WTF Hats, part three: Tricorne and Cloche
Aug. 1st, 2009 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labricoleuseHere's the third in the series of posts on my stint as a long-distance milliner for the Williamstown Theatre Festival's currently-running production of The Torch-Bearers. (Part one and part two at these links.)
I didn't get time to do a bunch of process shots on these two hats--the turnaround was lightning fast, but i do have a few pix.
This shows the lining pinned into the tricorne.
I always do hat linings like this--a rectangle basically the length of the headsize measurement plus seam allowance, gathered onto a oval tip. I prefer it to pieced-petal "beanie" style linings, or the kind that are just circles gathered/darted/pleated into domes. This kind of lining is the most minimal, in terms of adding any bulk at all into the headsize opening, and it results in a professional finish for anyone who sees the hat interior (like the actor, dresser, or sometimes even the audience). I do streetwear/couture hat linings this way as well, even.
You can kind of tell in this image what the tricorne looked like before i bent the three corners into the brim--sort of like a very fancy sailor hat, with that brim upturned like a bucket.
There she is, Miss Glamorous!
Oblique view
Rear view
Detail of three cockades
Two cockades
To do a really nice cockade can take an hour or two, so when i'm figuring time estimates on a hat, i always ask whether cockades are going to be a purchased/provided trim, or i'm making them. I made all of these. I did the two lighter colored ones first, then got all overwrought about whether they'd read onstage, so i tossed in the two brighter ones as well just in case. The cockade styles came from a period source, 1920s instructions on making hat and dress ornaments from a fashion magazine.
In a "normal" production situation where i was working on-site, i'd have had ribbon chosen by the designer from the get-go. Because of the nature of this distance job and the fast turnaround required, it was ultimately easier for me to just do the two extra cockades and toss them in the box than to photograph the options, email the designer, wait for a decision, *then* make the cockades. If i'd been working with, say, a technophile designer who had a BlackBerry or iPhone or similar (and thus could receive images and emails on-the-go and turn around decisions like that instantly), I'd have gone that route, but early in the discussion of this project, Ms. Somogyi mentioned not having email access on her phone, so in this case, I went with the "two sets of cockades" option.
Cloche, side view
Cloche, rear view
And, thus ends the chapter of my summer entitled "WTF Millinery." The play is now open up in Williamstown and apparently the reviewers either love it or hate it, though i suppose whether it's good or not has no bearing on the fact that the hats are indisputably STUNNING. Ha!
But on a serious note, there's a lot of great stuff on the horizon both near and far, for future post topics. On Wednesday, i head out for the 2009 USITT Costume Commission's Summer Symposium, hosted this year by the excellent folks at Ohio U. The topic of focus is creature costumes and full-head/bighead/walkaround style masks, and i will be hopefully posting from the conference each night.
The topic for the fall crafts seminar is Decorative Arts, and we've got a whole new class of incoming grads whose work i'm looking forward to showcasing--lots of parasols and gloves and footwear and that sort of cool stuff, plus PlayMakers shows on the docket like Opus and, of course, the looming![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
nicknickleby...
I didn't get time to do a bunch of process shots on these two hats--the turnaround was lightning fast, but i do have a few pix.
This shows the lining pinned into the tricorne.
I always do hat linings like this--a rectangle basically the length of the headsize measurement plus seam allowance, gathered onto a oval tip. I prefer it to pieced-petal "beanie" style linings, or the kind that are just circles gathered/darted/pleated into domes. This kind of lining is the most minimal, in terms of adding any bulk at all into the headsize opening, and it results in a professional finish for anyone who sees the hat interior (like the actor, dresser, or sometimes even the audience). I do streetwear/couture hat linings this way as well, even.
You can kind of tell in this image what the tricorne looked like before i bent the three corners into the brim--sort of like a very fancy sailor hat, with that brim upturned like a bucket.
There she is, Miss Glamorous!
Oblique view
Rear view
Detail of three cockades
Two cockades
To do a really nice cockade can take an hour or two, so when i'm figuring time estimates on a hat, i always ask whether cockades are going to be a purchased/provided trim, or i'm making them. I made all of these. I did the two lighter colored ones first, then got all overwrought about whether they'd read onstage, so i tossed in the two brighter ones as well just in case. The cockade styles came from a period source, 1920s instructions on making hat and dress ornaments from a fashion magazine.
In a "normal" production situation where i was working on-site, i'd have had ribbon chosen by the designer from the get-go. Because of the nature of this distance job and the fast turnaround required, it was ultimately easier for me to just do the two extra cockades and toss them in the box than to photograph the options, email the designer, wait for a decision, *then* make the cockades. If i'd been working with, say, a technophile designer who had a BlackBerry or iPhone or similar (and thus could receive images and emails on-the-go and turn around decisions like that instantly), I'd have gone that route, but early in the discussion of this project, Ms. Somogyi mentioned not having email access on her phone, so in this case, I went with the "two sets of cockades" option.
Cloche, side view
Cloche, rear view
And, thus ends the chapter of my summer entitled "WTF Millinery." The play is now open up in Williamstown and apparently the reviewers either love it or hate it, though i suppose whether it's good or not has no bearing on the fact that the hats are indisputably STUNNING. Ha!
But on a serious note, there's a lot of great stuff on the horizon both near and far, for future post topics. On Wednesday, i head out for the 2009 USITT Costume Commission's Summer Symposium, hosted this year by the excellent folks at Ohio U. The topic of focus is creature costumes and full-head/bighead/walkaround style masks, and i will be hopefully posting from the conference each night.
The topic for the fall crafts seminar is Decorative Arts, and we've got a whole new class of incoming grads whose work i'm looking forward to showcasing--lots of parasols and gloves and footwear and that sort of cool stuff, plus PlayMakers shows on the docket like Opus and, of course, the looming
nicknickleby...
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:35 pm (UTC)Basically, they loved the "pony tail" from the mockup and wanted to use that as a tassel on the real hat. It had been pinned onto the mockup in some particularly-specified orientation (according to the fitting notes), but came unpinned in transit. Again with the quick turnaround, and that being a detail that wound up a casualty of the distance issue.
So, i didn't attach it to the finished "real" cloche at all, but left that last note of tacking it on to the technicians on-site, who could whip it on according to however the designer wanted it pinned.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:40 pm (UTC)For the finished tricorne, did you end up going with a pulled cap and buckram brim, or did you still work with vinyl? Inquiring minds want to know! (I learn sooooo much from these posts.)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:49 pm (UTC)I pulled the cap and wired the bottom edge of it, mulled it with icewool, and covered it in the printed velvet.
I wired the brim edge but not the headsize opening, because i wanted it to be as malleable as possible for folding up the brim--i thought, the stability really needs to be on the crown edge, as opposed to on the Big Mama, where i wanted the brim as rigid and stable as possible. Sometimes i have found that, when you are folding up a brim into tricorne and bicorne shapes, it's better for that headsize opening circle to be a bit "woodgy," if that makes sense. Then i mulled the underbrim, but not the overbrim (which is just covered with thin neutral lining fabric). The velvet was thick enough that i didn't want to use it on the overbrim too since hardly anyone would see it anyhow.
The vinyl was just a choice for the mockup! (Though i guess i could imagine a production concept for a show that might call for actual vinyl tricornes, but it would be something like, "I'm seeing this as Velvet Goldmine meets Pirates of the Caribbean..." Or something.)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 08:12 pm (UTC)Thanks again.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 06:29 pm (UTC)