Issue 48, March 2010 Next issue due 17th March 2010 HATalk the e-magazine for those who make hats In this month’s HATalk... Millinery in Practice People at work in the world of hats. This month: Tricia Roush - working with custom hat blocks. Hat of the Month A prize-winning hat by Vladimir Straticiuc. Focus on. Mut Zum Hut - the world’s largest hat event and ‘J & K’ in the A to Z of Hats. How to… Knit and felt a hat; use feathers from a mount. Plus – Letters to the Editor, this month’s Give Away and The Back Page. Published by how2hats.com click here to turn over i Issue 48 March 2010 Contents: Millinery in Practice People at work in the world of hats. This month: Tricia Roush talks to us about starting up her millinery business, using custom hat blocks and drawing on historical influences. Hat of the Month Learn about this lovely hat and something about Vladimir Straticiuc who created it. Focus on... th Mut Zum Hut. The largest hat event in the world celebrated its 10 anniversary in style at the Castle of Neuburg am Donau in Germany. How to... Knit and felt a hat - Paula Singleton shares her method. The A to Z of Hats - J & K Stephen Jones, jute, Jackie Kennedy, Kokoshniks and more. Another Way... A fresh look at using feathers from a mount. This Month’s Give Away An opportunity to win one of three pin pushers - a very useful tool. Letters to the Editor This Month: We answer a question about labelling your hats. The Back Page Interesting hat facts; books; contact us and take part! 1 previous page next page Tricia Roush Working with Custom Made Hat Blocks This month we speak to Tricia Roush, founder of House of Nines Design. Based in San Francisco, California, Tricia began her millinery business in 2009 and is enjoying much success. She tells us all about how she designs every aspect of her hats - right down to the blocks. How did you get started in millinery? I started sewing as a young child, coming from a family of sewers and crafters. I became interested in the history of clothing early on, and worked as a vintage clothing dealer for about 10 years. Then, I went into librarianship, always working in fashion and design related libraries. I've been making clothing and costumes, especially historical costumes, for many years as a hobby. I'd been making hats for about 12 years when I decided to start my own millinery business, but the hats I'd made before were all soft sewn fabric hats or constructed with a buckram frame and covered with fabric. I hadn't blocked felt before. How did you prepare to start your business? Over the course of the year, I researched felt blocking, bought a few vintage blocks, experimented on my own and took some classes. I also spent time with my own vintage hat collection and in antique stores, studying old hats to see how they were made. When I felt I’d learned enough that I knew what I wanted to do with this new skill, I started searching out a block maker who could make custom blocks in historical styles. Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks impressed me the most out of all the hat block makers I was able to find online, so I started placing orders. 2 previous page next page What’s in your block collection? My first order was mostly for styles that Guy Morse-Brown Hat Blocks were already producing, or for variations on designs they already had. Everything turned out great - I was really happy with the quality of the blocks and have found Owen to be patient and cooperative to communicate with, so pretty soon I branched out into fully custom designs. When I began ordering from GMB, they had just one style (the top hat and rolled brim) in the midi range, but I quickly realised that if I had most of the blocks made to the same size and shape at the headsize opening, so that they were all interchangeable, my block collection would be exponentially flexible and I could get oodles of styles out of just a few blocks. So, I asked Owen to make almost all of my blocks to that size. Also, so far I have mostly focused on the midi size because sizing to the customer's head is not an issue with mini hats, which is convenient for the beginning milliner or one who may not have a lot of space for storing blocks. Where do you find the inspiration for your hats? Over the past few months, I've been doing lots of hat research, looking online and in books on the history of hats and fashion for crown and brim shapes that would translate well into the midi size, and running design ideas by Owen, then placing orders as we work out the details together. I've been especially interested in the hats of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and GMB has done a fantastic job of translating my ideas into wood. I also do Victorian and Art Deco-style ribbonwork, mostly using antique ribbon; and have been learning how to work with feathers, both of which go into most of my hat designs. It's been a lot of fun to apply different kinds of skills into one composition. Having said all this, though, I'm not making strict historical reproductions, but using design elements, skills and materials from the past as components to create my own designs. Pictured Here - Some of Tricia’s hats, all created using Guy Morse-Brown hat blocks made to Tricia’s own designs. Top Right: Made using hat blocks CB106 and BB69. Left: Made using CB105 & BB68. Bottom Right: Made using CB104 and BB54. Next Page - Top left: Made using B67. Bottom right: CB52 and BB54, the original blocks in the Guy Morse-Brown midi collection. 3 previous page next page Take us through your design process. I tend to go off in my own direction after a certain point, and enjoy combining elements in unexpected ways. I’m very tactile and colour-orientated, so when I start to make a hat, first I pull out a bunch of material (felt, feathers, ribbon, buttons, etc) and place it together in different combinations, to see how the different colours and textures look and feel together. That allows for serendipitous discoveries that I couldn’t make if I were planning without having the material in front of me, including a lot of pleasing but unusual colour combinations. Then, I’ll plan out the design and decide on the shape (which blocks to use) that would best compliment the size and shape of the decorative elements. Sometimes I work in reverse, deciding which block to use then planning the design around the shape, based on the ‘personality’ of the blocks used, or what kind of clothing I imagine the finished hat would be worn with. But mostly, I think of each hat as its own piece of art, or like a little song, rather than worrying too much about what it will be worn with. I love working with felt because it's so sculptural and I really enjoy the freedom of creating new shapes for hats, unlike with clothing which has to conform more to the shape of a body. What type of hats do you sell? I do off-the-rack and custom work. I'm going to start a bridal line in early 2010, and will expand my offering of full-size hats, as well as my color palette, around the middle of the year. There are a couple more midi- size blocks I have in mind to order for the near future, then I'll probably switch to mostly full-size blocks, with an eye to possibly branching out into men’s hats in a year or so. I've been very fortunate - my business is growing quickly and I've met so many nice people in the process. Having my own business doing something creative has been a really good experience so far! Tricia regulary posts photos of new styles, information on new shows and more on her website, www.houseofninesdesign.com. She also sells her work through her Etsy shop and currently has hats placed with three retailers - the Alternative Design Studio (ADS Hats) in San Francisco, Dark Garden Corsetry and Custom Couture, also in San Francisco, and The Hat Shop in New York City. 4 previous page next page Hat of the Month by Vladimir Straticiuc Sometimes a material or fabric can itself be the inspiration behind a hat. Such was the case for Spanish milliner Vladimir Straticuic, who created the Hat of the Month for March. A lady came to see Vladimir, who is based in Cadiz, looking for a hat to wear to a morning wedding. She wanted something light and airy, something somewhere between a hat and a fascinator. Vladimir immediately thought of some blue elastic tulle which he had in his atelier. Elastic tulle was a new material to him and he was keen to experiment with it. He had originally intended to use the material as a trimming, but now saw its potential for the main body of a hat. He felt that with tulle, which is very flexible and easy to manipulate, he would be able to acheive the weighless effect that his client was looking for. The transparent, sky blue tulle reminded Vladimir of a fresh dawn, with a light fog covering the face and giving an impression of mystery.