Interview: Klaus Mühlbauer
Hatmaker transforming his century-old family business in Vienna.
A PASSION THING is a magazine dedicated to telling the stories of people from around the world who are driven by the wonderful force we call passion. We’re excited to take these conversations beyond the page and into the digital world, with Substack as our new home.
This interview appears in A PASSION THING Issue No. 11
In 2001, Klaus Mühlbauer took on the challenge of leading his family’s century-old business, transforming it into the celebrated brand we know today. Founded in 1903 and now in its fourth generation of family management, Mühlbauer has earned international acclaim for its exquisite, hand-crafted hats, all produced in Austria with the finest materials. We sat down with Klaus Mühlbauer to delve into his journey of inheriting and reinventing a family legacy. In our conversation, he shares insights into navigating the unique demands of a family business while responding to the ever-evolving landscape of fashion, economic shifts, and global challenges like the recent pandemic.
Has it always been clear that you will enter your family’s business or did you also have other tendencies?
Klaus It’s not always been clear, and I probably would not have become a hat maker if hats were not in our family. I think I would have landed in fashion. Of course, it has been an offer that there was already a family business, but our parents gave my siblings - I have three - and me the freedom to choose what we wanted to do and become. And with this freedom, I grew into it. After my graduation from school, I had no idea what to do. I think this is a phenomenon that has always existed. And before not doing anything, I thought I would start an apprenticeship to become a hat maker in my parent’s business. And that was the first moment that truly sparked my interest. I enjoyed the handcrafting and also designing. I made my first collections and drove to Paris - we’re talking of 1989/90 - where I sold them successfully. It was easier back then to sell a collection. If it was good work you could sell it without all the fuss around it that you need today. And then I realized that it’s good when you learn something, and I wanted to keep on learning and went to university to study economics.
I was around 19, 20 and moving out of my parent’s house. The perspective to enter the business and keep on working with my parents for 20 years was not that appealing as I was about to detach from them. So I studied and worked somewhere else in the textile industry until my father asked who of us wanted to step in. My three siblings declined while I was about to change jobs and move to Dusseldorf but finally decided to start at Mühlbauer.
