Fascinators, Kentucky Derby, Hat Wearing Events for Spring

Hello, everyone! It has been an incredibly busy Spring. I've been making hats non-stop since January. First for the hat show (several posts back), then our city's largest hat-wearing event in early April--Azalea Garden Party, then Easter, then the Royal Wedding, then Kentucky Derby.

I'm posting quite a few of the hats and fascinators I made for these events. Most were made to coordinate for specific dresses, but some of these were made for a trunk show before our local Royal Wedding event where, I'm happy to say, almost everyone there wore a fascinator! Thanks, Kate Middleton!

Sinamay base with 12" diameter silk flower, vintage green veiling, stripped coqs, curled biots, and a swirl of vintage rooster feathers.

Close-up of the fabulous vintage veiling--delicate and stylish.

Made for a client who had not been, up until this one, a hat-wearer. In fact, she specifically didn't want a hat that would draw attention to herself. However, after she wore this hat, gained some 'hat confidence' she came back and had me add more feathers and some hot pink veiling for another event. I love that kind of story! Now she is a dedicated hat-wearer!!

Close-up of the dyed peacock feathers, coarse petaled flower and a bit of the sinamay.

This hat was made for one of my models from the Spring in Paris show in March. She wanted a show stopper and this what she got. I love the way this hat turned out.

Made for the official photographer for the Azalea Garden Tour. She needed a hat that didn't have a brim, so that it wouldn't interfere with the camera, and one that was NOT traditional. Hence, the free-form, tri-colored sinamay fascinator. I actually added a vintage button to this after the picture was made, but was too busy to make another picture. Yikes!

Another custom-made hat to match a dress. Love this big lily.

Close-up of the lily and the peacock eyes. Guess you have noted that I love the green peacock feathers since they were in another hat further up this post.

Grape parisisal bowl base, 12" magenta flower, and ripped horsehair. This was made for the trunk show and was sold to a very happy customer for Kentucky Derby.

Vintage ribbon, fuzzy pussy willows, yellow rose, and forget-me-nots, all from my collection of vintage embellishments. This was one of my favorite traditional styled hats I made this season.

Black calla lilies, beauty-marked veiling and some rhinestones on the stamens. I added some aqua stripped coqs and this little darling went to the Kentucky Derby!


Vintage blocking net (lacy) form with multi-colored posies, some soft veiling, and a tuft of ostrich feathers.


Close-up of little yellow fascinator.


Simple and sophisticated. I made this as a give-away for a lucky attendee to the Royal Wedding event we had at the beautiful mansion next door to the shop. Confetti feathers!


Custom-made for a grandmother for her newborn grandson's christening! And she has the personality to pull it off.


Store stock...now sold. Made for the trunk show. Horsehair, guinnea feathers, and netted 'jewels' on a hairband.

Hope you enjoyed these. My next post will be about a custom made hat you are going to LOVE. I'll be showing each step of the process. So stay tuned! Thanks for reading and happy hatmaking!

Spring 2010 Hatwearing Events--Model Millinery

Happy Spring to all of you reading in the Northern Hemisphere! I am not a winter girl AT ALL and have been delighted that the flowers and Spring rains are here to brighten my world.

I've also embraced Spring because it is a marvelous time to create hats for the multitude of hatwearing events. In my city, Wilmington, North Carolina, we've just completed the biggest hatwearing event of the year--the North Carolina Azalea Festival, and the Garden Party that kicks the whole thing off. Hundreds and hundres of ladies don their best hats to eat barbeque, hobnob with the other attendees, drink champagne, and relish our beautiful azaleas! These parties go on from morning 'til night and having a fabulous hat is what it's all about.

I created more hats than I can count for the event this year. Some of them are posted below. I've also been making hats for Kentucky Derby and other Derby-inspired events here in town. Plus, weddings, commencements, and whew!, that makes for a very, very busy Spring. Enjoy!


Sinamay headband created for a customer attending a college commencement. I've included several views of this piece. Not sure how she will wear it on her head. Depending on how it is placed on the head, it can look very different. Which way do you like best?

This customer gave me a few guidelines on what she wanted and then let me run free with the design. I love it when a customer does this! It opens so many more possibilities.

I think this is my favorite angle. I like the sinamay 'leaves' sweeping down the face. But again, it is entirely up to the customer. If she asks my opinion I'll tell her what I think. I believe that is an important part of being a milliner--tactfully giving the customer your opinion on what makes her look best. They trust our ability to look at their face, their hair, their ensemble, and the hat, to give a positive impression.

This customer designed her hat completely! She is one of my models and knows what she looks good in. She even brought a colored sketch in for me to work by! Love this hat!

Another view. Note that the brim is offset so that part of the crown is seen under the brim.

One of my favorite Garden Party hats for this year. The fringed sinamay just really made the look of this hat come together.

The 'skirt' on this hat is actually made from a very, very wide florist's ribbon. There is wire in every strand of this ribbon, which makes the 'skirt' easily manipulated. Check out the glittery butterfly.

Hot pink, or azalea pink, is always popular for the Garden Party. I re-ordered three times!

Easter fascinator for the same customer as above. Another hat where I was given free reign in designing. Only guidelines were: must be a fascinator, must use turquoise and gold. I hear she made quite an impression with this hat.

Derby party hat. This has a huge brim and is very dramatic.

Garden Party hat worn by the President of the garden club. It made the front page of the paper!

Almost every hat I make is custom made for the customer. However, I do have handmade stock hats in the shop in abundance during this time of year. There are always a few people who wait too late to have something custome made for them. Choosing from the stock hats is their only option. But I was very fortunate to have the beautiful hats of 3 former students in the shop this year for them to choose from--Diane Shaggot, Jenny Pfenenstiel, and Andre Baxter. You'll see some of their hats in the last blog post about the fashion show.

While Kentucky Derby is still right around the corner, and I still have lots of hats to push out the door for that event, things have begun to settle down just a bit. I need a breather! However, next weekend I'm moving my shop to a new location. So another adventure begins! Never a dull moment here!

Happy hatmaking!

p.s. Check out my 2010 millinery class schedule on my webpage--http://www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm . Maybe I'll see you in class!

Wilmington's Hat Wearing Events

It has been insanely busy the last couple of weeks as Wilmington was getting (and is getting) attired for the hat wearing events of the year for us. Those would be Azalea Festival Garden Party, Easter, and the Jr. League's Mint Julep Jubilee, a Kentucky Derby event including Best Hat Contest (!). I've been making and selling hats as fast as I can!

Above you see two local fashionistas (in my hats!) on their way to a Garden Party after-party. Yes, you heard me right. Wilmington can't get enough of wearing their hats (and partying!) on the big day, so after the big hoopla where everyone who's anyone attends, they break into many, many after-parties to keep the festivities going--yachts, bars, restaurants, private homes.

These particular fashionistas happen to be friends of mine-- designer Amanda deLeon (left) and 'Style Girl' Jess James (right). Jess is the local fashion guru, and is known as 'Style Girl' not only through her newspaper column in the Wilmington Star News, but through many other events she coordinates throughout the year like fashion shows and style swaps. She does some seriously great work in styling fashion shoots too. You can usually check out her latest in Focus on the Coast, another of our local publications. Amanda just had a fabulous introduction into Charleston (SC) Fashion Week as one of the 4 semi-finalists...no easy feat since the competition was fierce. But she was a roaring success! See this page http://www.charlestonfashionweek.com/designers.html for more info on Amanda and Charleston Fashion Week. Congratulations, Amanda!

The above picture is Crystal, one of the members of Wilmington's Junior League. She looked stunning in every hat she tried on! Seriously! My new hat model??

I hosted the League Girl's Night Out recently as they preened for their Mint Julep Jubilee held on May 2--Kentucky Derby Day!! It is going to be a beautiful display of great hats, pretty dresses (and ladies), seersuckered men, Southern buffet, oh, and a horse race to watch.

Try on those hats, girls! There's a style for everyone! I think they had a good time and I know most had never been to a milliner before. Well, we are few and far between. We talked about how to wear a hat properly, colors, embellishments, custom work and time lines for getting a custom hat made. Verrry important!!

I know there are many hat wearing events this Spring all over the country. If ever there is a time to wear a hat it would be to one of these events. But if you don't feel comfortable in hats as a rule you will feel much more comfortable with everyone else wearing one. Yes? But be prepared for some attention...especially from the men as they loooooove a woman in a hat. Don't believe me?? Try it and see!