It's nice, being versatile

Steph in Toronto originally bought this 'Belle Epoch' mini top hat to wear to her wedding, but finds it versatile enough to wear other places as well. In this photo, she sports it at a Canadian National Ballet fundraising gala.

Photo:
Paul-Mark Rendon / The Compendium Daily

Custom hat: Delirious Cute

Photos of my latest custom creation, this one for a gorgeous burlesque artist from Australia. Made with vintage long-nap fur felt, dupioni silk, fur puffs, and lots of hand-set Swarovski crystals for sparkle.

I've found a stash of several of these ultra-rare vintage long-nap felts in several colors. Most colors are one-of-a-kind, but there are several more lavender similar to this, as well as gold, greens, purple, chocolate, etc. I'll photograph them soon, they'll be available for custom orders.

Fall Preview

Here are some of my new styles for fall. More coming soon.

'Drake' is a smallish fedora, in five color combinations.

The popular 'Yvette' mini top hat in long-nap felt and hand-curled peacock feathers.

'Bacall' is a vintage-inspired ladies hat with fancy ribbon trim.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Wellington' now in leopard print long-nap felt and chocolate brown ribbon trim and feathers.

Dior by Dior

I'm reading a great autobiography by couturier Christan Dior.

Two of my favorite quotes:

"Personally I consider that a woman without a hat is not completely dressed."

"It would be out of the question to show a collection without hats."

Super shiny vintage felts

Want a hat like the one I made for the Stephen Jones hat contest? I have ordered several more super shiny vintage felts like that in various colors, available for custom orders soon. Write to me if interested.

Stephen Jones Hat Competition

Thanks so much to everybody who voted for me in the Stephen Jones hat competition! I truly appreciated all your support and kind words. I came in at 23rd place out of about 550 entries, with about 350 votes (they've taken the vote counts down now so I can't check the exact number). I'm completely thrilled and so grateful. Also, my entry received 4695 page views, an amazing amount of exposure. What a fun project and a fantastic opportunity.

The voting is over now. It's been a great experience and I'm really happy with the results. Stephen Jones, and Dolly Jones of British Vogue, will be making their final choice of winner and runner-ups to be announced on August 26th. Whatever happens, I'm planning to attend the opening of Jones' museum exhibition 'Hats, an Anthology' in mid-September. I'm busily working on a new outfit for the party in my free time (such as it is), part of which will be made by Dark Garden Corsetry, and I'll make the rest and a hat to match (of course). See you there?

House of Nines Design in Bill Cunningham's 'On The Street' Easter 2011

A few weeks ago, I went with my friend Jason to see the fantastic, sweet, inspiring documentary 'Bill Cunningham New York'. Since the 1960s, Cunningham has been working as a street fashion and society photographer, publishing a weekly fashion spread in the New York Times, among others. He is very influential and well-respected in the international fashion community for his ability to spot trends, his eye for fun and beauty, and his encyclopedic knowledge of fashion history. And, he's a lovely person. You just HAVE to see it. During the movie and afterward, I had a sad little wish that someday he would see my work (his previous career was as a milliner), although I doubted this was ever likely to happen. Little did I know, by that time he had already seen my work and liked it enough to photograph it, include it in the spread and slideshow, and even use it as the thumbnail representing the slideshow on the NYT website. I'm beyond thrilled!!!

Here's the spread.

And here's the photo. This is a Belle Epoch mini top hat in 'mink' long-nap felt, with matching veiling, a large gray/green cockade, and pheasant feathers. I remember this hat very well, it was a joy to make, the colors are really subtle and were fun to work with. I love how happy the lady looks wearing it!

Here's a link to the full slideshow.

The hat was purchased earlier this year, perhaps specially to wear to the parade, from ADS Hats in San Francisco.