Oh Joy! My Conformateur

I've just taken a huge plunge and invested in something that's been on my 'fantasy hat making' list for a long time- a conformateur set. I love these tools because they'll provide me with the rare ability to shape a hat to a customer's exact head *shape* in addition to their size. Something all new hat makers come to realize pretty quickly is that heads come in so many individual shapes; mass-produced hats are generally made in only one shape (regular, or average, oval), but every person's head is different, which is why so many people have a hard time finding hats to fit. It's similar to mass produced clothing, where since very few people have the same proportions of the 'average'-shaped fit model, the resulting clothes fit most people somewhat / not great, but fit many people not at all, and fit only very few people very well. Fit in hats can be even more important than in clothing, because there is so little tolerance between a hat that fits comfortably and a hat that doesn't. Custom shaping gives a much better fit than relying on size alone, and is even more important in harder hats, like traditional top hats and some bowlers, which are so stiff they're not even really wearable without a proper fit. I'd love to start producing really nice, old-school full size top hats, so being able to provide custom fitting is crucial for me.

In terms of my yearning for a conformateur set, it also doesn't hurt that the set looks like something invented by Jules Verne! I've been actively searching for one in good condition for some time, with little success until now. They're quite rare to find, and almost never seen with more than one piece of a set together. I've never seen *any* pieces in such excellent condition before, have never seen or even heard of a full set being found all together before, and don't expect to again.



This system for providing custom shaping for hats was invented by a French company called Maillard in the 19th century. Mine was patented by an Argentinian company called Vega.



Here is a diagram of a typical conformateur.



Maillard's initial design was originally intended to be used in phrenology, (some silly people in the 19th century thought that the shape of the skull dictated personality traits), but the machine was soon re-engineered for use in hat-making (much more practical).

Here's how it works.

The piece that looks like a top hat made from piano parts is the 'conformateur'.
It is placed on the head like so, at whatever angle the customer likes to wear their hat (tilted forward, back, straight on, etc.):



Here's mine:



The levers that come down from the top are attached to little fingers inside that are gently pushed inward to touch the head all around its circumference. There is also a vertical ruler on the side, attached to a pad inside that touches the top of the head, to measure the height of the head. Here's what the inside looks like (held upside down):




Just for comparison, to give you an idea of why I'm so excited, conformateurs are usually found in pretty rough shape, more like this:



Or at the very least dirty, rusty, with a few missing or broken pieces. And who knows how much wear and tear to the mechanical parts on the inside that's not apparent on first glance.

While the conformateur is on the head, after the fingers are pressed in so that they are conforming to the head shape, a piece of paper is placed into a frame on the top of the machine. Little pins stick out of the top of the machine, each one attached to one of the fingers, so that the pins now reflect the head shape as well, but in miniature. The frame swings down on a hinge to press the paper into the pins, perforating the paper. In this photo, you can see that the inside of the frame is lined in cork, and there are little holes in the cork where the pins have pressed.



The perforations in the paper make a pattern that's a recording of the person's head shape.



The hat maker then cuts the pattern out with scissors along the perforations to store for future use. Here are some examples of the paper patterns. Because it's a shrunken version of the person's head shape, any bumps and asymmetry in the head shape (we all have them) are exaggerated in the pattern, as you can see here.



In the next step, the paper pattern is used to re-create the customer's head shape with a different tool, called a formillon.



Most of the time, high-end mens hat makers use band blocks, discs of wood made to a set of standard head sizes and shapes (the measurement of the customer's head; regular oval, long oval, or broad oval), at the end of the hat-making process to set the size and shape of the hat.



What the formillon does is to create a custom band block for the customer, on the fly whenever needed, using the paper template as a guide. As you can imagine, depending on the circumstances of the individual hat maker, storing custom band blocks for lots of customers could be prohibitive in terms of storage space, not to mention expensive to have them all custom made. And in any case, a really good way to get the exact head shape is needed to create a custom band block in the first place (this is even fiddlier and more difficult to do than it sounds), which points back to the conformateur. I love the idea of being able to use one formillon to do custom shaping for an an unlimited number of customers, and all you have to store is the one set of tools plus the paper patterns.

The formillon also has little fingers like those on the inside of the conformateur. They are mounted on a brass oval, and can slide in and out to expand and contract to make different shapes.



The screws that hold the fingers in place are tightened down with a key, like this one from my set. I've never seen an antique conformateur key before, only seen them in period illustrations.



To re-create the shape of the customer's head, the paper pattern is mounted in the center of a plot board. You can see the little oval in the center, where the pattern goes. I've never come across an antique plot board before this one I've just purchased, only seen them in the patent illustrations and old hat making manuals.



Then, the formillon is placed around the pattern onto the board, pushing the inside end of its fingers to touch the edges of the paper, like so:





Here's my formillon on my plot board.



Because the fingers of the conformateur and the formillon are calibrated to correspond to each other, the outside edge of formillon now mirrors the shape of the customer's head as measured by the conformateur. For the final shaping, the finished hat is slipped down over the formillon and takes on its shape.

I've just purchased this set from a dealer in Argentina and await its arrival anxiously. It was advertised as being in museum condition, very close to mint condition, so I'm hoping it won't need very much work to get it up and running properly. I'll send it out for a bit of repair if needed, then I'll be able to roll out custom shaping as an additional service to my customers. All I'll need is to be able to take a measurement of their head once, and from then on can custom shape hats for them, even for long distance / mail order sales. I plan to have a travel box made for the comformateur so that I can take it with me when I travel to different cities, taking measurements as I go along. The possibilities! I'm totally thrilled.

See you at Capsule, May 1, Hayes Valley

I'm sharing a booth with Dark Garden Corsetry at the Capsule fashion event this coming weekend, Sunday May 1, in Hayes Valley (San Francisco).

I'll be showing new styles, one-offs, old favorites, and also taking special orders and appointments for design consultations. Drop by and pick up a coupon code for 10% off any custom order placed before May 31. Look for us on Linden between Octavia and Gough, just off Patricia's Green (the park at Octavia and Hayes).

Here's the flier:

Customer Photo from Joanna

Here's another great photo from Joanna in Brisbane. She's wearing a custom-designed 'Belle Epoch' mini top hat, the first of many one-of-a-kind hats Joanna has commissioned from me.



She requested something in a navy, brown and black color scheme, with a touch of steampunk style, to go with an outfit she planned wear to a Mad Hatter themed tea party. I always enjoy working with Joanna, she has such great ideas and is open to collaborating, which is inspiring to me as a designer.

Bridal Photos by Artstar in Style Me Pretty

A House of Nines Design bridal mini top hat has just been featured on Style Me Pretty's 'Little Black Book' blog.

The photos were taken by superb wedding photographer Laura Stone of Artstar Photography in Atlanta, GA. Even more photos, and information about the shoot, is on Artstar's blog.

The shoot resulted in tons of great photos, here are a few of my favorites.

New Retailer: Fino Fino. Also, Kate Middleton.

I've just delivered my first order to another retailer, Fino Fino in Menlo Park, CA.

It was my first (long overdue) trip to Fino Fino, a beautiful space packed with tons of great hats arranged for fun and easy browsing. Proprietress Carolyn Busch has a great eye for good headwear, and is very welcoming and helpful to her customers. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a visit.

Carolyn picked out some mini top hats from my 'Belle Epoch' line to add to her collection of cocktail hats and minis, which she said are increasing in popularity as Kate Middleton appears more and more in the press in similar styles. Here's a link to a great set of photos of Kate in different hats. Growing anticipation over Kate's upcoming wedding to Prince William seems to be having a noticeable effect on fashion in the US, with more and more young women showing greater interest in hats. As hats are a de rigueur part of ladies' wardrobes in the UK, undoubtedly Kate will continue to wear hats out and about once she's a princess, which will give the millinery industry a continuing boost. Great news all around.

New Customer Photo: Irina's Shako

Loyal House of Nines Design customer Irina received this one-of-a-kind mini hat as a birthday present from her boyfriend. It's a 'Shako' style mini fez in black long-nap beaver felt, with vintage black and white spotted veiling and black feather spikes. I'm honored that they've asked me to make them both hats for their upcoming wedding, as well!

Customer Question: How to Store Hats Properly

Thanks very much to my lovely loyal customer Beth Ann, who asked me recently for advice about hat storage. It was a great question, so I thought I'd share it with everybody.

Beth Ann has a growing collection of House of Nines Design hats, and wrote in "I love hatboxes, but they take up so much space. What would you recommend for hat storage in a small apartment? A hatstand? Do they still make those?"

Living in a small apartment, myself, I feel Beth Ann's pain.

Displaying hats temporarily on stands or pegs is ok, but I don't recommend storing hats that way for more than a few days at a time. I have stands to use in my studio, but the hats are only on them for a short time before shipping out. The problem with stands is that they usually have a part that protrudes up into the crown of the hat, so the weight of the whole hat is pulling at the top of the hat from the inside. Fabric or knitted hats can take this treatment without a problem, but felt hats are not designed for it. The weight of the hat should rest on the brim, not on the inside of the crown, or the shape can be distorted. Stands with hard pegs are the worst, but even padded stands can cause damage. Mannequin heads are fantastic, in terms of being the right shape for your hat to rest on, but hats can get faded and dusty from being exposed to sunlight and in the open air for a long time.

All House of Nines Design hats that are purchased from me directly (custom work, or from Etsy, etc.) come with a hat box like this:


But, once you buy several hats, the boxes start piling up... The best way to store hats would be in one hat per box, but that's difficult unless you have enough space. I have the same problem. So, I have several large boxes that I store multiple hats in. They are actually lightweight plastic drum cases, that look like this:



Even though the drum cases are large, they take up less total storage space than if each hat is packed in its own box individually. I like the 18x18x18 inch size, but they come in different sizes, and they're stackable. They also travel well, I've taken mine all over by airplane with no problem. You may be able to find them locally at a music instrument store, or maybe used on craigslist, etc. If you'd like to purchase one through me, contact me for pricing info. You could also search online for large cardboard hat boxes.

I also collect vintage hat and wig boxes, like these:



These usually measure about 13x13x13 inches, and I can fit about two full size hats, or three mini top hats, per box (just for reference). They're readily available online through sites that sell vintage stuff, like Etsy and Ebay. They're stackable, and the handles are nice. They're great for car travel, but not for air travel, as they're not strong enough to survive as checked baggage but they're too big for carry-on. You can get some good deals if you search around, I try to never pay more than $20 per vintage wig box. If you get this kind of box, be really careful not to catch the hats, especially veiling, in the zipper as you close it.

I don't recommend stacking hats without padding between them, or packing hats inside of other hats for storage. Instead, pack your hats one at a time into the box with plain white tissue paper (the gift kind, not Kleenex), so the hats are not touching or denting each other. The best thing is to lightly crumple big sheets of tissue paper, separated so you're only handling one sheet at a time. Scrunch the sheets a bit, but don't smash them so much that you lose the natural stiffness of the paper, as that's what will provide support for the hats. You want to make crinkled sheets, not hard, wadded-up balls, which can also damage the hats. Put down an inch or two of tissue at the bottom of the box, then gently pack each hat in with more tissue so the hat is supported on all sides. Place only one sheet in at a time. I try to have about two inches of tissue between each hat, and an inch or so of tissue padding around the entire inside of the box so the hats don't rub against the box. Pack it *lightly*, not tightly. You want the hats to kind of float in there in a cloud of tissue, so they're not getting dented or smashed, and to only use as much tissue as you actually need, so you're not adding extra weight. If you're packing hats for travel, fill the box to the top with crinkled sheets of tissue so the hats won't bang around inside. And the hats should be sitting upright in the box if possible. Think about placing the sturdiest hats toward the bottom, and more fragile hats toward the top, as the ones at the bottom will have the most weight on top of them. Remove feathers if possible before packing them, so the feathers don't get bent and also because the hats will take up less space that way, and as you pack, be sure that any ribbonwork on the hats is being gently supported by tissue, but not getting crushed or folded in weird ways.

House of Nines Design hats are little sculptures, they're fragile and should be handled and stored carefully. Proper packing and storage can help keep your hats in great shape for many years to come. Thanks again to Beth Ann for sending in this great question. If anybody else has questions about hat care, ask away, I'd be happy to offer any advice I can.