Hats in France and Italy: an assortment

 During our first week in Paris we discovered there would be an art opening, while we were traveling, that was completely dedicated to Coco Chanel.  I'm sure everyone reading this blog will know that Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel was a milliner before she started her couture fashion house in Paris.

The paintings you will see here were from that incredible exhibit at the Opera Gallery on St. Honore, entitled Coco: The Testimony of Black and White.  The artist, Lita Cabellut, has a very unique biography.  She was born to a prostitute in Barcelona, never knew her father, raised by a Gypsy grandmother, who never sent her to school.  Somehow she ended up attending an art school in Amsterdam.  Quite a remarkable story!

When we returned to Paris at the end of our trip, I was set on seeing the exhibit.  What I didn't expect was the SIZE of these paintings!  Most would not fit on any of our living room walls.  They were HUGE!  I was so drawn to these very mesmerizing painting and the vibrant spirit they created in the space. 

If I remember correctly, there were 34 paintings in the exhibit, with the vast majority of them being paintings of Chanel.  A few were of her models...I'm assuming models she had with here for quite a while in the couture business.

Again, as you look at these, imagine they are the size of living room walls...from ceiling to floor...and larger!

The following photos are random shots of hat-related sights in France and Italy.  Enjoy for what they are.

 In a shop window in Montmartre, Paris.

We stayed in Vernazza, Italy, in the Cinque Terre, for several days.  The shots above and below were from a restaurant right on the harbor.  All their centerpieces for tables were hats!  Love it!

The photo below is from Nice...the French Rivera.  We were strolling along the Promenade des Anglais, looked down on the top of a cafe, and saw this!  Seagull with top hat!

That's it for my posts about France and Italy.  Hope you enjoyed.  And thanks for reading!

Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting--Millinery Course in France

 Part Two of my trip to France.  Here's the real reason I went to France...to teach!  Yes, it was a great reason to see the beautiful sites in Paris, Nice, and Cinque Terre (Italy) leading up to our arrival in St. Quentin La Poterie, in the South of France, but teaching was the 'working' part of the trip.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile you know I love teaching and passing on millinery skills.  But being able to teach these skills in France was an absolute honor.  And I thank Lucy Till for the opportunity.  If you are ever in the area around Uzes or Avignon, make a trip to St. Quentin and specifically to Lucy's atelier.

 St. Quentin is a tiny village just bursting with creativity as it has been an important pottery making area for hundreds of years...something about the clay in this area.  But there is also something about shaping and molding felts and straws that seems to be a perfect fit.  And besides, a village needs more than just one type of craft, right?  Note Lucy's sign in aqua...Creatrice de Chapeau!

One of the flat felt skirting hats, in progress.  Flat felt is worked differently than capelines and hoods, as patterned pieces of felt are stitched together.  Lovely use of color here. Note she's marked CF on her creation with a beaded pin.  For those of you who are new to millinery...we always mark center front (CF) on our hats and it is either done with a pin or with a stitch of thread.

A picture of Lucy working hard on one of her flat felt hats.  We worked around Lucy's big table in the center of the shop.  This created lots of interest from passers-by, many who came in to see exactly what all these women were doing!  

I took quite a few patterns that everyone could be use to make their vintage-inspired hats.  All my patterns have been taken from actual vintage hats.  I've collected flat felt hats through the years and took about 6 of them to France with me, again, as inspiration.

Here's another hat in progress, taken from one of the vintage hats I took along.  Wish I had a picture to show of the finished product AND the vintage hat.  The drooping part you see will eventually be pulled up and under itself to create a doubled brim piece, also gathered to make it fit nicely.

In the background you see a beautiful grey velour hat of Lucy's.  She was recreating it in purple, for a customer. Loved the positive/negative leaves from the cutouts along the brim.

On the last day of class, a Friday, the shop became a fun-filled gathering spot!  Lots of people in the shop trying on Lucy's hats, and yes, observing what we were doing with felt.  I have to tell you a quick little story about the lady on the far right.

She and her husband, along with two other couples, were visiting from the US.  Everyone in class spoke English so lots of conversation ensued.  It turns out all 6 were from Mississippi, my home state!  What are the odds of finding someone from home in a tiny village in France?  Anyway, the woman on the right wanted to buy hats for her granddaughters back in Mississippi.  Lucy only had the one children's hat, the teacup hat in from of the customer.  Ah, but she needed THREE hats.  Could we make her three hats before the end of the day????  They were leaving the area the next morning.

 Here the discussion of what we would/could make, price negotiations, time negotiations (!) and the purchasing of even more hats from Lucy's shop!  We decided on flat felt berets as this was the quickest thing we would be able to make in a matter of hours, a typical French 'hat', and a great souvenir from Grandmother's trip. BUT we didn't know the children's headsizes.  However, being industrious milliners we came up with a design plan and got to work. In a hurry!!! Lucy and I had less than 4 hours to design, work out the problems with a new design, cut, create, and embellish.

 Meanwhile, Meaghan and Sarah finished up their hats.  As it turned out, we spent a good deal of time on that Friday doing free-formed felt.  Everyone was astounded at the many designs you can create with this method.  Even though it wasn't a part of the class curriculum I think everyone found a new, easy way to create some fabulous hats--free-forming!  Meaghan, Sarah, Katia, and even Lucy are now anxious to get going on these type hats.

Here's a picture of the finished product you saw earlier in the post, and a fabulous heart-shaped hat that was free-formed by Sarah.

And lastly, and I do mean lastly (it was a looong afternoon!), our gentleman from Mississippi came and picked up all the hats for his wife and granddaughters.  I just HAD to take a picture of him with a big grin on his face and a pink bag to walk down the street with!  Priceless!

Paris Millinery--Supplies, Blockmakers and More!

Back from France and Italy!  I have so many things to tell you. I'll probably break the trip into two posts.

But first---PARIS!  This was my first trip to the City of Lights and I can tell you I can't wait to get back.  What a beautiful city!  Lots of hustle and bustle, but somehow at a slower pace, if that makes sense.  I love the cafe society, the long lunches, the lighter fare, and of course the fashionable French women...and men.

But this post is about the millinery establishments I visited...and wanted to visit while there.

First, La Forme.  If you are not familiar with La Forme I am here to tell you that this is probably one of the last 'true' hatblock makers in the world.  Yes, there are those you make fabulous blocks on a lathe.  One of these is Guy Morse-Brown, in the UK, who makes outstanding crown, brim and fascinator blocks.  (I stayed with Guy and Ann when I taught at the Womborne School of Millinery and they are lovely people.) But there is a difference in what Monsieur Lorenzo Re does.  He actually carves the blocks by hand; a sculptor of wood. And you should see the sculptures!


I had contacted Madame Re to ask for an appointment and was graciously given one.  La Forme is almost hidden.  It took my husband and me over an hour to locate their establishment and we had a map and an address!  Later we discovered this is not unusual in finding addresses in Paris. If you look closely you will see that I'm pointing to the tiny sign announcing La Forme!

We were ushered into their apartment and Lucie Re and I quickly discovered that they didn't speak English and my French is so very poor that we both relied on the few words we knew in common.  I was a little intimidated being in the company of such an important man in the industry! Monsieur Re acknowledged me as we entered but continued to work on a very curvacious block for some lucky milliner.

I was not allowed to take pictures inside his workshop, which was much smaller than I would have imagined, but absolutely chock-a-block (pardon the pun) with sweeping, swirling hatblocks.  Truly incredible!  My breath was practically taken away with the range I saw there.

I asked if any were for sale.  Yes, with a waiting period of about 6 weeks. Not bad.  How much for the incredible swirled beauty I fell in love with?  600 Euros.  You do the math....

I asked cryptically, "Philip Treacy, Stephen Jones?" "Oui!" responded Madame Re. So THIS is where Philip Treacy has those incredible hatblocks made! Some milliners send in illustrations of the blocks they want but the traditional way is to send a sparterie (or buckram, I suppose) model so that Monsieur Re can make an exact replica.  Cool!

Here's the picture of Madame Re and me in their foyer.

We left Paris and headed to the South of France and the Cinque Terre in Italy.  Also to my teaching assignment at Lucy Till Hats in St. Quentin La Poterie.  More about those in my next past.  Upon our return to Paris I found more millinery establishments.

I tried to no avail to get into Legeron, the foremost flowermaking atelier in the world.  They had agreed to give me an appointment, but when it came time to actually come through with the appointment I could never get a date set with them.  Maybe they were busy.  This is the ONE place I really wanted to visit.  I did find them and here is the picture.  I almost had the nerve to just go knock on their door, but it was lunch time, and you do NOT interrupt the French during lunch!  So, maybe next time.

Here's the picture of the entrance to Legeron anyhoo.

I also went to one of the few millinery supply houses in France--Artnuptia, also in the millinery district.  I bought some great printed and embroidered sinamay that we can't easily get in the US.  I also bought some flocked tulle that I've never seen.  They have lovely feathers and flowers as well, and many trimmed out hats that perhaps someone on staff makes.  My stash just arrived today!

Ultramod is another millinery and trim shop that I visited in the millinery area.  Beautiful old petersham from the WWII era, and some vintage blocks that I'd love to have.  Could have spent much money but I'd already spent my budget at Artnuptia.

That's it for this post.  I'll be adding other posts about the trip in the next week or so.

Thanks for reading!

Millinery Courses in France--Buckram, Surface Design, Feathers, Flat Felt

Have you heard that I'll be teaching in the South of France in October? No? Well, listen up!

Milliner Lucy Till has graciously invited me to teach in her beautiful atelier. Two classes--a one-week class entitled Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base...and Feathers!, and a shorter 3-day class entitled Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting, will be held in early October in St. Quentin La Poterie, near Uzes. Find out more about Lucy and the classes by clicking here.

Specific dates: Fabric/Buckram class is Oct. 3-7, and Flat Felt is Oct. 12-14.

Below you will see some examples of hats made by the two techniques. First up are 2 examples of hats made in a Fabric Frolic class in Australia several years ago. The last 3 pictures are of hats made in a Flat Felt class, also in Australia. Sooooo many options but here are a few.

One of many, many different ways of creating richly textured coverings from fabrics is pictured above. You will learn numerous surface design techniques for manipulating the fabrics by gathering, folding, pleating, darting, burning, overlaying, and other ways to make a textured fabric to cover your own buckram shapes, created in class. We'll make at least 3 hats in the class...and learn lots of ways to create feather mounts by cutting, curling, shaping and combining feathers commonly used in millinery.

Another example of covering a custom designed buckram shape with a custom created fabric.

The short 3-day class, using flat felt skirting (yardage), will concentrate on designing fabulous vintage styled hats and producing them from an age-old millinery medium---flat felt. You can 't make these style hats from hoods or capelines!

Below you see examples of flat felt hats.

Love to see some of my European readers for these classes! While they are listed as advanced classes on Lucy's website, they are, in fact open to anyone. I don't list any classes as beginner, intermediate or advanced, they're just all different skills. So don't let the advanced level scare you. None of the students in the above pictures had any skills in either technique and look what they created!

There is a max of 4 people for each class so don't delay in signing up! See you in France!! If you have any questions about class content, please contact me. If you have any questions about lodging, class fees, etc., please contact Lucy.

Au revoir!

2011 Millinery Classes/Workshops/Instruction

For those who have been asking....here is the millinery class schedule for 2011. If you are looking for millinery instruction on any number of skills, please consider these. Click here, http://www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm , for the schedule. (We have a new website, so if you do not see the new webpages, please 'refresh' your browser.)
Skills being taught this year are: French Flowermaking (Chicago, IL)--May; Wire: Bridal and Fascinators (Chicago, IL)--May; Big Brimmed Buckram Hats (Washington, DC)--June; Dyeing To Make Hats (Atlanta, GA)--July French Flowermaking: Roses & Orchids (Berkeley, CA)--July; Three Straw Hats and a Feather in Your Hat--John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)--August; Blockmaking and the Felt Hat--John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC)--August; Fabric Frolic On a Buckram Base...and Feathers! (St. Quentin La Poterie, France)--October; Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting (St. Quentin LaPoterie, France)--October.

Will we see YOU in class? Already scheduling 2012 millinery instruction. Will we be teaching hatmaking near you? Time will tell.... Happy hatmaking!

Millinery Classes Just Added--Chicago, Washington DC and France

Start saving your pennies! I've just announced a couple of classes--one very soon, one in the mid-term, and another over a year away. A year away? Yes, check it out below. Start saving your pennies! Further information, including class descriptions, can be found at my Classes webpage, www.hatshatshats.com/classes.htm .

November 13, 2010: Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting; Chicago, Illinois
November 14, 2010: Blocking a Wool Hood; Chicago, Illinois
Both classes being held at TLD Design Center in Westmont.

January 8-9, 2011: Sensational Sinamay (Straw)-- Two Techniques; Alexandria, Virginia (Washington, DC)
Class held at The Torpedo Factory, The Art League School.

October 1-8, 2011: Fabric Frolic on a Buckram Base...and Feathers!; St. Quentin La Poterie, near Uzes, in the South of France
October 14-16, 2011: Retro Hats From Flat Felt Skirting; St. Quentin La Poterie, France
Classes held at Lucy Till Hats.

Please contact the venues for information on Registration, as they will handle that.

I'll be adding more classes to the 2011 roster as they are finalized, but wanted these to go up now!

Hoping to see you in class!!!!