After many years of making  top hats for stage and screen productions, I am very familiar with this type of hat. Toppers can take a long time to make by hand, but the results are always rewarding.

Hat fittings with the client are required to select the right sillouette and to tweek the style to suit the wearer’s body  proportions.

This particular image is of a leather topper for a client. It is made from a pattern and constructed on a foundation material. It will be crushed to give a  Dickensian character look.

Usually a topper is moulded around a waisted hat block (visible in the background) to achieve the very handsome curves that give this style it’s unique  curved crown.

The brims are often rolled up at the sides, a precursor to the brim lines in the American cowboy hat.

Top hats were a symbol of tradition and status in Victorian times, they chart domination in colonial outposts and have a unique place in our history and psyche.

A highlight of my top hat making careeer was the image in the feature film, Moulin Rouge where all the men throw their top hats in the air as Nicole Kidman decends from the ceiling on a swing  in her diamond studded mini top hat.

This scene took months to prepare for and watching it being filmed was a  hat makers delight.

On my first day in Paris, on the quest of men’s headwear design throughout the world, I accidentally stumbled upon the Musee du quai Branly.

While I intended to seek out this museum to view the headwear of other cultures, I had no idea where in Paris this establishment was. Strangely on this first day, while wandering in this city my radar unconciously took me to its front door, just underneath the Eiffel tower.

A modern organic shaped building designed by Jean Nouvel, sporting vertical gardens, this is Paris’ tribute to indigenous cultures of the world.

Musee du quai Branley has a spectacular collection of 300 000 works ”devoted to the arts and civilisations of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas, stemmed from the political will to see justice rendered to non European cultures”.  Jacques Chirac

I settled into an afternoon of wonder and discovery as I viewed traditional and ceremonial head dresses from a range of traditonal cultures.

This was a new spin on the old style museums in its layout, presentation and interface and an attempt to redress past politics.However as the evening set in and it was time to leave, an odd feeling of  the spirits of lost cultures and the  plunder by western colonial powers rose up in me.

This theme followed me around the world as I charted the European hat and it’s passage across the globe with colonisation and the  dispossession of native peoples of their lands to the pursuits of colonists (more on this in further posts).

Pictured is a spectacular Native American head dress, a symbol of heroic male headwear.

Spend a day here for a very different perspective of Paris.

In Tokyo in the depths of winter earlier this year, I was delighted to see young Japanese men wearing hats on the streets.

They seem to have embraced all kinds of styles, from striking black felts perched on top of their dark hair  to a range of soft knitted and pattern made hats. There is endless variety to choose from in the hat shops that line the streets of Harajuku and Shibuya.

ca4la is the most famous of these shops and is well stocked with an impressive array of local manufactured styles along with top international brands. ca4la has multiple store in Japan and recently opened a shop in London.

What inspird me about the Japanese was their willingness to be playful with hats as a fashion accessory. They are not afraid to make a statement about what they put on their heads, in fact they proudly experiment, unafraid of what others may think.

I beleive they are leading the way in contemporary hat wearing.

I had some fun with a few hat freaks and my photographic companion, Katerina Stratos one night out in the Tokyo hat shops.

This depends who you are.
For the wearer it must be comfortable and feel right.
For the viewer it must suit the wearer in shape and style, complementing the personality.
For me as a hat maker the hat must have a great shape.

Nothing is more exciting than walking down the street and marvelling at a fabulous hat at it comes towards you.The Jewish men wear their sharp black felts proudly, as do the Indians in their turbans.

A good shape in a hat will turn heads!

How do you get a great shape in a hat?
It starts way back at the design phase where a hat block or form is chosen to mould the felt or straw on.
Recently I was in Italy visiting a hat block maker, Mr Pellucci. He creates shapes for the Italian hat industry and I had the pleasure to chat with him about his work.
His sculpting skill is very specialised and is hugely repected by the headwear industry because without a good form you can not have a good hat. Pictured are some of his sample shapes.

Of course once you have bought a hat with a great shape make it your own by tweeking  it to suit the real you.

Over the past few weeks I have been collaborating with a jeweller and an electroplater in the making of a king’s crown.
I talk paper patterns and ermine, jewels and velvet. Alice talks sulphides, beating brass and gold baths and we both hope the size will be right. I now know why crowns have fur rims. This is to offer flexible head fit with the overnight change of royalty – without having to make a new crown. The fur cuff also allows a bit of padding to a very heavy and unforgiving metal ring that bears down on the temples and challenges the neck muscles. The weight of leadership is great. Along with the velvet cape, it is any wonder that royalty get beyond coronation day!

One day a week I skillshare with my students of headwear.

They are a vibrant and productive group of 12 who enjoy experimenting with hat forms and the collective learning environment.

After 30 years as a Headwear specialist, it is a joy to teach some of my skills to others who share my passion. Every hat they create is so different to the next. Many whacky and wonderfully experimental designs are created but eventually a true character style emerges as they mature into confident, professional milliners.

Hi, welcome to my hatters blog.
As a passionate hat maker of 30 years, I am recently returned to  Australia from a global research trip looking at historic and contemporary headwear. Fortunate to receive a Winston Churchill fellowship, I explored headwear design in Japan, Europe, UK and USA.

I visited museum collections, hat manufacturers, hat designers, retailers and fashion expositions, meeting many passionate hat wearers and hat makers along the way.

Now happily home in sunny Sydney, I have created this blog to foster a dialogue between  those who share my enthusiasm for headwear.We will discuss hat styles and how they suit different face shapes, fibres, sartorial trends, manufacturing, headwear in the media and what is currently being created on  hatters benches. Guest contributors will elaborate on  particular  topics  and I  invite your participation and comments.

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