Issue 60, March 2011 Next issue due 16th March 2011 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: Maxim - promoting millinery fashion in Japan. Hat of the Month A twisted toyo hat by Tracy Thomson. Focus on... Landelijke Hoedendag 2011 - National Milliner’s Day in the Netherlands. How to… Create a layered effect sinamay brim without a block. Plus – S in the A to Z of Hats, Letters to the Editor, this month’s Give Away and The Back Page. Published by how2hats.com click here to turn over i Issue 60 Contents: March 2011 Millinery in Practice People at work in the world of hats. This month: Maxim - a profile of this successful Japanese millinery firm. Hat of the Month Learn about this colourful hat and something about Tracy Thomson, who created it. Focus on... Landelijke Hoedendag 2011 - National Milliner’s Day in the Netherlands. How to... Create a layered effect sinamay brim without using a block. The A to Z of Hats... More hat words that start with S - continued from February. This Month’s Give Away A chance to win 25 HATalk Back Issues on CD! Letters to the Editor This month - a tip for getting your petersham headband sewn in neatly. The Back Page Interesting hat facts; books; contact us and take part! 1 previous page next page Maxim Millinery Fashion in Japan This month, our spotlight is on a millinery dynasty which has worked tirelessly for the last seventy years to bring hats to the forefront of Japanese fashion. In 1929, Toshitake Watanabe joined a firm in Yokohama to learn the millinery trade. Eventually, he was appointed as manager of the firm’s branch in Kobe, Japan’s sixth largest city. When the company subsequently took a decision to close Watanabe’s branch, his customers were really disappointed. Seeing a gap in the market, he decided to begin his own millinery business in Kobe. Watanabe began his new company, Maxim, in 1940, both making and selling his hats from a premises on Tor Road. Since its inception, Maxim has grown steadily and has done much to raise the profile of millinery in Japan. In 1957, they organised a millinery fashion show in Kobe’s Asahi Kaikan Hall, the first of its kind for the Japanese millinery industry. Maxim have been involved in making hats for historic events, including Olympic Games, World Expos and National Athletic Meets, for many years. In fact, they were commissioned to create a commemorative beret for the 1970 Osaka World Expo which has been preserved for posterity in a sealed time capsule. As well as fashion shows and other high profile events, the management of Maxim have always believed that presentation is one of the most effective ways to promote hats. Much time and effort is put into the shop’s lovely displays (right), which keep customers updated on the latest millinery fashions. This elegance and attention to detail allows visitors to imagine that they’re shopping in a Parisian hat salon without having to travel across the world. 2 previous page next page Maxim present two new collections each year, including both formal and casual styles. Each and every hat is designed and handmade by their in-house millinery team, who also make customised hats to order and accept alteration requests. As in the shop, an attitude of total attention to detail pervades the workshop (right), which is also located in the Kobe Head Office. The experienced artisans use only top quality materials to design and create beautiful hats in modern, chic hues which they call the ‘Kobe colours’. Two of Maxim’s best known milliners include Iwao Yamaguchi (bottom left), who has won a number of awards for his work, and Chizuko Odaira (bottom right), who has taken home prizes from the last two Hat Competitions at Les Estivales du Chapeau in Septfonds, France. You may remember Chizuko’s latest prize- winning hat, Anniversaire - an impressive effusion of cream sinamay lilies which was featured in HATalk Issue 54. As well as creating hats for their own shop, Maxim also fills large orders of uniform hats, for example for airlines and hotels. The quality of their hats is well known and their lines have been carried by Japanese department stores since 1945. They can currently be found in big name stores, such as Takashimaya, Daimaru-Matsuzakaya, Sogo-Seibu, as well as a number of independent millinery shops throughout the country. Maxim hats have also been favoured and collected by members of the Imperial Family of Japan. Throughout the years, Maxim has remained a family affair. In 1984, Hiroyasu Watanabe replaced his father as company president. His wife, Yuri Watanabe (above), took over after his death in 1992 and has held the position ever since. Their daughter, Lisa Sugihara, is also involved as the Retail Manager. The company is constantly expanding and they now have a branch in Tokyo as well as Kobe. To learn more about millinery in Japan and to see some of the hats available from Maxim, visit www.maxim-hat.jp. 3 previous page next page Hat of the Month by Tracy Thomson American milliner Tracy Thomson, of Kabuki Hats, sells hats from her studio in the Dutch Alley Artist’s Co-op of New Orleans, Louisiana. She created this month’s featured hat especially for a trip to the United Kingdom. As Tracy planned a holiday to England during Autumn 2010, she was thrilled to learn from the How2hats newsletter that her trip would coincide with the first ever Bridport Hat Festival. She immediately got in touch with the Festival’s organisers and was accepted as an exhibitor. As well as bringing along her normal stock, she wanted to make a special new hat to show at the Festival. She had already created a Seaside series of straw hats and felt that an addition to this collection would be most fitting, as the beautiful Jurassic Coastline is just moments away from Bridport. Tracy wanted her hat to incorporate “crazy, contrasting, bright colours”. She decided to use twisted toyo, a paper straw combined with a bit of cellophane, her normal choice for straw hats. This material is a favourite with her because it takes dye well and she finds it really fun to work with. Above, you can see some of Tracy’s twisted toyo hoods and brims, freshly dyed and hanging out to dry. No hat blocks were used to make this striking straw hat (right) - it is completely hand manipulated. To get this look, she spritzed the toyo with water and then stretched it, pressed it, steamed it and stitched it. She then stretched the material even more to force a long length of millinery wire into a channel which would not normally accommodate it, the most challenging part of the process. Once wired, she could twist and bend the hat into this pleasing shape which looks good from all angles and is comfortable to wear. Finally, the hat was starched and trimmed with matching ribbons. 4 previous page next page Tracy, who established Kabuki hats in 1984, has made hundreds of hats by this free-form method and says that each one turns out differently from any other. A collection of her straw hats are pictured here (below), on display at a festival. As you can see, her new Seaside hat (also pictured right) took pride of place at the top of the display. Her casual and colourful styles are very popular in New Orleans, where she lives and works. Although this hat did not sell at the Bridport Hat Festival, Tracy took it along to a Blues and BarBQue Festival on her return home and the first person to try it on loved it and bought it on the spot! To make sure that her straw hats are adjustable, Tracy runs a grosgrain ribbon through the crowns. Most of her designs also pack flat for travel. By the time the material has been dyed, dried, pressed, cut, pinned, stitched, wired, shaped, starched, made adjustable and then labelled, the finished product, from start to finish, takes a few days. However, Tracy is also able to work on making other hats during that time, too. “Multitasking,” as she puts it. When it comes to pricing, Tracy keeps her hats under $101 (approximately £60). “My materials are not terribly expensive,” she says, “so that my many artist, writer and musician customers can afford my designs. I'd rather be able to sell a hundred hats at a festival than a precious few for a much higher price. When I do a show at a music festival, like the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, those hundred hats are on heads, walking around having fun! After 18 years of showing at that festival, Kabuki Hats have become a fashion statement and are collected by many. Some people have up to 20 of my hats in their collections.” Tracy has been told that wearers of her hats are often asked where their hat came from. Her label, sewn into the interior of all of her hats, includes her website address so that her customers can pass it on to anyone who wants to source one of their own Kabuki hats. Her most recent enquiry came from someone who met a Kabuki hat wearer on a Greek cruise! To see more of Tracy’s fun styles, visit www.kabukihats.com. 5 previous page next page Landelijke Hoedendag 2011 National Milliner’s Day in the Netherlands Member s of the Dutch Hat Association (Nederlandse1 Hoeden 2Vereniging or NHV) recently celebrated their National Milliner’s Day in style.