Julianna Mühlbauer opened her millinery in 1903; four generations later Klaus Mühlbauer runs the house and has reinvented it without giving up the workshop. The hats are made in Vienna: felt is steamed over wooden blocks, straw is braided, bands are sewn by hand.
The shop on Seilergasse is small and bright, the hats hang on the wall like works of art. Meryl Streep wears Mühlbauer, so does Brad Pitt, and of course the Viennese. Visit the workshop on Franz-Josefs-Kai and you see how a felt cone becomes, within an hour, a hat that will be worn for decades.
