged diligence, of doing the work. "There's hype and there's craft, one lasts about twenty minutes and the other keeps spinning on through time." Fouquet going on to state that pretty much every time he has ever brushed up against creative beauty, it was the byproduct of crunch time. "I'm not sure exactly why, but the 11th hour has a way of yielding some of the best ideas." Thankfully, given the growing demand for his wares, that magical deadline dust might not settle for quite some time.