12 March 2022 | prestonhollowpeople.com
Business
TIP YOUR HEADGEAR TO ‘TOPPED HATS’
Mother-daughter duo inspired to create successful startup By Rachel Snyder
rachel.snyder@peoplenewspapers.com
L
SU may have come away with the win in November 2019 at the University of Mississippi. Still, Park Cities interior designer Dana Vidal and her daughter, Sophia, scored the inspiration for a new venture. “Both of us have always been big hat wearers particularly like for school events, game day,” Dana said. “During the football game at Ole Miss, my daughter’s friends and other people kept asking us where we got our hats, and she was like, ‘Mom, we should start a hat business.’” Dana, Topped Hats co-founder with Sophia and Linda Uphoff, said they started looking into different hat lines, created a logo for the fledgling company, and began curating inventory through the beginning of 2020.
During the football game at Ole Miss, my daughter’s friends and other people kept asking us where we got our hats, and she was like, ‘Mom, we should start a hat business.’ Dana Vidal
FROM LEFT: Dana Vidal and Sophia Vidal at the Like to Know It 2021 Holiday Party at The Rustic. (PHOTOS: COURTESY TOPPED HATS)
“After trying to buy additional lines, we were ready to launch before COVID, and then obviously when COVID happened, we didn’t do anything,” she said. However, the pandemic also provided opportunities. “A lot of the companies that had turned us down suddenly were open to opening this account and selling,” Dana said. “So, we were able to stock up heavily during COVID, and we launched May 2020, and it’s just grown crazily ever since then.”
Topped Hats offers many styles and hat adornments, from the wide-brimmed Western variety to fashionable fedoras and felts. A ‘hat bar’ experience, available in-studio or through virtual personal styling appointments, lets clients participate in the design process and choose among adornments and accessories, including feathers, scarves, beaded bands, and more. “It’s a lot of fun,” Dana said. “We’re creating a line of hat jewelry and accessories along with all the scarves [and] beaded
bands that my niece makes.” The first event for the new company was in June of 2020. They’ve since partnered with American Airlines Center to create hats for entertainers coming through town, including one for Colombian singer Moluma this fall, participated in events, including the Round Top Antiques Fair in Round Top near Austin a couple of times per year, and a party with a ‘hat bar’ for Cattle Baron’s Ball. “We had no idea we’d be selling the volume that we’re selling, doing the amount of events that we’re going to,” said Dana, who hopes to do more corporate events in the future.
Dreaming Beyond ‘Dallas’
Filmmaker wants North Texas to create more than commercials, corporate films By Greg Nielsen
People Newspapers “Imagine multiple TV shows being shot here.” Johnathan Brownlee, a movie industry veteran who relocated to North Texas a decade ago for the Dallas International Film Festival, does. “You remember Dallas and the impact it had but imagine there being more than one show like Dallas and how that could really benefit everyone,” he suggested. Dallas has long had a footprint in the film industry but moved away from narrative features over the years to commercials and corporate training films. That shift left money on the table, and Brownlee wants North Texans to pursue it. “It’s more than just consuming
Johnathan Brownlee
Harry Hunsicker (COURTESY PHOTOS)
the product but also knowing you can create it,” he said, citing an example of the growing opportunities. “Streaming services require content.” When Brownlee came to Dallas 10 years ago, he wanted to invest in something economically beneficial to himself, others, and the city. He’s worked on multiple
projects in genres ranging from family films to horror, all providing jobs and opportunities for area residents. His company Torfoot Films partnered with EventHorizonFilms for the Dallas Screenwriting Competition, won recently by Harry Hunsicker, a novelist, D
Magazine contributor, and Highland Park resident. Hunsicker’s first screenplay, a crime comedy called (S)hit Squad, will debut at the 2022 Dallas International Film Festival with Brownlee as director and co-producer. The other producers are Carrie Sternberg, Event Horizon Films’ Jodi Frizzell, and IdeaMan Studios with legal partners, Litwin Law Group, PLLC, and the Law Office of LaToya L. Blakely. The short film, featuring significant character interactions and a Pulp Fiction feel, doesn’t only let Hunsicker branch out. It also helps other locals in the industry learn how to make narrative projects in a market where they often don’t get the chance, Brownlee said. Making a narrative film is very
different from making a commercial ad or a training film, he said. North Texas has recently attracted projects like 1883, a Yellowstone spin-off, and 12 Mighty Orphans, a football film. Extra investment could bring in veteran industry workers looking for a better work environment, predicted Brownlee, who sees the area as more conducive to healthy home life. Strengthen that base, create more content, and, Brownlee said, the area could become a significant industry hub like Atlanta – something beneficial to everyone.
ON THE WEB torfoot.com eventhorizonfilms.com
