House of Nines Design is an independent maker of foxy, high-quality headwear for stylish men and women. We sell internationally online, in retail stores across the US, and direct to customers by appointment at our studio in New York City. We use a mix of traditional and modern techniques and only the best materials, including fine fur felts, hand-woven Panama straws, and rare vintage veiling and ribbon, sourced from other small businesses and artisans. All House of Nines Design hats are unique designs individually shaped and trimmed by hand in our studio. As you can imagine, our hats are time-consuming to make, but we approach it as an art and a labor of love.
One of our favorite customers is musical evocateur and Belle of The Edwardian Ball, Jill Tracy. Dubbed "the cult darling of the Underworld" by LA Weekly and "the femme fatale for the thinking man" by The San Francisco Chronicle, Jill's music evokes another time and place. A place that could be inside a beautiful dream or, more likely, a glamorous nightmare.
Jill's musical gifts are matched only by her fantastic sense of style and we are delighted she often wears a House of Nines original on stage when she performs. We are very excited to announce that she will soon start carrying some House of Nines exclusive styles at her online retail shop!
Photo by filmmaker Jeremy Carr from "Portrait of a Nightmare"
Jill has been performing at The Edwardian Ball since its inception 13 years ago and her name has become synonymous with this ever-growing event for lovers of Edward Gorey, ballroom dancers, the Steam Punk set, and Edwardian-bedecked revelers. Jill's haunting songs and stories set the mood for this annual music and art festival.
Jill is the first musician in history to receive a grant from the famed Mütter Museumin Philadelphia. The medical history museum contains a collection of medical oddities and antique medical equipment and Jill's new project for 2013 will be based on their collection.
Recently, Jill has continued with her series of concerts at The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.Working with San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers, Jill Tracy has created an unusual after-dark series focusing on a variety of alluring subjects (poisoning, alchemy, ghosts and violins, perfumes) while allowing audiences to tour the wondrous Victorian Greenhouse at night.
Here are a batch of photos of chanteuse Jill Tracy, performing in Hollywood.
She's wearing a custom 'Belle Epoch' mini top hat in black long-nap felt. The trim is a gorgeous antique silk ribbon I found just a bit of, it's got a shadow-stripe in the weave.
My favorite songstress, Jill Tracy, has certainly been busy this year.
In January, as always, she was the Belle of the Ball at the 2012 Edwardian Ball in San Francisco. I've lost track of how many years I've been hat-ing Jill for shows, and this year she wore a black Maxima. Here's a video of her performing "The Color of the Flame" with aerial artist Sasha from the Vau de Vire Society.
She wore the same hat a few weeks later during her appearance as special guest performer at the Mutter Ball 2012 at the Mutter Museum / College of Physicians of Philadelphia. She later let me know how easy it was to travel with her Maxima, it's glamorous but also soft and relatively packable.
Check out this incredible photo from the program from the ball. Titled "Tea & Taxidermy", photo by Michael Garlington. Definitely check out his website, his work is incredible.
Here's an interview Jill did with Director of the Mütter Museum, Robert Hicks. They talk about many topics, including the Mutter, haunted castles, her "Spontaneous Musical Combustion" method, and the song "The Color of the Flame", from the first video in this post, which was inspired by the work of Swedish 19th century writer/occultist Stanislaw Przybyszewski.
Jill's involvement with the Mutter continues with her latest project- I'm happy to congratulate her as the first musician ever to be awarded a grant from the Wood Institute, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, to compose music inside the museum. Be sure to keep up with Jill’s new blog “An Excavation of Musical Spirits,” as she discusses the project. And don't miss this fantastic interview about it with Cristina Zuazua of Chain D.L.K. Magazine.
She's also been hard at work preparing to open Cabinet 45, an online store selling the work of artists she admires. I am so excited to be included in this group, and Jill and I have been collaborating on special hat designs just for the shop. Cabinet 45 should be open for business later this year.
Everybody's favorite chanteuse, Jill Tracy, just let me know that she'll be wearing a House of Nines Design custom hat in her upcoming video with musician David J, of the legendary bands Bauhaus, Tones On Tail, and Love and Rockets. I'm all aflutter.
I love playing the '6 Degrees of Separation' game. Turns out Juliet Landau will be in the video as well (she played Drusilla on Buffy the Vampire Slayer). So, that means I'm only a couple/few degrees from all of these musicians whose music I love, the whole Joss Whedon clan, plus Gerry Anderson's 1960s sci-fi empire: Juliet's parents were in Space 1999. Oh! And they were also on the original Mission Impossible TV show.
An aside: did anybody else notice a similarity between the recent Leonardo DiCaprio movie Inception and Mission Impossible? Joseph Gordon-Levitt made the greatest Barney (the 'electronics expert' who was on every episode, and was the secret genius behind every mission): he was tough, no-nonsense, unflappable, and just took care of business, even when flying around weightless. Fantastic.
I was honored to have the incomparable Jill Tracy wear my hats at each evening of this year's Edwardian Ball. Here are some great photos, see more photos from the ball in my flickr gallery.
Just found a great video of chanteuse Jill Tracy performing at this year's Edwardian Ball wearing a custom designed HON hat. Here's the YouTube link. She's brilliant. Enjoy!
The shopping area at the Edwardian Ball is free & open to the public from Noon-7pm on Saturday! I'll be there all afternoon at the Dark Garden booth, with a whole bunch of hats, if you want to stop by.
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