Location: Netherlands

Design Statement:

This hat is inspired by the 1934 film Riptide starring Norma Shearer. I chose it because it feels surprisingly contemporary and is featured in one of the last pre-Code films. During Hollywood's Golden Age, the Hays Code, a strict moral code, censored many subjects such as lustful kissing, interracial relationships, nudity, homosexuality, divorce, smuggling, and even men and women in bed together. The code was abandoned in 1968, but for many decades, women's roles were marked by a lack of autonomy, being mostly beautiful, servile, and neither outspoken nor independent.

I have made the hat more monumental, masculine, and insect-like, with stags and a hard, shiny insect shell made of ground black glass shards. The base is handmade from fine merino felt. My hat pays homage to the original design but also serves as a reminder of the enduring struggle for autonomy and representation.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: New York City, NY

Design Statement:

My hat inspiration comes from the headwrap worn by the titular character in The Invisible Man (1933). This film is notable for many reasons but mostly for its pioneering special effects, having a particularly notorious villain, and being laden with queer coding. The film features a medical bandage headwrap held together with safety pins, which I reinterpreted into a glamour turban constructed from draped bias strips of cream cashmere coating adorned with bejeweled gold safety pin embellishments. The rainbow array of colored jewels on the safety pins are an homage to the queerness of the film. The turban features a padded interior lined with pure silk which has a print of twisted gold chains that look very similar to the large pin on the front of the turban. And thanks to the padded interior, this turban has room to comfortably fit various head sizes from 21.5”-23”

The Inspiration Hat

Location: London , UK

Design Statement:

My entry is inspired by ‘Funny Face’ (1957). I adore this film; it conflates high fashion with camp effortlessly. I decided to take inspiration from the shape and texture of the hat that Hepburn wears for the photoshoot at the train station along with the colours from her iconic pink and white Givenchy dress. I decided to use a mixture of boucle and plastic tweed as the original hat is very textural. In the scene Astaire’s character makes her cry in order to take a better photo. Hepburn is so striking in this moment; I created a diamanté teardrop to mimic this - it also links back to the diamanté headpiece she dons in the pink and white dress. In using modern materials and a more modern shape my hope was to create something fresh and interesting that also referenced the beauty and elegance of the ‘Funny Face’ aesthetic.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Design Statement:

Materials: Buckram, Millinery wire, Sequin Mesh

My grandmother used to leave the Turner Classic Movie channel on as background noise in the house while she went about her chores. I didn’t care much for classic films, but I remember one time forcing myself to sit and watch whatever happened to be showing at that moment. ‘The Million Dollar Mermaid’ is now one of my favorite films of all time. I remember being entranced by the glamour and the spectacle surrounding the lead actress, Esther Williams, who was portraying the real story of synchronized swimming superstar Annette Kellerman, and finding myself wishing I could wear all the things this glittering woman was wearing. It’s probably where my love of all things showgirl related began and why I love making hats for them today. This hat is an homage to one of her main swimming costumes in the film.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: I’m based in London, UK

Design Statement:

This idea of design was inspired by the American 1930s film 'The Top Hat'. One of the primary scenes included the main character performing a variety of twists and hops while wearing a top hat. I was inspired by the idea of displaying a top hat in a unique way, so I was shifting its central line. In order to add a floating design effect I was revealing the metal construction underneath, which was inspired by the canes used in the dance scene. Even though the primary character is a man, I wanted to represent this headpiece as a female accessory. So the size of the top hat was reduced, which made it appear more elegant and feminine. In the meantime, for the metal construction, I used a unique lurex thread, which elevated the overall look and added a festive touch to it.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: Oregon, USA

Design Statement:

Lana Turner makes the best entrances in the 1947 version of the Three Musketeers, due to her oversized hats with a strong nod to 1940’s fashion. My goal was to create a modern hat worthy of any grand entrance today, referencing the scale and feel of her green hat. The hot pink and black coloring was selected as a nod to Barbie, who continues to be a strong role model today in the same way that the film stars of the 1930's and 1940's were for women then. The hot pink and black houndstooth buntal mat was hand blocked, wired, wire edges mulled, edged in black silk, and trimmed with vintage velvet trimmings. Velvat bos were added to the backside to make sure the exit was just as memmorable as the entrance. A double elastic was added to help secure the hat as opposed to a period bandeau.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: Pittsford, NY

Design Statement:

Cover Girl 1944

As a costume drama enthusiast and a textile and milliner artist I was so excited about this challenge.

I have learned so much about fashion and millinery design by watching the movies. The hats in the movies in the 1940’s that I was drawn to were the ones evoke fun, flirty playfulness grand musicals and high fashion. The women were so chic then like our mothers were. I wanted to find a hat that I could re-create that would make a statement and also use materials that I had already in my studio. Sustainability has become an important design concept. The construction started with a buckram and wire frame. It was then covered with a silk and flocked black-and-white striped fabric. Soft silks roses and handmade decoupage feather plumes adorned with vintage handpainted stem flowers. A padded velvet headband was added for style and comfort.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: New York, NY

Design Statement:

I was inspired by a fabulous hat worn by Rita Hayworth in the 1944 film Cover Girl. While there are many delightful hats in the film, I chose this one in particular for its whimsical lines and classic black, white, and red color palette. I loved the way it sits perched atop her head - layered, transparent, and airy - as she dips and twirls through her dance number. I interpreted these elements into a contemporary style fascinator using a fur felt base, tulle, veiling, and silk taffeta.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: London, United Kingdom

Design Statement:

My design inspiration was the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland, and more specifically Mad Hatter's disease, which impacted so many in the millinery trade. Because Alice in Wonderland was a black-and-white film of the 30s, I chose a limited color palette. The burnt orange wool base and bright orange soutache reference 'carroting', a technique that exposed milliners to high levels of mercury, while the silver bow references mercury directly. Furthermore, I wanted a strong illustrative element to link the animated Disney rendition of the 50s. The overwhelming floral pattern is intended to be wonderful, wild, mad, and paradoxical while still paying homage to the popular braid/cording fashion patterns of the 30s, 40s & 50s. This metaphorically demonstrates the spreading and consuming nature of the disease on the hat and hatter.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: Romania

Design Statement:

There are so many old movies which inspired me, but because I could relate to the dress worn by the heroine of ‘’The secret life of Walter Mitty”, I chose to go for a hat which will match the dress worn by the character Rosalind Van Hoorn the day she met Walter. There was a confusion about the colour of her dress went he went to the police station. The same thing happened to me when I bought a dress online: in the photo it looked light blue, but in fact it was light green. Such a wonderful shade of green that I decided to keep it. That’s how I thought of using peacock feathers, as they can play tricks on your eyes in the same way. Though while working with them in the daylight they had lots of shades of blue, in the photos they look completely green.

The Inspiration Hat

Location: New York, NY

Design Statement:

My hat is inspired by Dolores del Rio in Journey Into Fear (1943). Making a helmet style hat with ears seemed too much like recreating her hat rather than being inspired by it, so I went in a completely different direction.

My hat is a currently fashionable saucer shape. Unable to find leopard patterned sinamay in the color and pattern I wanted, I hand stenciled spots onto taupe sinamay, then laid it over gold lurex sinamay and natural sinamay.

The bow is designed to evoke cat ears. The layers are wired and the edges rolled. The inner ears are brushed with pink behind the pink ostrich puffs. The “whiskers” are made from stripped coque feathers, painted, curled, wired, and wrapped with a leopard rhinestone cord.

The base is lined in silk dupioni, and the leopard rhinestone cord is hand sewn around the underside for a bit of flash from below.

The Inspiration Hat