It took Kodi Werema nearly 10 years to create his dream hat store.
It took all night for it to turn to ashes.
Early Wednesday morning, Welema Hat Company on Mariposa Avenue in the Altadena neighborhood became one of countless businesses across Los Angeles affected by wildfires this week.
“It was just a ruin,” said Werema, speaking Friday from his family's home an hour south of the city. His home in Pasadena, less than a mile from the store, was still standing as of Friday. Werema, his wife, Shelby, and their three young children were evacuated on Wednesday, driving through “falling ash” to escape the fire.
“It's an apocalyptic situation in our small town,” Werema said, comparing post-fire Altadena to the ruins of ancient Rome.
In a phone interview, the Wellemas wavered between determination and shock as their children played out of earshot (they had not yet mustered up the energy to talk about the store's fate). They talked about their store in the present tense, and then a voice was heard as if remembering that their beloved boutique was no more.
“We built it brick by brick,” Werema, 32, said of the store.
A Colorado native, Werema grew up in Southern California and fell in love with hat making at a young age. To him, cowboy hats had a very American, rugged feel. “It was a dying trade in America, so I wanted to do my best to keep it afloat,” he said.
In his early twenties, he worked for an established hat manufacturing company in Santa Barbara. He then struck out on his own and started Wellema Hat Company in Santa Barbara, before moving to Altadena about 10 years ago. The tidy boutique in the northern foothills of Los Angeles was less than 1,000 square feet, but the couple disagreed on how much.
Opening a hat store in the mid-2010s required a certain amount of stupidity. “People don't wear hats like they did in the '30s,” Werema said. In the early days, visitors would wander into the store and ask him in kind but puzzled voices. “Why are you here?” Who are your customers? ”
The customers turned out to be ranchers (yes, they still exist in the Los Angeles suburbs), fashionable shoppers obsessed with the company's curvaceous felt hats, and costume designers for western shows. Actor John C. Reilly was a customer, and the store had many cancer patients who bought hats to block out the California sun or to hide hair loss caused by treatment. .
The authentic look of the hats, created by Mr. Werema in-store, won the hearts of shoppers. Their brim proudly stuck out, and the crown was pinched, as if prefolded. Wellema's fedora reminded me of Al Capone. The cowboy hat was very Marlboro Man.
Over time, Wellema Hat Company became a destination for those who appreciate stylish hats and classic products made right.
“Cody had this kind of respect for the relics of California's Golden Age that still exist in Altadena and Pasadena,” said Nico Lazaro, an Angeleno freelance writer who became friends with Mr. Werema. “This store was one of those rare places that felt old but still relevant today.”
For Ethan M. Wong, the store was not only a place to shop, but also a place to observe. “Every time I visited, I couldn't help but take pictures of whatever Cody was working on,” said Wong, a writer and podcaster who owns three of Werema's disc-shaped fedoras.
Shelby Werema said business seems to be picking up in recent months. “We have seen a huge increase in local walk-in customers,” she said. Mr. Wellema had a theory. Thanks to the TV show Yellowstone, city dwellers were convinced they could wear a cowboy hat.
“The Western genre is in great shape,” he said.
But his favorite shoppers, the ones who really wore his hat, were the ones who returned their $800 Wellema products with dirt and scratches on them.
The couple never took out loans and put all the money they earned back into the store. “Whenever I had $500, a lot of money lying around, I thought, 'Okay, I can finally hire this woodworker to make the shelves that I want,'” Werema said. Werema recalled spending his 24th birthday laying flooring. space.
It was only in recent months that he felt the store had reached its final form. Vintage clothes were placed in one corner of the store. A workbench was placed in the middle of the store. A glass case houses a “mini-museum” of Werema's hat making, filled with old hat brushes, matchboxes and advertising products from companies such as Stetson. The sign that swoops into the store's front window was hand-painted by Derek MacDonald of Golden West Sign Arts. On the wall was a work by Edward Bollein, a Western painter who was the inspiration for Werema's wide-brimmed hat.
“It was everything I wanted,” Werema said. In November, the family held a party at the store to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Now it's almost gone. A fire was confirmed in the hills outside Altadena on Tuesday evening. “In my heart of hearts, I never thought it would reach the streets,” Werema said. He never thought of getting his own inventory or tools.
In the haze of the immediate aftermath of the destruction, the Wellemas were unsure of what to do next. They were lucky that the store was insured. Friends started a GoFundMe campaign for the family, which had raised more than $50,000 as of Friday afternoon.
But Werema also wondered if the fires were a sign. He loved making hats, but it may have been better suited as a hobby. He could make more money doing something else.
But in reality, the prospect of building a new space brick by brick seemed daunting.
“We have to be present,” Werema said of the challenges ahead, including caring for the children and returning to the house, which is still standing.
“We don't know how much of the past will be dragged into us in the future,” she says.
