Poptastic Bride and Draped Hats

A House of Nines Design hat was recently featured with a gorgeous custom wedding gown by Dark Garden Corsetry on the blog Poptastic Bride.

The post features gorgeous photos by Jude Mooney.

 

For more photos from the shoot, see the full blog post here.







Some of you may remember this hat from an earlier post I made about my trip to Venice, Italy for Carnival in 2011. Here's a photo of me wearing it at the famous Caffe Florian on St. Mark's Square (with a different outfit, also by Dark Garden):

 

I've been going to Carnival for the last two years, and it's given me plenty of inspiration and impetus for creating some over-the-top, historically-inspired hats. Cocked hats, like tricorns and this bicorn, are especially fun to make, because after blocking the crown of the hat I shape the brim entirely by hand. Although I still use blocks to create most of my hat shapes, I have ventured more into draping the shapes lately, which is essentially hand-sculpting. For more information about hat blocks and how hats are made, see this post.

But draping isn't just for historical hats, I also use the same technique to make simpler, more modern hats like the Maxima, which is available now on my Etsy shop in several colors, with additional colors (pink! and more) coming for Fall/Winter 2012.

 

Thinking About Summer

I'm thinking of organizing a game of croquet and picnic in Golden Gate Park in September. Pim's cup, little sandwiches, everybody in whites. Who's in?

All New Orders Now on Sale 25% Through March

All new orders are now on sale 25% through March. Just contact me directly to place a custom order and mention the sale, or use the coupon code "MARCH25" on my Etsy store.

OK Spring, So Sprung Already

For the last few weeks I've been prototyping and making samples for my new spring / summer line. It's going well! Working up to the release of new styles always seems to take so long, but I'll have lots of new hats available soon, including several totally new hat shapes for men and women. I'm expanding my straw hat selection and my mens hat line this year, which is super exciting.

It's been kind of hard to think about making summer hats for blue skies and warm weather, given all the crappy rainy days we've had here in San Francisco lately. But, I'm looking forward to some new types of straw I'm adding to my line, especially the finely woven, high-quality panama straws I bought yesterday to add to my stock of materials. They are entirely hand-woven in Ecuador of natural unbleached straw. The texture, the weave and the color are just gorgeous. I could only get a limited number of them, so I'll be making a sample hat or two then saving the rest of the unblocked bodies for custom orders. If you want to see them for a possible custom project, just let me know.

March? Already?

I recently returned from another grand tour of Carnival in Venice, Italy. As usual, it was the kind of vacation that you need another vacation to recover from. Not that I'm complaining. It was just one costume party after another, each better than the last. If, like me, you love clothing-as-art, it's pure magic and always over too soon. Somehow, we forgot to take photos this year, but photos that others took of us are popping up on facebook, I'll make another blog post soon after I gather a bunch and ask permission for their use.

It seems like every year spring sneaks up on me. I hardly have time to sit down after the holiday rush, and the spring / summer hat season has already started. With all the races coming up, and bridal already booming, I'm hip-deep in prototypes for my new spring / summer and bridal lines in addition to a major pile-up of custom orders. This year I'm expanding my horizons to include a lot more straw hats and casual styles to accompany my top hats and other minis, which are still selling like gangbusters. Men's full size hats are also getting more attention with several new styles. Photos of all these should be ready in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I'm preparing to go to Hat Camp at the end of the month, it's an annual hat makers conference that's being held in LA this year. Looking forward to seeing old friends, meeting new people, visiting hat shops, and doing some shopping in the garment district. If you're interested in meeting with me to discuss a custom order, or possible wholesaling of my hats at your shop, contact me to arrange a meeting. I'll have a trunkload of samples to show, and also my conformateur in tow for anyone who might like to avail themselves of my custom hat shaping service.

Coming to LA Soon

I'll be in the LA area March 23-27. If anybody wants to see some samples and discuss a custom order or wholesaling, let's arrange to meet.

My conformateur set will also be coming along, if anyone wants head shape measurements taken for custom hats. Read more about this amazing machine here.