Stephen Jones Contest for 'Hats, An Anthology'

I've just entered a hat making competition organized by leading milliner Stephen Jones. Here's the link to my entry.

The winner will be chosen by Stephen Jones and Dolly Jones, editor of Britain's Vogue.com. People can vote online for their favorite hat until August 18th, and special consideration will be given to top voted entries. If you like my work, please vote for me! To do so, just follow the link above and click 'Vote' to vote by Facebook or Twitter. Or, you can send a vote by text message by texting "TH YGW8DF" to 75572. It's easy and free.

The winning hat will be shown along with the museum exhibition 'Hats, an Anthology' at Bard Graduate Center in New York City, from September 15, 2011 to April 15, 2012. The winner will get to go to the opening night of the exhibit, and also be offered a 2-week internship at Stephen Jones Millinery in London. As you can imagine, I'm excited beyond words with this amazing opportunity.

Here are photos of my entry, titled 'Yvette, en vert'.

This top hat was created specially for the contest with custom-made, one-of-a-kind blocks from Guy Morse Brown Hat Blocks in the UK, and inspired by the little ‘doll’ hats popular in the late 1930s through WWII, especially the work of Parisian milliner Yvette Delort. It’s asymmetrical, a complex shape that looks different from every angle. It's modeled here by lovely Autumn Adamme of Dark Garden Corsetry.

Catherine at Ascot

Lovely Catherine of Guy Morse Brown Hat Blocks just sent me two photos of herself, wearing her custom Yvette mini top hat, in red beaver with black trim. I'm so thrilled that she likes it, and that it made it to Ascot!

Sat Aug 13: FasHioNaTion Local Hatmaker Design Show

I'm participating in a hat sale on Saturday afternoon, August 13th with Dollymop, Jasmin Zorlu, Paul’s Hatworks, Kitty Andrews Millinery, and Hey Sailor! Hats, among others.

The show should be interesting, as the work of all these hat makers is so different from each other, exhibiting a wide array of hat making techniques and styles from classic to outrageous.

It'll be a great chance to preview my Fall / Winter hats and take your pick of the litter, as I'll have a bunch of new styles with me that nobody has seen yet. I hope to see you there.


FasHioNaTion: A Local Hat Maker Design Show

When: Saturday August 13th, 1pm to 5pm

Where: Warehouse 416

416 26th St

Oakland, CA 94162

How much: Free and open to the public

Conformateur Update

Just received my conformateur set back from a full restoration. It looks gorgeous. Can't wait to use it to offer custom shaping.

One Day Sale - 25% off at Dark Garden on 7/17

One day only: House of Nines Design hats will be on sale at 25% off during Dark Garden's annual rummage sale. Sunday 7/17 11am-5pm.

As usual they will be selling fabric remnants, leather scraps, findings, Cinderella corsets, gently worn archive stock and customers’ “outgrown” corsets, as well as offering discounts on some clothing in stock.

Don't miss it!

Gearing up for Fall

My fall collection is slow in coming together, but there has been a lot of R&D. I'm starting to make new types of trims: handmade (by me, of course) flowers sculpted from silk satin, silk velvet, cotton velveteen, silk taffeta, silk organza, etc. These are going to go on lots of new hats styles, especially for bridal.

Also, I've been learning some new featherwork, and ribbonwork styles.

I've got another set of brand new, custom hat blocks en route from Guy Morse Brown Hatblocks in the UK, so new shapes are also on the way.

Customer Photos: Irina & Len

Thanks to Irina and Len for sending in these fantastic shots from their wedding engagement photos.

Irina wears a Belle Epoch mini top hat in charcoal gray long-nap fur felt with black trim.










See the full set of photos here.

Photos by Arrowood Photography
Weddings | Spaces | People
www.ArrowoodPhotography.com
www.TaraArrowood.com