PIAFEIRA began with a cap trying to fly off the Cobra.
The obvious question was: how to keep it on?
The less obvious questions came afterwards.
While developing the Touring Cap, I became increasingly curious about the history of chin straps, sporting caps, military caps and early racing helmets.
That search led me to Bill Vero.
Bill Vero is a legendary British master craftsman and third-generation helmet maker, widely recognised for his work with Everoak Helmets. He is one of the world’s most experienced makers of classic motorsport crash helmets. He personally made, painted and detailed helmets for an extraordinary group of racing drivers, including Stirling Moss.
When I visited him, I found myself standing in the workshop of someone who had personally made the things I had been looking at in photographs and archives.
Among the things he showed me was a signed photograph of Stirling Moss thanking Bill for a beautiful helmet.
That was the moment I saw the connection.
Then I started looking more closely at the Cobra.
The Cobra was built by Ian Walker, who worked all his life at Haynes of Maidstone.
David Haynes, chairman of Haynes of Maidstone and himself a racing driver, was a lifelong friend of Stirling Moss and served as his manager for a period during Moss’s career.
Suddenly, I was looking at two completely separate trails that had started from the same place.
The Cobra led me to Ian Walker.
The Cap led me to Bill Vero.
And somehow, Stirling Moss connected them.
I really couldn’t have imagined this connection when I started.
This is one of the things I find so exciting about a project.
Long before the internet, before blogs and social media, I published a magazine called Search.
Perhaps this is the same instinct finding another form.
You notice something.
You ask a question.
You follow it.
Then another door opens.
The object created the question.
The question led to the archive.
The archive led to the people.
Two trails. One Cobra.
The search continues.