Emerging Milliners at London Fashion Week AW13 - "Headonism"

London Fashion Week is set to kick of this Friday (15th Feb) and for the 4th year will showcase the mad talent of 5 of Britain's greatest emerging milliners in an exhibition presented under a British Fashion Council initiative... and they have a few rising stars to pick from so choices would have been tough!

Stephen Jones is curating the exhibition (it's in good hands folks!), and it will feature the work of Piers Atkinson *swoon*, William Chambers *gasp*, Emma Yeo *faint*, Aurora Ozma *whimper*, and Moody & Farrell *passes out*... under the guise of "Headonism - AW 13"and will show from 15th - 19th February at Somerset House.

Aurora Ozma, Emma Yeo, and Moody & Farrell are new to the collective this year, and I have to say really worthy additions. I have been particularly blown away by the work of Emma Yeo and Moody & Farrell, as they have produced some stunning and wearable creations that I would really like to get my hands (head?) upon (under?)! I'm not quite as familiar with the work of Aurora, but I'm sure it's equally fabulous. Piers Atkinson is of course a previous ISAH favourite, so needs no introduction around these parts!

I really feel that millinery is somewhat under-represented in the various fashion weeks in Australia, which is a shame given it's heritage through the Melbourne cup. Wouldn't it be amazing to see a similar initiative here, which Australian rising stars do you think should be put in the spotlight?

See below for some of my favourite examples of the works of the 5 milliners featured, no idea if these will be in the exhibition or not, but they are ones that caught a bit of my fancy:

What a wonderful video from Piers Atkinson, brings out dreams of a bygone era

William Chambers  Photo from here 

Emma Yeo 

Emma Yeo LOVE this!

Aurora Ozma 

Moody & Farrell - Straw Bear

Moody & Farrell - Cecil Bee 

Moody & Farrell - The Horn Dance

PHILLIP TREACY by Kevin Davies

***PRESS ALERT***

Phaidon release a new retrospective book on Phillip Treacy today 'Phillip Treacy by Kevin Davies'....want please, birthday coming soon, thankyou:
http://es.phaidon.com/store/fashion-culture/philip-treacy-9780714865270/

VOGUE UK will give you a preview of the inside here:  http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2013/02/05/philip-treacy-book---head-wear-and-work-retrospective/gallery/1#./11

Headwear doesn't come more breath-taking than Phillip Treacy's, a man that made it his life's purpose to transform hats from prim to punk back in the 80s fashion heydays and still pretty much reigns supreme.

I may have actually cried when I first clapped eyes on this footage:

http://heady-stuff.tumblr.com/post/7299347339/nowmillinery-philip-treacys-first-haute  his first couture show in Paris (2000) for which he was the first EVER milliner to be asked to do so by the Syndical Chamber of Haute Couture (Paris Fashion Lords).

 

Sigh.

- michelle

Head On into it

Okay, hello!

My first post on I Smell a Hat, and I am going to use it to direct you head on to a current exhibition at The Fashion Space Gallery in London called, um, ‘Head On’.  

The Fashion Space Gallery is housed within the renowned London College of Fashion, which I discovered at a research event I attended there back in June 2012.

Its an interesting exhibition!   Besides taking a multi-angled glance at headwear and its relationship to clothes, hair, design and fashion styling, it may introduce you to some contemporary milliners you hadn’t yet heard of.   Check it out in person if you happen to be lucky enough to live close by, otherwise it is well documented online here:

http://www.fashionspacegallery.com/exhibition/current/

    Phillip Meech for Lara Jensen SS13 Lookbook

A little about me….

I’ve just graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Design (Fashion), wrote a thesis on hats which I slowly wish to share with anyone willing to listen, have ALWAYS loved a good hat and believed they highlight character and entertain the eye in a way other fashion items can't.   Interactions with the world just seem better in a hat, fact?

I also design and make hats myself (largely under the masterful eye of Richard Nylon) aaandd for the Tumblr fans amongst you, I have a virtual headwear collection amassing here that I keep for inspiration.   Head on over for a geeze:   http://heady-stuff.tumblr.com

More talk soon (on the humble and not so humble Bowler hat) and please feel free to talk back!

Michelle

Kate Moss in Hats

Who doesn't like Mossy in a hat?
Exactly!
Who doesn't want to be Mossy, just a little bit, maybe even for a day (or 3)?
I know!

The girl who makes bad habits desirable, and undesirable men a little bit cooler... (Ok Pete Doherty, those teeth, that skin, maybe stretching even her superpowers a little, but you know what I'm saying)

Her second favourite accessory (next to a half lit cig) is of course a hat, so I thought I'd have a little envious drool on her cool here tonight.

I feel there is more mileage in this subject matter, Kate Moss, hats, effortless cool...

Air hostess - Check

Backpacker - Check. NB Kate - this is uncool!

Snow Queen - Check

Business Casual - Check

Vintage Glamour - Check 

Parisian Sailor - Check 

Nips out looking cool - Check

Rock n' Roll Girlfriend - Check 

Disney Presenter - Check 

Glowing Bride - Check  

Teen Queen - Check 

What doesn't Mossy have covered?!!

The Hat is BACK!!! Back with Serge Lutens

It's been a long time folks, the blog is dusty and frankly the "smell" is fusty and not enough of hats...

I think we are needing a refresh, something new, exciting, more hats, a new look maybe? Perhaps it'll get spiffy re-design today in this little burst of activity I'm having. I'm sorry for the neglect little blog, I'm a bad parent. I'll buy you new clothes to make up for it... promise.

Anyway, I was really struggling to think of how to make this big re-entry and what to feature. What have I missed in the world of hats whilst I was taking up my spare time in making them, often rather badly? I have no idea, I was on a journey of self-centred introversion, only concerned with my own creations of which I am largely too embarrassed to show here, so where do I start now? There was racing, and fashion weeks, more Royals in "eye catching" pieces, Lady Gaga doing something, new milliners, old milliners...  But where do I commence?

And then it came to me in the form of a Facebook feed... I was just giving the (also rather neglected) "I Smell a Hat" Facebook page some attention, when I came across a picture of THIS on the Hat Supply feed. Yes THIS! Isn't it amazing?!!! It is the work of one Serge Lutens. I don't even know if it's a hat, but it's on a head so it will do for now. And on further investigation, I'm not sure what constitutes "the work"; the picture, the make-up or the headwear, the man is one of those multi-talented kinds!

 So here's the bit about Serge: As per Wikipedia's prologue Serge Lutens "(born 14 March 1942, in Lille, France) is a French photographer, filmmaker, hair stylist, perfume art-director and fashion designer... most well know for his art direction and photography for Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido in the 1980s."

You see the potential confusion.

But I'm down with photography, the 80's, hats, film, fashion, make-up and I guess I prefer to smell good, so Serge ticks some decent boxes here, irrespective of whether it is the hat, the picture, the styling, the make-up, or all of the above that is "the work"

There are also some other amazing pictures combining the art of photography and hats accredited to Serge on the web, so I thought I'd share with you some more of these visual after dinner mints. I believe they all largely come from the work he did with Shiseido. Beautiful:

Stephen Jones Competition Favourites (well mine) Vote here

I am very disappointed in myself that I didn't get my shizzle together a couple of years ago, as possibly I might have dared enter this once in a lifetime competition to design for Monsieur Jones, but with my entire portfolio consisting of 4 beginner "hat school" entries at present, it would only lead to severe embarrassment.
Anyway, sorry for another Stephen Jones post, I really need to diversify but he is omnipresent at the moment and if you hadn't been a stranger to the Vogue UK site, you would have been all too aware of "HAT Idol" (it's the new reality blockbuster folks) yes, public voting ends in a couple of days, so vote now for your favourites!
Unfortunately the website is highly frustrating to look through and only seems to show up the same hats all the time with some serious digging required to get to certain beauties, but there are loads of entries and I have literally spent hours looking so you don't have to (seriously you should thank me, there was some stamina required to get through it all, and I don't really agree with some of the highest voted, seems they may just have the highest number of friends... and a good photo.. EDIT - that was me being a moron, if you go to the Vogue site it is frustrating, but if you go HERE to search it is very very easy. I will never retrieve that Tuesday night I just lost, grrr)...
Here are some of my favourites in no particular order, 25 to be precise, hopefully the winner is amongst them (ok, hedging my bets slightly)!

A Delicate Balance by Sau Fen Chee (so pretty)

A Tribute to Amy Winehouse - Joosten Mueller

Arima - Harvy Santos

Bulb - Rachel Drewer (I just want to take a bite!)

Corset - Kristina Dragomir

Diana - Ashley Lloyd (breast effort.... oh god, forgive me!)

Emma Yeo

Exoskeleton - Mather Louth

Hidden Treasure - Shumik LesziewiczGordz

Kaka Makako - Eleaonora Bruno (love this picture of Autumn)

Kiku - Phillippe Urban (Go Phillippe, an I Smell a Hat Favourite)

Laura Soloman

Muscae - Rachel Forbes

Naughty Charlotte - Anya Caliendo

Night Flight - Lydia Wall

Octopus - Megan Bishop (Channeling Lady Gaga???!)

Opium Smoke Rings - Daniel Pileki

Papillion - Joyce Paton (ok, I smell a theme, I like all the ones with boobs in them...)

Perched - Danica Erard (Probably not the most original idea putting taxidermy in a SJ competition given his Stella Tennant creation, but I like it)

The Greatest Show on Earth - Stiff Pristed (I saw this in Melbourne's MX the other day and ripped the picture out before I knew it was in this competition!)

The Navigator - Sarah Butterworth

Man o War - Jessie Abraham

Nightrider - Trudy Feighery

 

Eye Spy - Michelle Boyd (My favourite Australian Entry)

Suspension Mohawke - Heather Huey