60-Year-Old Hat Shop To Be Featured In Bed-Stuy Fashion Show

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A local hat shop that has been in Bed-Stuy for nearly six decades will be featured in this weekend's activities at Brooklyn's Black Lives Matter mural.

Al's Hat Shop, found just a few blocks from the Fulton Street art piece, will hold a "hat fashion show" at the mural on Saturday to celebrate the owner's near 45-year run heading the store.

The owner, Eric Bullen, bought the shop in 1976 after its previous owner fled the neighborhood because of the drug epidemic, organizers with the Bed-Stuy Collective said.

"Having recently moved to New York City from his native Trinidad and Tobago, where he served on their defense force, the hat shop was one of the first means of employment Bullen landed and became the main source of income for his family," spokesperson Keith Forest told Patch.

The hat shop quickly became a success when, the year after Bullen purchased it, New York suffered a brutal winter and its supply of Galoshes were "desperately needed," Forest said.

The store, which embraced 80s and 90s fashion and the Hip Hop boom, has since survived gentrification, moving its storefront to its current spot on Fulton Street and the coronavirus pandemic.

The fashion show is the latest event held at the mural since the Bed-Stuy Collective began hosting community programming at the space.

The collective has so far hosted Labor Day and Caribbean-focused celebrations, a "Black Laughs Matter" comedy show, a "Black Love Matters" wedding and a series of "Synergy Saturday" and "Feel Good Fridays" programming at the mural.

The group has started a GoFundMe so that its long list of community programming can continue, both at the mural and for the rest of the neighborhood.