René Mantilla is a Puerto Rican-Ecuadorian luxury chapeau & leather accessories designer based in New York City. Established in 2016, his handmade wool and rabbit cloth chapeaux caught the eye of many trendsetters like Alicia Keys, Maluma, Nick Cannon and Lewis Hamilton to name a few. In November 2020, the brand expanded into leather accessories, developing “The Chapeau Tote”, a handmade leather tote designed specially to hold a chapeau on the exterior and/or interior. in November 2020, the fashion house was established in Quito, Ecuador; a gallery/studio in the heart of Quito, Ecuador displaying his latest quarterly designs and collections. The gallery/studio is open to the public by appointment only to give the client the ultimate experience.

As creative director, René Mantilla has kept a fresh approach to his design aesthetic by adorning his pieces with an array of textiles that completely transforms the chapeaux into fashion staples that are being requested worldwide.