Finding a niche as a hat-maker can be tricky. My personal style — and the ideas for hats I can’t wait to make — is very everyday. I love cute, wearable hats that can go with jeans or a vintage-style dress. Does that make me boring? Not necessarily. And I’m definitely not bored.
This is the most dramatic hat I’ve ever made (for my shop). But when it gets close to Halloween, I start to think about the dramatic and artistic possibilities in millinery. That doesn’t mean that I’m suddenly going to start making outlandish, avant garde headpieces. For better or for worse, everyday hat styles are the most “me.” If I made wildly dramatic hats, it would be inauthentic.
But what is so wonderful about millinery is that there are so many possibilities! From the most simple black fedora to cute fascinators to Steampunk top hats to eclectic hats to wear to the races. So on this gray, rainy October day, in a kind of Halloween-y mood, I got to thinking about winged hats. Feathers obviously have a long history in millinery, but so do bird wings (and even taxidermied whole birds!). Just take a look at some of the stunning bird-wing hats that are currently on Etsy:
How delightfully gothic, dramatic and Halloween-y!
