After graduating from college and moving from Perth to Melbourne, Australian artist Phil Ferguson started crocheting hats to make friends. While most people might think to join a club or meet people through work or something, this guy came up with a creative way to break the ice.
And it worked.
Nearly two years later, the 23-year-old has amassed more than 141,000 Instagram followers (like Joe Jonas and Miley Cyrus nbd) by posting pics of himself in his tasty-looking hats.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA3p0q-hcB_/?taken-by=chiliphilly
Yet they aren’t all food. “Though I’m known for ‘food hats’ my first few hats weren’t food at all!” he explained. “The first hat I made that was an ‘object’ – a pot plant with a cactus in it. After that I made my first burger hat (which took many months) and after that was popular, I just kept running with the food theme!”
So how exactly did the idea of Chili Philly come about?
“The hat idea was actually inspired by the character Finn from the television show Adventure Time, he explained. “He wears a bear hat that covers his whole head and only shows his face. Also when I started playing around with making hats, I had started getting into RuPaul’s Drag Race and began to appreciate the art, costumery and decadent headware. I guess it was a natural progression from obsessively watching these two shows to making wearable art. The hat thing kind of just stuck.”
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any plans of selling his creations…although he could probably make a ton of money. Instead, he’s sticking to his original idea- using them as conversation pieces.
“I make hats, then I put them on Instagram, I never set out for it to be a money-making venture,” he says.
He’s also putting his Insta fame to good use. Ferguson is an ambassador for the Satellite Foundation, which raises awareness about mental health.
