Now on sale at Dark Garden!

I just took a load of hats over to sell at Dark Garden Corsetry and Couture Clothing in San Francisco, here's what the newest ones look like.

See more photos on my Flickr page.

HON Trunk Show - December 19

Want to see what I've been up to? Come to my upcoming trunk show on Saturday, December 19th, from 2-5pm.

My show is part of a series of "Meet the Milliner" trunk shows being hosted by Alternative Design Studio - ADS Hats at 418 Valencia Street in San Francisco. The shows are every Saturday from November 28 through December 19th from 2-5pm, here's the full schedule:

November 28th: Elina Tachkova, owner of ADS hats, and designer of Alterknitive Cashmere hats.

December 5th: Jasmin Zorlu, exquisite fur felt and fish skin hats.

December 12th: Behida Dolic, incredible 1920’s Cloche hats.

December 19th: Me

My hats at the show will be a mix of holiday frippery, vintage-inspired, and the outright ridiculous: Little cocktail hats to wear with little black dresses, my take on 19th and 20th century chapeau, and some over-the-top hats that defy description. It'll be a party, I hope you can make it!

A little more steampunk

Another new Steampunk-inspired mini top hat style is now listed on Etsy. Combining the different brown tones and different materials was really fun.

A Few One-of-a-Kind Hats

Here are photos of a few one-off hats I recently completed. They are all for sale at ADS Hats.

The top hat with black and white striped ribbon is one-of-a-kind, I found just enough of that ribbon to make this hat. I will be making similar hats with other striped ribbon, but this one is pretty special.

The gray hat was harder to photograph, looks like I'm going to need to get a different colored backdrop for gray hats. The veiling is chin length. I can make this hat again, but the feathers on it are a rare antique piece that I may not be able to find again.

The red fedora was made on blocks I borrowed from Wayne Wichern. I wasn't planning to make another one, but might be able to borrow them again if there is a demand.

A Little Steampunk

Ok, I was going to save this for tomorrow, but I just can't wait. Another recently completed hat- this one is made using my mini Regency Top Hat block, in sage green felt with light and dark sage ribbonwork, natural-colored emu feathers, and clock parts and a metal button to finish the cockade.

I discovered emu feathers a few weeks ago, they're amazing! I'm a sucker for feathers that move around, and these nod all over the place, a real attention-getter. I'm having fun playing with these steampunk styles, it's really opening up my color palette.

This style for sale now on Etsy, and this exact hat will for sale be at Dark Garden Corsetry soon.

A Hat a Day

I've just completed and photographed a batch of hats, and will be posting them to the blog and to etsy in between working on the next batch. I'll be posting one or a couple per day, here's the first!

This burgundy red fur felt Whoville cocktail hat has matching vintage veiling and feathers. I recently bought a large amount of veiling from a defunct millinery factory in Oakland, and am having a great time thinking of ways to use it up- this is my first experiment with draping it turban-style. The feathers have a lot of movement, but the hat is surprisingly light and easy to wear- I think I'll have to make one like this for myself!

I'm a little bit worried that the Dr. Seuss estate might come down on me for using Whoville as a name (I hear they're pretty protective of their intellectual property), so I'm hunting for a new name for this hat, but I'm rather stumped as to what else to call this funny little block. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear them.

See Them in Person

Great news! I'm really excited to now be selling my hats at The Alternative Design Studio, ADS Hats in San Francisco. I took the first batch in recently, and will be adding more hats to ADS' showroom regularly in the weeks to come.

As most of the trimming materials I use are vintage, many of my hats are one-of-a-kind. So, ADS will be carrying models that aren't available online or anywhere else.

http://www.adshats.com/