Custom Hats
Hand-selected quality western hats with professional fitting and custom shaping included.
Meet the Maker
Grounded in Tradition. Made for You.
The seed for my first business, The Tartan Cowgirl, was planted in 2024 while I was making my first traditional Scottish kilt. After some exploration—and a return to my own roots—that journey eventually led me to Highland Brims.
I stitched that first kilt by hand at the Kilt School in Keith, Scotland, under the tutelage of Master Kilt Maker Linda Gillies. Every pleat was set by eye, and every section and bloody finger taught me why certain things are made to last—and to be handed down.
Scotland holds a specialplace in my life story. It is where my husband is from, where we met, and where our first child was born and where we often go today. Somewhere in those hours of stitching, I began to understand what the tartan represents: strength, warmth, timelessness, and a labor of love that embodies family, heritage, and pride in one’s roots.
Creating something so steeped in tradition brought me back to my own upbringing in Texas—to running wild in my boots across my family’s Hilly Country ranch and to the Western hats that have long been part of that way of life.
A good hat makes the same promise as a good kilt. It is shaped by hand, carefully selected and fitted for the person wearing it, enjoyed for years, and perhaps one day handed down.
I wanted to create and share that same kind of experience through Western hats. In 2026, I invested in the training to become a certified hat shaper. I earned my certification at Hat Masters in Denver, Colorado, under the Orms family—three generations strong of hat-shaping expertise.
Highland Brims is where these two parts of my life meet: heirloom-quality Western hats, professionally fitted and shaped for the person who will wear them.
It is the hat-experience side of Tartan Cowgirl—the same Highland heart, now beneath a Western brim.
— Tina Cartwright
Founder and Certified Hat Shaper
