When Michelle Poyer-Sleeman, Civilian Hatting Department Manager, Herbert Johnson, first joined the IndyGear community in 2016, we as fans were excited that Herbert Johnson was getting back into bespoke hat making and embracing the gear fan community once more. Little did we know that five years later, we’d have our third member heavily involved in the production of an Indy movie, and one that would create a new look for arguably Indy’s most iconic costume piece.
Michelle had been a fan of fedora style hats since her teenage years in the 1980’s and had been collecting hats and wearing them ever since. All her life she’s had interest in artistic endeavors as well as sewing and handcrafting. Michelle graduated college with a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design and since gravitated towards jobs with an artistic bent. She discovered automotive refinishing which brought out airbrush design she loved in college. While painting cars during the day, Michelle spent her free time learning new skills such as welding, lace making, corsetry design and construction and then discovering and immediately falling in love with hat making.
The Milliner who introduced Michelle to hat making became a dear friend. When Michelle discovered her friend had developed symptoms of carpal tunnel and struggled to block hats (an occupational hazard for sure), Michelle volunteered to help. During this time, Michelle’s friend found a job opportunity advertised with Herbert Johnson and said Michelle would be perfect and should apply. That was back in 2016 and the rest is history.
Joining Herbert Johnson after what was then considered the final Indy adventure with Crystal Skull, Michelle found most of her work serving the fan community. This all changed with a fateful call from Costume Designer Joanna Johnston, commissioning her to create some designs for “Indy V.”
Having serviced the fan community for years, and knowing our attention to the tiniest detail and how rabid some fans could be, we asked Michelle if she had any hesitation or concern about taking on what is most likely the “last hat” for Indy. She replied: “the gravity of the task certainly was not lost on me! I felt both a huge sense of honor at being asked to make the hats for the ‘last’ Indiana Jones film and also acutely aware of the responsibility. It was always on my mind how the fan community might react, and being fully aware that some will always want it to look exactly like in Raiders or have another similar personal desire for it. Such love and romanticism is completely understandable of course but you have to realize that as a professional hat maker I am hired to fulfill a brief made by the Costume Designer. My job here was very much to create to Joanna Johnston’s instructions.”
Michelle goes on to say, “that said I had 100% faith in her [Johnston’s] drive to fulfill the vision for The Dial of Destiny and the attention to detail and depth of thought which I recognized in her choices. When I received the feedback via Joanna’s assistant from Harrison’s second fitting that he had said it was ‘perfect’ and that he was very happy—well, then I felt that my mission had been truly accomplished. If the man himself was happy then I have to trust that the fans will be happy with that too. I am a huge fan of the Raiders style hat, and I know it was explored during my process with Joanna Johnston, but I do believe it was right to have this last hat have a spirit of its own. After all, I love each film in a very different way, as well as each of the hats. To be part of that narrative myself is an honor and I put my heart and soul into the crafting of those hats. I approach all my work with that heart and soul, so I hope that spreads and can be felt and enjoyed by the fans too.”
One challenge Michelle faced right away was working in the time of COVID shutdowns. Due to the global restrictions, Joanna and her team were all socially distanced over at Pinewood and communications happened often over phone, email and Zoom calls to progress the design. Even Harrison’s first fitting was done remotely with him still in the USA. After Ford’s first fitting Johnston asked for tweaks such as a bit more taper in the crown—which was easily achieved by pushing the side dents further back and also plumping the humps towards each other. Johnston also wanted to try a slightly wider brim. While liking the crown changes, ultimately it was decided to return to the Temple of Doom brim specs after a second fitting, which took place UK this time during the month of May, 2021. Soon after this fitting Harrison had a camera test, and Michelle received word from from Johnston’s assistant to say Harrison loved the hat, saying it was perfect! “I shall never forget that day as long as I live. Mission accomplished! Sample 8 was the winner!”
Michelle knew that the hat needed to suit Ford as he is today. It had to suit him and he had to feel and look comfortable wearing it. Michelle states, “Joanna explored pretty much everything in order to then narrow her choices. The first sample she requested was for a Raiders style. Things moved quickly on.” There was never any negativity during the development process and it was always collaborative. Requests coming in would be positive and exploratory with statements such as, ‘Let’s try this and adjust this and see what we have.’ Michelle enjoyed the whole process and incorporated her knowledge and skills developed throughout her career. “We used our Poet crown block for all the Destiny hats. There’s the joy in open crown hat making— you can produce so many different shapes, looks and specs all using a single block. You can play with pinch height, taper, brim width and shape and get many different outcomes just from this.”
In closing, Michelle states: “I had such a wonderful mix of joy and pride to be part of this journey and to represent Herbert Johnson and the brand’s return to creating the hats for the franchise. Overwhelmingly happy. What a privilege to be part of this!”
