International Millinery Forum 2012--part 1

So WHERE do I begin?!  Seriously, WHERE!  So many things to tell you about the most amazing millinery event anywhere in the world.

First of all, there were 15 millinery instructors from all over the world, teaching 200 millinery students from all over the world.  Then mix in the fact that it was held Down Under, in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia;  add so much creative electricity that you could shock yourself, and what you'd end up with is just a glimpse of what being at the International Millinery Forum 2012 was all about.  Yes...I'm gushing.

I'll start at the beginning.  I traveled to Australia on January 10 and arrived on January 12...crossing the International Dateline.  Trust me it is a loooooong flight, and I had to get all the way across the USA before I began the 15 hour flight to Sydney!  I arrived in the morning, got to my hotel in Potts Point (Sydney) and this was the view out my hotel window.  I did not want to leave.

While still at the airport I ran into Chicago milliner Eia Radosavljevic, a fellow IMF instructor, who had just flown into Sydney on another flight.  We decided to get together the next day and go to one of my 'must do' things while in Sydney--a ferry ride across the Sydney harbor to Manly Beach, MY favorite beach in Sydney.  We hooked up at Circular Quay and yakked all the way to Manly, past the Sydney Heads.  Once we arrived this is one of the locals we met on our walk along the beach!  Lovely, isn't s/he? AND there was a partner to this one too!

Beautiful afterdark silhouette of my view of Sydney harbor.

Anyway, that was Friday.  On Saturday I arrived at Sydney airport for the flight to Wagga Wagga.  And what a millinery reunion there was at the gate!  Tutors (instructors) at the gate were:  Eia, Irish milliner Lina Stein, Sydney milliners Rosie Boylan, Neil Grigg and Jane Stoddart,  Queensland fibre artist Carol Wilkes, and myself...all headed to IMF  I'm sure we scared the other people on our flight, which was a very small plane! Lots of hatboxes!

After landing, everyone dispersed to their hotels and hosting families, to get ready for the tutor meet and greet that evening.  Lots of reunions, including mine with my millinery instructor from many years ago, Waltraud Reiner of Torb & Reiner, from Melbourne. Here's the list of millinery tutors for the week:

Kerrie Stanley (Melbourne)

Carol Wilkes (Queensland)

Rosie Boylan (Sydney)

Lina Stein (Ireland)

Eia Radosavljevic (USA)

Neil Grigg (Sydney)

Jane Stoddart (Sydney)

Waltraud Reiner (Melbourne)

Serena Lindeman (Melbourne)

Jasmin Zorlu (USA)

Louise McDonald (Sydney)

Pam Martin (Wagga Wagga)

Eugenie Van Oirschot (Netherlands)

Carol Maher (Sydney)

and Moi (USA)

The next day was the Trade Expo with millinery suppliers from all over Australia.  I couldn't wait to get to Mimi Millinery, from Queensland.  Harold has incredible vintage millinery materials you just can't find anymore.  Here are a few pictures of that frantic but fun experience.

That's Harold in the center writing orders as fast as he can!

Hatters Millinery Supply from Sydney.

Hatblocks galore!  All of these sold within minutes of the doors opening.  Doug does a fabulous job creating all kinds of shapes--brims, crowns, fascinators.

Three very tired (and spent!) millinery tutors: (L to R) Eia, Lina, Serena.

That night was the official opening of the International Millinery Form, with a Mayoral Reception.  All the tutors rode in vintage cars to the reception and were met by all the delegates and the Lord Mayor in full regalia.

Waiting to load up in these fantastic cars for our tour of Wagga and arrival at the Wagga Civic Center.

My carmate, Jasmin Zorlu in a smashing vintage black straw hat!

Eia in her chariot! 

The USA contingent--me, Eia, Jasmin, on our way to the opening cocktail party.

(L to R)  Carol Maher, Eugenie Van Oirschot, Serena Lindeman.

The amazing Mr. Neil Grigg!!

Arrival!  Waltraud, me and Jasmin.

The Lord Mayor and Eugenie.

Neil in the foreground, with Waltraud and the Mayor in the background.

After the official opening all the tutors were featured in a hat fashion show, emceed by fashion guru Susie Ehlerman.

A few shots from behind the scenes with models and some of the tutors.

Rosie and one of the hats she made for Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge.  Crystal tophat extraordinaire!

Serena and her model.  Great line and color.

Waltraud and one of her sensational jinsin pieces, what she's famous for!

Neil with Kree in a gorgeous hot pink number.  Beautiful!  Kree is the daughter of the family I stayed with in Wagga.

Carol's feather fantasies!  Huge and fabulous!

Hats by the amazingly talented Eugenie.  I have loved her work for years.  She's a past recipient of Hat Designer of the Year that The Hat Magazine sponsors each year.  I am always in awe of her.

My two hats--All Decked Out and Flights of Fancy.  I'll talk about them later.

And for the grand finale of the evening, the Riverina Millinery Association hosted the opening of their exhibit of wonderful hats.  We were all blown away by the diversity of the styles.

I'll be posting at least one more post about the Forum which will include info about my classes and the grand gala.

Photos by Eia, Jasmin and myself.

Hat Show Video

The last post on this blog was all about the recent hat show I produced, entitled aMuse's 2nd Annual Haute Hats--Spring in Paris. Three milliners besides myself showed our hats on a beautiful spring day here in Wilmington--Diane Shagott, Jenny Pfanenstiel and Andre Baxter. This is a quick add-on to the last blog entry.

Click http://vimeo.com/21185495 for a short video of our recent hat show! I think you'll like!

Milliner--Jan Wutkowski (L), milliner--Diane Shagott (R)

Love this hat by Diane! It was inadvertently deleted from the last post; I really like this hat and decided it MUST be on the blog.

Please scroll down to see the last post...the one with all the pictures from the show. Enjoy!

aMuse's Haute Hats Show--Spring in Paris

Wow! It has been quite a while since I have posted on this blog. I have been incredibly busy making hats, hats, hats for my annual show. It has now been 2 weeks since the show and I am finally able to breathe just a bit. With that said, I want to share with you the experience. It is hard but very worthwhile work to plan and execute this type event.

This year's event was called aMuse's 2nd Annual Haute Hats Show--Spring in Paris. We held it in a beautiful venue in our historic district. The historic building has a stunning balcony and staircase which we used to our advantage in presenting the models with the hats from 4 milliners: Diane Shagott of http://www.hatstodifor.com, Andre Baxter of http://www.designsbyandre.com/ , Jenny Pfanenstiel of http://www.formeonlineshop.com/ and myself. Each of these milliners is a former student of mine. They do beautiful hats, each handcrafted with old-world craftmanship they've learned in class.

I'll post very little text throughout this post. I want you to enjoy the beauty of the hats and models. I'd love to get your opinions of the show. Please post your comments.

BTW, all photography is by a very talented and detail-oriented photographer Lisa Brown of http://www.bellarosephoto.com/. Her work is phenomenal and I think you will agree.

Designed by Lisa to represent a vintage Parisienne postcard...filled with images from the show.

Backstage before the show. Models are donning the hats, dresses, vintage jewelry, bags, and gloves before hitting the staircase.

My very good friend and astounding fashion stylist, 'Style Girl' Jess James, in one of my hats. Jess styled all the models in hats, dresses, jewelry and other accessories. Amazing eye for style! She publishes a weekly newsletter chocked full of fashion tips. Sign up for her newsletter at http://stylegirljessjames.com/.
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Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Pre-show and ready to go!

Milliner--Jenny Pfanenstiel

Milliner Diane Shagott (center) chats it up at lunch with local fashion blogger, donning one of Diane's beautiful hats.

Milliner--Jenny Pfanenstiel (L), milliner--Jan Wutkowski (R)

Milliner--Jenny Pfanenstiel

Milliner--Andre Baxter

Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Milliner--Diane Shagott

Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Milliner--Andre Baxter

Finale bride! Isn't she gorgeous? Milliner--Jan Wutkowski

Milliner Diane Shagott (center) and the finale models in her hats. Beautiful ladies, beautiful work! Fabulous, Diane!!

Milliner Andre Baxter surrounded by gorgeous models in his finale hats. Fabulous work, Andre!

Final staircase shot with all the models in their finale hats and fascinators. This was a very vintage-inspired show and one I think the models had fun with. Very different from the show they are accustomed to working. Great work beautiful ladies!!

Final postcard montage from Lisa. Don't you love it??

Thanks for reading.

Wire Frame Construction Hat--To Santiago, Chile

Before Christmas I was contacted by a potential client in Santiago, Chile--a gentleman who wanted to surprise is fiancee with a hat for Christmas. What a great guy, huh?

Below you see the picture of the inspiration hat. He had some changes, such as: straw crown, no polka dots, not as sheer, no flower or other embellishment, all black, straight brim.

After many emails back and forth across the distance, I started the project. Since I had to make some assumptions about the hat in the supplied picture, I decided that I'd use a wire construction brim. Instructions were that the brim was to be 8-9" wide! Now that's a WIDE brim, especially when using sheer fabric.

Follow the pictures below in the process of making this hat.

Blocking the crown from parisisal straw. Simple crown shape.

Black millinery wire, #18 guage. By using black wire with black fabric I didn't have to cover the wire with ribbon or fabric. You will see the wire because the fabric is sheer.

Cut and bound headsize rings, cut to the customer's headsize and ovaled out. Our heads are oval, not round.

The bracing wires have all been cut and shaped. They will hold the two headsize rings together.

Voila! A headsize piece for supporting the crown and the brim. A very important piece of the puzzle!

I've cut and joined the outsize brim wire. This was done with the 8-9" wide brim specification in mind.

I took the brim wire and used it as the 'pattern' for cutting the silk organdy--a stiff but sheer fabric I had on hand. It is a beautiful crisp fabric, perfect for this job. Note that I have cut TWO pieces of the brim fabric. One will lie on top of the wire and one on bottom. Remember that the client didn't want the brim to be TOO sheer, hince the double thickness of fabric.

Headsize opening cut out.

I've left out a couple of steps here. Suppose I was so intent on making the hat I forgot to document a few steps. Anyway, note that I've attached the headsize ring to the brim edge by using three arched pieces of wire. I did this instead of just typical straight wires because I wanted to add some visual interest. Particularly since you will see the wires as a part of the hat design.

Overlapping the cut fabric edge to the bottom headsize ring.

I chose to attach the lower fabric piece first. Here I'm attaching it to the brim edge. I don't have to worry too much about what this looks like because I know it will all be covered with a bias fabric strip eventually. Eventually! I do, however, pay close attention to make sure I'm pulling tight enough that the fabric is not drooping. It needs to be fairly tight.

Close-up of the stitching. Just an overhand stitch across the wire.

Trimming away the excess. Although I'll be putting on a bias strip, the sheer needs to be cut down so that it is not so wide as to be seen past the bias strip. Careful with the trimming!

Ready to attach the upper brim fabric.

This part is now complete. Whew! That took some time and patience, let me tell you. Since there is no block or other guide to this structure, you need to always be checking all parts of the hat. Things can go awry and get out of shape very easily. Check, check, check.

Close-up of the wide bias strip I added. Always adds a bit of luxury to a hat!

The crown has now been placed over the headsize rings and has been stitched into place.

Hatband added and that is the final step! Complete!!

The hat was so wide I had a hard time photographing it. Not a very glamorous shot here on my living room carpet. Keep in mind the brim is 8" wide from the headsize to the brim edge. Much bigger than it looks here with no reference.

Here she is on a mannequin head. I do love this hat and may try to recreate it for the upcoming hat show I'll be doing. However, it will not be exactly the same. I DON'T make the same hat twice.

Thanks for reading!!