Hat Words to the Wise

Gotta love a clutch of feathers that shoot up from a headpiece. Or a vast sweep of felt that swoops like a 1930's perchy hat, veil intact. Some adore a vast brim, with miles of ribbon dangling.

But that's us, the hat wearers/lovers/aficionados of the world. It's definitely NOT the lady who sits behind you at the opera and politely asks you to remove your hat. Or the waiter who sneezes when your feather tickles his nose while he's pouring the Veuve. Or all your friends who wore no hat at all to that marvelous wedding in Ireland at the castle.

Hatiquette. Be forwarned....it ain't pretty.

Since hat wearing is finally coming into it's own after decades of snide remarks and snubbing by the masses, please allow me to impart a few words of wisdom:

Use the width of your shoulders to measure the brim span. If you go larger than that you can wind up looking like a mushroom.

Wear something that fits in the cab/car/limo if you're being driven to a function. That way, it's sure to be small enough not to offend that waiter. Or your Mother-in-Law.

Wear black to funerals. With veils.

Wear navy blue as an alternative to black.

Think over-the-top for the races. If you wear that little sun hat you bought in the Caribbean, someone might think you're the tour guide.

Be joyful when choosing your hat for a wedding. It's a celebration, after all. The bride will love you all the more for joining in the moment of her day.

Cocktail for evening. Large brimmed straw hats just aren't done in the evening.

Mothers-of-the-Brides/Grooms: wear a hat that let's people get up close to kiss you. Unless you can't stand your relatives.

Brides: knock 'em dead. It's your duty to shine, so go as far as you can handle.

Remember that it's your face that designs the hat. Your eyes should be luminous when you put that hat on. The hat is there to be the frame......not be the picture. And when people talk to you, they shouldn't be looking at your hat. If it's the right one, your face glows, your smile lights up, your eyes sparkle. Just look in the mirror at the millinery shop, and judge for yourself which hat does it's job.

Any questions?

Davy Crockett Forever

In 1954, Disney added a new hero to it's roster of kid appeal tv shows : Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Fess Parker played him with a woodsy swagger, a gentle demeanor, and a hero mentality. His outdoor duds became a new uniform for little boys across America, as they clamoured for coonskin caps. I never had one, so I don't know if they would have been girl friendly or not, but for decades, and even now, to see a racoon tail hanging from any hat is to remember Davy Crockett.

(PETA could have no problem with the racoons killed in the Old West, but today, a fur hat is anathema in some pc circles. In certain parts of the country, roadkill abounds, so a happy ending for that story would be to recycle. )

Along with many of our childhood heroes, and I speak of the 1950-60 range here, Disney as a brand brought America the light hearted point of view that real history didn't have. Fantasy has always been the land of choice when communicating with children, and Disney stood for magic, miracles and fairydust, generously sprinkled across a population of young citizens happy to embrace the cartoon projections. Not a bad thing, that, adding bright notes of imaginative interpretation to hard core.

Davy Crockett will always live as a real-life hero of the Alamo, but he's had another place in our hearts as a post-WWII blazer of trails all these years as well.

May the trails be alive with adventure and not fraught with adversity. Just put on your coonskin cap and forge ahead, whistling that theme song in your head.

Tokyo Does Ellen Christine

We're all over Japan this Spring, with our first wholesale customer touting our wares from coast to coast, Japan-style. The very wellbred store chain: "Iena", has now added Ellen Christine Millinery to their roster of retail wares to tantalize their customer base. With 43 stores, and a great eye for collection pieces, Iena presents a Francophile outlook on young fashion in Japan. They chose a clean cut natural panama straw fedora, edged in navy blue, for their Spring cover. Inside the catalogue, one of our parasisal cloches is perched jauntily atop a headscarf. Styled, appealing, and ours!

May they sell out in one week. Wait until you see what's in the stores for Fall 2010, Japan-fans!..

For Japanese speakers, go to their website for updates , trends, and products: http://iena.jp/new_arrival/original75.html

Ah, Spring

Subjectively speaking, spring represents straw hats. But what to do if the weather is still a bit on the chilly side? Do what the Victorians did: wear dark colored straws, trimmed in velvet. In the Roaring Twenties, they wore light colored felts; you can use this as your transitional hat of choice.

Think color, use felt, lean on velvet trims, and you have a perfect spring wardrobe of hats. Of course, in New York City, the first think we grab in the morning is a black fedora. If this is the hat carrousel you're caught on, add a feather to the fedora . The whimsy will awaken your inner Spring, and get you in the mood for other possibilities.

Kentucky Derby, here we come!

Recovering Victim of Fashion

...and not fashion victim, by any means.

When Fashion Week is over, and you don't continue onto the European circuit, you dive headlong into a bag and sleep for as long as you can. Then something called "Market Week" happens, and you prep for the buyers who have come al the way from their respective farflung corners of the globe to purchase wares in this hot burg, New York City.

Ellen Christine Millinery has not wholesaled on a grandscale before last year, so usually, we just readied the Chelsea shop for spring, the races, and the brides. Not necessarily in that order.

This year, however, we were approached by a Japanese chain, and happily gave them pieces for Spring for 20 of their stores. This week, we show Fall 2010, just off the runway from the Milliners Guild show ......the theme for this collection is Voodoo. Dusky felts, sultry cocktail hats, raucous feather treatments comprise the base of the collection. The photographer hasn't shot the collection yet, so I can't show you anything; it's all up to your imagination for the moment.

While all this hubbub of activity is keeping little fingers busy, the Vogue March issue has come out. We are flabbergasted at having 4 pieces in this bible of spring. Tina Fey leads her cover story with is wearing a darling mouse-ear cocktail cap we made (our salute to Minnie Mouse and Mr. Disney), commissioned by Vogue specifically for Miss Fey. Gorgeous straws, shown with exotic spring fancies. Military complacency (ours is bottle green silk taffeta) as garrison caps.

Great issue, great shots, great styling............thank you, once again, VOGUE!

Hothouse Flowers of the New Decade

The first hat show in NYC's Fashion Week is on Wednesday, February 17th. Exciting, right? the Milliners Guild of New York City is the producer, with a group collection, from 12 of the members. The Grace Hotel is the venue, in mid-town. If you've never been inside this hotel, there's a pool in the lobby , a lounge and a mezzanine that wrap around each other, creating the perfect spot for a fashion show. Choose a seat by the pool for the best view. Park in the lounge closer to the bar for your own comfort. Perch up on the mezzanine for an overview.

But come, wear a hat, and be part of the buzz that this event will generate.

By the way, seating is limited to 250, so please RSVP quickly to ensure entree.

What: a group show featuring new designs of hats and headpieces for Fall 2010

Where: Room-Mate Grace Hotel,

125 West 45th St

NYC, NY

Doors open at 7 p.m., with an hour of hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, compliments of The Milliners Guild of New York City.

Show starts at 8 p.m.

Hosted by: Lady Rizo

Music by: DJ Rich Burroughs

Featuring:

Cigmond

Ellen Christine Millinery

Cha Cha's House of Ill Repute

Guy Carsone Couture Millinery

Hattini

Hatting by La China Loca

Monika Fine Millinery

Lisa Shaub Millinery

Kathy Anderson

Edith & Ivy

Abigail Aldridge

RSVP: events@room-matehotels.com, or pr@millinersguild.org

www.millinersguild.org is the Guild's website, featuring pictures from our last event and news of each milliner, and upcoming events.

Eat Your Hat!

When you have nothing else to do, plan a simple meal around your next confection. Literally. there are contests for these things, and happily most of them use chocolate as their medium.

contests where the entire garment, every hat, sometimes the shoes, bags, "jewelry", is made of chocolate.

Yum.

And if a bustle made of chocolate might not be to your particular taste, think of vegetables. Use them, create your fashion statements with the vegetables of your youth that you never wanted to eat. Drape them around a model's shoulders, flounced around a hip, perched upon a shoulder. Be vivid, be raucous, but be couture, please.

When all else fails, break out the sugar, and ply your whimsy with tails of spun fantasy. Let these examples be your inspiration, and dream up your own sugarplum delights. What's imagination for, if not to dream of stuff of wonder? Delight in the bizarre, but edible. Diet need not be contained by the kitchen, or relegated to the pantry. Fashion becomes the cabbage leaf, the neckace of peas, the corset stays of carrot sticks. Blossoms of molded chocolate top a mousse of a turban.

Get ready for Fashion Week with your own special wardrobe: take lunch to the masses, and build your ensembles with edibles. the photogs will love you!