Project: Straw tricorne!

[labricoleuse]

The current topic in millinery class is straw as a medium. Coincidentally, Anna Sui's spring/summer 2007 collection includes a number of straw tricornes and bicornes! I really hope these are the next big thing, personally. As such, i decided to do my sample straw for the class in a tricorn...

...and it's awesome.


Here are some images from the Anna Sui collection,
featuring the straw tricornes and bicornes.

Pretty cool! This better be the must-have summer hat.

Mine is made from a sinamay straw cartwheel, which is a very open-weave airy type of straw. As such, i wanted all the rest of the trim on the hat to be similarly lightweight, transparent or translucent. The brim is bound with a bias organza strip, and the hat features garnitures of a burnt black ostrich plume and a horsehair cocarde:




two other views


close-up of the exterior garniture

I plan on wearing it to the next opening night party with a cream and black outfit. I also plan on making a more casual one to wear this summer, and when i do, i'll write it up as a step-by-step how-to, just in case the straw tricorne is the new trucker cap. Or something.

In related news, here is a fascinating page on the waterproof straw sailor hats in the film Master and Commander.

Enjoy your weekend, folks!

Comments

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I like yours better than Sui's.

One of these days, I may offer you exorbitant amounts of money to design my wedding gown...

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

And, re: a wedding dress: I wouldn't need exorbitant amounts to design it, only if you also wanted me to construct it!

(While i am a decent draper/cutter/stitcher, it's not something i enjoy. I'll take those jobs if it's "stitch or starve", or if they pay really well, but in general i'd rather be making hats and shoes and such! Hence the Crafts Artisan career.)

And that makes me think, this would be a lovely bridal tricorne, for the right adventurous bride. The veil could come out underneath the headsize opening, and it'd be very "Masque of the Red Death," except you know, happy, because weddings are happy occasions, not generally full of the spectre of death. This had could be the foundation of a very tastefully-done pirate-themed wedding, though! I admit, i generally have a bit of a response of "Er, it's your wedding i guess," when i see folks doing theme weddings, because so often they look sort of cheesy and Halloweinery. But! Sometimes, someone manages to pull off a beautifully-done one.

I'm blabbering. I really just wish hats would come back as a part of everyday dress.

[lovefromgirl.livejournal.com]

I wish dresses would come back as part of everyday dress. *sigh* We all have wishes, I suppose.

[taco-o-doom.livejournal.com]

woman, stop putting the need for hats in me...

on a non hat related note, do you have time to take on a leatherwork commission? I find myself in need of some swanky bracelets....

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you for thinking of me, but my calendar is booked until at least July--we've got biggest show of the season in the shop, followed by the end of the semester and all the grading/paperwork that entails, then i am literally immediately driving to Utah to work for the Shakespearean Festival until July.

Sorry!

[mirrormessage.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind that I added you. Your projects are so fascinating and inspiring.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And welcome to the blog!

[ardoise-vide.livejournal.com]

dear anna sui (and bee), please have my babies. ktnx.

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

I eagerly await the how-to, so I don't go around destroying me some thrift-store straw hats figuring out the process myself. I have some ideas, but, y'know, why not learn from the pro?

[mlle-rouge.livejournal.com]

Yes! How-to, please. I *need* one for the summer.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I promise i will post a tutorial next week then! I've got the base straw already but i need to finish shopping the trimmings this weekend. I've got this ridiculous idea in my mind that it needs to have a tiny bird's next hidden in one of the folds of the brim.

I should have taken a "before" photo on the sinamay cartwheel. The hat started out looking like something my prudish but loudmouthed spinster aunt would wear to Easter Sunday service and gospel brunch.

[unluckymonkey.livejournal.com]

that's amazingly lovely! I totally agree that it would rule if tricorns cam back into style. Not that I wear what's in style. That usually costs money!