The Secret Lives Of Hats. :-)

My passion for my art has no boundaries. It became absolutely clear to me after the conversation I had with one of my less passionate colleagues, who noted to me in almost disbelief that " you speak about hats as though they are live creatures! ". :-) Well, yes, I do.

Anya Caliendo.Couture Millinery Atelier.

I should also, probably, admit that I often think of women as hats. I can take one single look at any lady and immediately know how she would look if she would be a hat. If you could only see a parade of hats in my head when I go to the parties: elegant cloches, elaborate fascinator confections and even distasteful creatures full of crystals and ostrich feathers. Does it sound a little crazy to you? :-)

Hat Boxes Of My Atelier Designed by Me.

I have repeated once again: I believe that each hat possesses incredible, almost mystical power of transformation. This is the only type of accessory that can change not only your entire style, but persona too. This single powerful ability would not be possible without one very important ingredient - the soul. Each hat does have a soul, even more, each hat has it's own character!

For example, did you know that one hat can wait for its owner for years? It sits on the shelf along and forgotten for a very long time. Suddenly, one day, a lady walks into the Atelier without any particular purpose. She passes the "forgotten" hat without giving it a single look. Unexpectedly, the hat falls off the shelf and lands on the floor in a desperate attempt to attract attention of this lady. At the end, both lady and the "forgotten" hat know in some unexplainable manner that they have found each other. And they live happily ever after.:-)

Millinery Studio

Once in a great while, I come across what I call a "stubborn" hat. It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen and when it does it can be extremely frustrating. Everything goes wrong with this type of hat: it gets spots God knows from where, every little detail on this hat becomes a task: attaching simple ribbon or bow or even button takes hours, the thread keeps breaking, you loose needles and you loose patience.

It is as if the hat doesn't want to be created at all. I have learned the hard way to simply leave "stubborn" hat along for a while and then come back to it later. Very often, this little "time out" changes the mind of the hat entirely and it lets me finish my design without any problem at all. While working in Mr. Jones Atelier I discovered that he has the same problem too! It appears that one hat in every Collection becomes a "stubborn" hat and causes a lot of trouble.:-)

Sometimes I have a pleasure of working with "unexpected" hats. I love them the most, because to me they have a mind of their own. I can spend countless hours sketching one single design, choosing fabrics and materials, but once I sit down at my working table magic occurs. I realize that my original design and choice of materials are all wrong. I abandon them and improvise sometimes without having a slightest idea of what the final result would look like. It is as if the hat wants to be created the way it wants to be created. Does it make any sense to you? :-)))

Millinery Display

Hats are very fragile creatures, they love to be spoiled and taken out for a walk. They love to live in well protected hat boxes, but if left there for two long they loose their spirit. The color slowly fades, the fabric slightly deforms - the hat simply falls into depression! I always try to prevent it from happening by taking the hats out of the boxes and letting them breath. I wear all my hats with great pleasure and we both enjoy a company of each other. :-)

Mr. Stephen Jones in his Atelier.

Did you know that when storing any hat in the hat box you need to use aroma free fine colorless tissue paper? Long time ago it was very fashionable to store hats wrapped in perfumed tissue paper inside the hat boxes. I would not recommend it - fabrics have an extraordinary ability to absorb smells. Perfume smell gradually changes with time and often not in a good way.

P.S. Oh, and almost forgot! Did you know that hats can whisper? Where clothes hang simply on a rail, hats whisper to you: " Try me on...I am beautiful ! " ....