Hats in the Media

Hats and headwear are getting so much press lately. In the wake of a general hat revival that's been building over the last several years, the recent royal wedding has only increased world-wide interest in putting stuff on heads.

It seems like just about everyday this year, there have been articles in newspapers, fashion magazines, and on the radio talking about hats.

Whether you loved it or not, after the wedding, Princess Beatrice auction off her famous 'pretzel hat' for over $130,000 for charity, which was a nice thing to do.

Here are just a few other recent media mentions:
The Kansas City Star talks about hats as fashion accessories and health aids for sun protection.

A slideshow of hats from the royal wedding.

This article The Daily Mail announces headwear's renewed popularity in the US, with a few good photos.

CBS News agrees, mentioning the 1930s-1940s style fedora as an emerging trend.

Kentucky Derby fashion, which is mostly about hats.

New Retailer: Fino Fino. Also, Kate Middleton.

I've just delivered my first order to another retailer, Fino Fino in Menlo Park, CA.

It was my first (long overdue) trip to Fino Fino, a beautiful space packed with tons of great hats arranged for fun and easy browsing. Proprietress Carolyn Busch has a great eye for good headwear, and is very welcoming and helpful to her customers. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a visit.

Carolyn picked out some mini top hats from my 'Belle Epoch' line to add to her collection of cocktail hats and minis, which she said are increasing in popularity as Kate Middleton appears more and more in the press in similar styles. Here's a link to a great set of photos of Kate in different hats. Growing anticipation over Kate's upcoming wedding to Prince William seems to be having a noticeable effect on fashion in the US, with more and more young women showing greater interest in hats. As hats are a de rigueur part of ladies' wardrobes in the UK, undoubtedly Kate will continue to wear hats out and about once she's a princess, which will give the millinery industry a continuing boost. Great news all around.

Headdresses at Russia's Fashion Week

Love these images of headwear inspired by Russian costume history and medieval armor from Russia's recent Fashion Week.

These were designed by Konstantin Gayday:





Here are some of the traditional Russian headdresses called 'kokoshnik':







As worn by famous Russian dancer Pavlova:



Medieval armour-inspired head pieces by Young Designer's Collective:




Some original medieval armor:







And, a pretty floral piece by Slava Zaitsev that reminds me of late 1930s and early 1940s cocktail:



Here are some original late 1930s and early 1940s cocktail hats:






Click here for more coverage of the event.

Spring / Summer 2011 Ready-to-Wear

I'm loving these looks from the *first* solo collection by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen (McQueen's assistant for 15 years before his death last year).




They reminded me of these outfits from past McQueen shows.

Alexander McQueen, Fall/Winter 2006

I think about this outfit a lot. That entire show, titled 'The Widows of Culloden', is my all-time favorite McQueen Collection. See the video here.

Alexander McQueen, Fall / Winter 2010


She's pulled together influences from a lot of McQueen's past work, including his recurring bird motifs, the padded hips, and the Atlantis theme from Spring/Summer 2010 RTW. I have to agree with some of the fashion reviews I've been reading, she has softened the house's style around the edges. But I don't like that, really. I'll miss his perfectly sculpted Grace Jones-esque bodices and sharp tailoring. And the FW2010 hair and makeup are totally bland. Why the hippie braids?

See the rest of the show here. And, there are high-quality videos of runway shows going back to 2002, on the Alexander McQueen website.

I'm NOT loving anything from my other usual favorites from the Spring / Summer Ready-to-Wear 2011 collections, except for Dior's 1940s South Pacific-inspired collection.
Going against the trend of the last few years, there are not very many hats in these collections, except for these bland, identical Gilligan hats on Dior.

Couture is always more interesting anyway, and more chock-full of hats. Those shows are coming up at the end of January, so there is always hope for the future.

Lady Tux

Since looking at all those images of top hats for a recent post, I can't stop thinking about lady tuxes. While I love making and wearing ultra-feminine and hyper-decorated hats, my personal taste in clothing tends to run in the Lady Tux direction- not normally feminine women's clothing, and not full man-drag, but somewhere in the middle. I like tend to go for formal, simple clothes with interesting lines but a minimum of pattern or surface decoration, and to save the flash for hats and other accessories. Here are some of my favorite images.

For a lady in menswear, you can't beat Marlene Dietrich.


Marlene outshines Cary Grant in an all-white tux.


Another white tux, on Katherine Hepburn.



Josephine Baker



Anna May Wong


All that Lady Tux action in the movies in the 1930s inspired some intrepid non-Hollywood ladies to try wearing pants for the first time. Here's an original 1933 sewing pattern for a Lady Tux. Copies available for sale at Eva Dress. It's on my 'someday' project list...


The Lady Tux had its Hollywood heyday in the 1930s, but its roots go all the way back to the beginnings of the 'menswear for women' trend that started in the Tudor period, which really gained traction in late 18th century. Before the late 1700s, only lady pirates wore men's clothing (in the Western world, anyway), except for the occasional masculine-ish equestrienne outfit worn only on horseback. But Marie Antoinette, for all that she is remembered for her frilly, flowery, feminine wedding-cake dresses, was also scandalously fond of wearing menswear. Not just women's clothing with 'masculine' details, but full-on breeches.

She even had a short-lived anti-corset phase during her teens (gasp!). In the 1780s, she and her fashionable friends adopted mens hairstyles, and designed dresses, coats and hats modeled on tweedy equestrian English-style menswear.

She spent astounding amounts of money on clothes, and made daring fashion choices throughout her life. Her sartorial indiscretions were the major reason she became more and more unpopular with the French people during her time as Queen, and were one of the precipitating factors of the French Revolution. For more on this fascinating subject, read 'Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution' by Caroline Weber.

Ironically, during and after the French Revolution, women throughout Europe adopted a menswear-inspired wardrobe that was very similar to the butch outfits for which Marie Antoinette had received so much crap just a few years earlier.



The following outfit is from the same timeframe. It's a pivotal image for me, and the earliest really Lady Tux-like outfit I've been able to find evidence of. Before discovering this photo, I was never that into the 18th century fashion-wise, but seeing this made me really interested in learning about the period. It's from a book of photos of costumes from the collection of the Victorian and Albert museum, published in 1908.


Throughout the 19th century, equestrienne wear had a definitely tux-like tone, and masculine details bled into daywear as well.




Ever since then, Lady Tuxes keep popping up in fashion, they're so classic that they're never really out of style.

Yves Saint Laurent started designing tuxedos for ladies, called 'Le Smoking', in the 1960s, and they became a staple of his career.


Dita Von Teese in formalwear, wearing a hat by Stephen Jones, 2008.


Daphne Guiness


Over the last few weeks, I've been working with my custom hat block maker on the design for full size top hat blocks. I should receive the first prototype block around the end of December, and then the rest of the set (so I can do a full range of sizes) a few weeks later. I can't wait, I'm positively squirming with excitement to add these to my range of hats.

John Galliano Menswear Spring 2011

Check this fashion collection out, it's all based on the silent film era, especially comedian Buster Keaton. It's funny to see the models walking so seriously while dressed in these deliciously silly clothes & moustaches. And so many hats! Here are a few shots from it:

A Poll: the Modern Corset

Designing fall/winter hats, which leads to thinking about clothing in general. Specifically at the moment: the corset. Not as a costume, but reviving it as part of the modern wardrobe. Corsets were the foundation (literally & figuratively) of ladies clothing for hundreds of years, until fairly recently. This is a poll: ideas, anyone? What would you want a modern daywear corset to be like? What would you wear it with?

Dandies in the Congo

Ok, so apparently there are dandies who dress to impress in the slums of the Congo. I want to see people dress this way on the streets of the US, daily. So, everybody out there wearing jeans and a t-shirt: it's time to shape up.

For more info, see this article.

Fez Friday: High Fashion Fez

A couture fez from John Galliano, Fall Winter 2010/2011

So glamorous!