Back in Action - and - Blink and You Might Miss It

I am very happy to announce that my studio in NYC is now fully set up and operational, my Etsy store is back up and running, and I'm busily filling orders.

 Want to buy a hat for the holidays? There's still time- many of the hats in my Etsy store are now in stock and ready to ship. Just ask about availability for the style you're interested in and I'll let you know if it can make it to you in time.

In other news, I was very happy to discontinue the popular 'Sabrina' mini top hat in black the other day. I ran out of the silk veiling that that style requires, making the *last one ever*.

It felt like an accomplishment, as the bolt of veiling had been a pretty big one to start with. 'Sabrina' is still available in brown tones, for now. But when the brown veiling runs out, that one will be discontinued also.

Many of my styles are limited editions, because I use vintage materials that are only available in limited quantities, and when they're gone, they're gone. So, if you have a hat in mind, don't dally or you might miss it forever!

Changes

I have accepted a new job, working for the splendid theatrical milliner Lynne Mackey. So happy to meet a bunch of nice new people, learn some new tricks and be back to working with my hands. It will still be several weeks, at least, before my shop stuff arrives in NYC from San Francisco, and I came here for new experiences, so I thought why not. It will be full time at first, and then the hours will fluctuate depending on how much work there is coming in to the studio, so I'll still have time for my own line as well. The studio makes hats for Broadway shows, Ringling Brothers, ballet, the Ice Capades, the Rockettes, Disney cruise shows, Boardwalk Empire, The Knick, and a million others. I'm thrilled to have this opportunity!

Big Changes in Our Bay Area Retailers

Big changes are afoot for House of Nines Design this summer, especially for our SF Bay Area customers.

 The short version:

This weekend 5/16-5/18 is your last chance to shop for a wide selection of House of Nines Design hats in San Francisco for a while. We're packing all the hats at Dark Garden in SF's Hayes Valley away on Monday 5/19 and taking them with us to New York, so come and buy one in person while you can!

The full story:

We are relocating to New York City shortly (in just a few days), and planning to set up a studio there in the late summer / early autumn, hopefully to be followed by a *real live* retail location of our own sometime in the following year. Yay! Our Etsy store and ability to fill custom orders will be shut down until we are established in our new studio, hopefully in August or September.

Unfortunately, most of our San Francisco-area retailers have also been going through changes, so we will have much less of a day-to-day presence there starting, well, now.

Our last day of regular sales at Dark Garden will be Sunday, May 18. We'll be back for occasional trunk shows and special events, but if you want a full range of hats to choose from- our largest selection anywhere in the world at the moment- get over there now while the getting is good!!!
Dark Garden Corsetry
321 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102

(415) 431-7684

Friday: 11am-8pm
Saturday: 11am-8pm
Sunday: 11am-5pm

After 20 years of great success, Carolyn Busch of Fino Fino in Menlo Park has just retired and closed her store in April.

Our friend Elwyn Crawford of O'Lover Hats is moving to Paris (lucky girl!) this fall, so we've already pulled inventory from her outlet, Metis Makers in North Beach.

Here are the shops in the Bay Area that still carry a few House of Nines Design hats:
Mystery Mister, Haight Street in San Francisco
Portobello Hats, Santa Rosa
Iron Dog Antiques, Fremont

Thanks, sincerely, to all of you for helping me to establish my hat business here in SF, a city I love and will come back to visit as often as possible. Please be assured that, through the power of the interwebs and the occasional in-person visit, I'll still be available to make hats for you, anytime after my studio is up and running again.

Millinery Tools Back on Sale Later This Year

Thanks to everyone who expressed interested in buying millinery tools. Those items that hadn't sold yet have been packed away now in prep for my move to NYC. I'll post to let you know when I list them for sale on etsy or ebay in a few months.

Tools for Sale - Just a Few Left!

Thanks to everybody who came to my recent millinery supplies and tools sale, everything that was up for grabs has been sold except for a few choice items.

I am in the final stages of packing for my move to NYC, and then things will stay packed up in storage for the next few months. I will be listing these items on ebay and/or etsy in the autumn. So if you would like to purchase any of these things before then, please let me know within the next few days (before they are packed away for the time being).

Block #3, a one-of-a-kind brim custom made by Guy Morse Brown Hat Blocks in the UK. If you've heard of them, you know that their quality is *superb* and their prices are high, but totally worth it. They are the *only* company that I will buy new blocks from. This curvaceous brim is asymmetrical and looks great with a fedora crown. I used it only a few times and it is in like-new condition. If you buy it and you like it and want to order more sizes to make a set, just contact GMB, reference the style number written on the block, and they can reproduce it for you in any other sizes you want. Size 21". This seems on the small side but works well with many mid-century crown blocks that make a hat that perches on the head. $100.

Block #11. This is a kooky one, with a built-in brim, maybe from the 1960s-? The style is so unusual, it's really hard to tell when it was made. It's kind of part way between a fez, a bonnet, a jockey cap, and who knows what else, but it's awesome. Size 22. $150.

Block #2. A good basic fedora brim flange in great condition. Size 6 7/8. $25.

The unusual football-shaped electric egg iron on the right. It does not have its original cord, but you should be able to have it replaced by an electrician like Universal Electric in San Francisco (where I have all my vintage lamps etc. rewired). Or you could always use it without heat. $75.

A rare Victorian-era heart-shaped tolliker. Note the crack in one end, but it is still sound. Not perfect, but still totally useful. $100.

Wooden foot tollikers, bottom row, $75 each.

One of the gems of my collection- a very rare electric curling shackle. Fantastic condition, works great. In 5 years of searching, I have only seen two of these for sale, and this was one of them. $300.

Antique Curling shackle brim iron on the far right. Rare small size, unmarked but looks like 1/8". $175.  

 

 

Here are a whole bunch of tools by Mark DeCou of DeCou Studio. He is a talented woodworker and has been faithfully reproducing antique hatter's tools in hardwood.

Groove tollikers. These are used to create a round curl on a brim edge, as for a cowboy hat, homburg, etc. The following are $75 each. They are all unused / like new. Note the sizes (depth and width of the groove) written on each.

 

 

 Just let me know if you would like to buy anything, I could ship it to you if you're not in the SF Bay Area.

 

 

 

A Few Photos of Sale Items 4/25-26

Here are a few quicky photos of some of the items I'm bringing to the sale on 4/25-26 (see my last post for details).

A Kingsley foil-stamping machine, with a full set of type and a roll of silver metallic foil.

Hat blocks, head forms and tools. There are lots and lots of hatter's tools, going for $25-$300. $300 for the very rare, working electric brim curler.

Singer Featherweight 222K free-arm machine. Excellent condition, recently refurbished and in perfect working condition comes with the case, manuals, and all the usual parts and feet, plus extras. $750 - a steal!

I also have two Husqvarna Viking sewing machines. Both are in excellent working condition, have been recently serviced, and come with manuals and *tons* of extra parts, feet, accessories, etc. They usually go for the prices given below without all the extras, but I'm throwing them in for free.
Rose- a great basic machine. Lots of parts and extras: $400
Designer 1- Advanced sewing plus embroidery: $700

Plus an antique fabric pinking machine, feathers, fabrics, trims, veiling, and lots more.

See you there!

Calling All Milliners: Huge Supplies Sale 4/25-26

House of Nines Design is moving to NYC this summer and before we go, we're teaming up with 3 other milliners for a huge sale of millinery supplies and materials.

Friday & Saturday, April 25 & 26, 10:00 - 4:00
Wayne Wichern Millinery Studio

Felt & Straw Hoods - Cartwheels
Fancy Straw Braids
Big bags of good felt scraps, for you drapers
Millinery Flowers, Ribbons, Trims, Buttons, Fabrics
Feathers, Veiling, Netting

Millinery sewing machines: Straight and zig zag stitch
Millinery and hatter's tools
Antique pinking machines
Sample Sale - Blocked Felt & Straw Hats
Vintage sewing manuals
Sewing patterns



Home sewing machines, all recently serviced and fully loaded with tons of feet and accessories: Singer Featherweight freearm 222K, Husqvarna Viking Rose, Husqvarna Viking Designer 1

Hat Blocks

And more!


Four milliner's combined overstock and closeout supplies!

Location:
Wayne Wichern Millinery
Peninsula Museum of Art / Peninsula Art Institute - Studio 7
1777 California Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010
650 369 4336

Directions:

From Highway 101 take the Millbrae Avenue exit and go west on Millbrae up and over the train bridge. Turn left (south) on El Camino Real to Trousdale Drive. Turn left onto Trousdale Drive. On your right you will see a sign for the 1766 El Camino Real Building and feather banners for Peninsula Museum of Art. Turn right into the driveway/parking lot and you will see the new entrance for the Peninsula Art Institute and the Peninsula Museum of Art at the back of the building. A new address and entrance were created for PAI/PMA because we share the building with the Mills Peninsula Hospital HR Department. The new address is 1777 California Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010.

From Interstate 280 take the Trousdale Drive exit and follow down the hill to El Camino Real. Cross El Camino Real, on your right you will see a sign for the 1766 El Camino Real Building and feather banners for Peninsula Museum of Art. Turn right into the driveway/parking lot and you will see the new entrance for the Peninsula Art Institute and the Peninsula Museum of Art at the back of the building. A new address and entrance were created for PAI/PMA because we share the building with the Mills Peninsula Hospital HR Department. The new address is 1777 California Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010. Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/rR2w8 

The building address on El Camino is 1766. 1777 is on the back side of the building. Driveway on California or on Trousdale between 1766 and the Burlingame Police Station.

Wayne’s studio number is 650 369 4336 if you have questions or need additional directions.

Big News: Move to NYC

Lots of big news here. My husband John & I have decided to try our luck in New York- we are currently packing everything we own into storage, including the entire House of Nines Design workshop, and renting a short-term sublet in Manhattan for June and July. If everything goes well and we decide to stay (the likeliest outcome), we'll find a more permanent home and send for our things in August.

In the meantime, I can't take any more orders until I have the new House of Nines Design studio set up, either in NYC or San Francisco, sometime in August or September.  Ready-to-wear House of Nines hats will still be available through the summer at all of our other retailers- see the list under the 'Shop' heading on the right side of this page.

I'm thrilled to be spending the summer in New York! First on the long list of things I can't wait to do is to attend the Charles James show at the Met. Without hats to make, I'll have more time to post about that show and other things we do and see in NY, as well as House of Nines news, so watch the blog, facebook or twitter for news & updates.