Monday, August 30, 2010

Challenge #4 “Hat’s Off to You”

The challenge starts now!! These are my parameters:

Sketch for 15 minutes
Shop for ½ hour with a $75 budget
Design a garment using the hat provided as inspiration
12 hours of sewing time
Before I run off and start sketching I want to give a bit of information about my inspiration piece, Pinkham Millinery’s ‘Winged Toque’. A toque is a hat with a very narrow brim, or can be brimless. These types of hats were very popular in France and in Europe throughout the 13th to the 16th century.

(side profile)

Dayna Pinkham, the milliner behind this exquisite piece, found this vintage wing and knew she had to show it off in its full glory. She mounted the wing to the toque using a wire, so the wing doesn’t touch the hat at all, but bobs and sways as the wearer walks, making the hat give the appearance of taking flight.

The wing, thought to be upwards of a 150 years old, has been pieced together using many different types of bird feathers and is a myriad of colors, although my photograph doesn’t do it justice. Blue, teal, black, grey, brown, white, silver, cream, tan, green is just the start of the list. Vintage netting pulls the moody look together, dramatically shadowing the face all the way to the chin.

This hat is dark, brooding, moody, handsome, romantic….Did she place it upon my head? YES!!! Did I want to take it off? NO!

I love hats. I love beautiful things, and this beautiful hat I could only dream of having in my repertoire. For more information on this hat, or any of the other hats in her studio go to www.pinkhammillinery.com


Noon I will start, Midnight the needle stops. Are you in?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

can't wait to see it Michelle!

Mrs. Andercek said...

YAY! So glad you found such a beautiful hat! "dark, brooding, moody, handsome and romantic"....seems right up your alley! As always, looking forward to what is to come.

Good Luck!