A HAT chain which has created headwear for Lady Gaga and Brad Pitt, has opened a shop in the city centre.

The hat and cap store, Laird Hatters, planned to open its sixth store on 28 Cornmarket in November but were delayed by the second lockdown.

Over the Christmas period, the store could open for just three weeks, before the county entered tier four restrictions, followed by a national lockdown which meant all non-essential shops had to close.

With shops now able to open their doors, married couple Alex and Zofia Torun-Shaw are determined to make the latest edition to their headwear shops a success.

Mr Torun-Shaw said: “The lockdowns sound terrible and it was slightly heartbreaking but we plan to be here a long time and have signed a long lease - but hopefully this slightly stuttered start will be a drop in the ocean.”

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The couple, who met at university, manage and design all the hats and caps themselves, manufacturing the products near their home in Hertfordshire.

The artistic pair own other stores in central London and Cambridge but have had their eye on opening a store in Oxford for a long time.

Upon looking for a suitable home for their ‘wild hats’, the couple was excited to find the fourteenth century building on Cornmarket.

Mr Torun-Shaw said: “Cambridge has done really well, and Oxford is beautiful, so we decided to open here.

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“We are a heritage brand, we do lots of television, film, and magazine work.

“We are one of the few manufactures of headwear left in the UK.”

Since the business began in 2009, the ‘flamboyant’ hat store has attracted a fair share of celebrities.

Lady Gaga wore one of the bespoke hats to the Video Music Awards, while other A-listers such as Brad Pitt, Kiera Knightly, and Tom Hardy visit the stores for more personal use.

The hat shop’s next star appearance is set to be in the American popstar Doja Cat’s new music video.

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The Shaw’s headpieces have also made many appearances in fashion magazines such as GQ and British Vogue.

Explaining why he chose to start designing hats, Mr Torun-Shaw said: “I wanted to go into something more creative and do something quite niche.

“Hats and caps have always been very beautiful things, but there are not very many hat makers, or hatters, in Europe anymore.

“When we first started, they were very traditional, using drab colours, but now we use velvet finishes and suedes to give them more vibrancy.”

Since the couple started their business in 2009, the popularity of hats has taken off - which the pair attribute to the success of the television series Mad Men and Peaky Blinders.

The pair, who are always on the search for new inspiration, make sure that all the materials and fabrics used in their headwear are sourced from Britain.

The company aims to provide ‘slick’ hats that make ‘bold statements’.