Millinery Design and Production: Gloriole

For the Stephen Jones millinery competition, I decided to take a broad approach in coming up with my entry. Rather than making just one hat, I had (as usual) way more ideas than just a single style, so I decided to start cranking them out, with the idea that when I finished the one I wanted to enter, I'd know.

The contest allows entrants to submit either an image of a completed hat or a design rendering of "a hat that you can make within a week." I know from experience that, for me, concept is one thing and actualization is another thing entirely. I have made a lot of hats working from the design renderings of others in the theatre; since I didn't have much time to do this, I decided to start from materials and work sculpturally, rather than start from a concept drawing and then have to worry about the developmental stage where you need to then figure out, "What material is going to be necessary to take this idea and make it a real wearable hat?"

The first hat I made was a freely-draped turban style I decided to call Gloriole. ( Read more... )