Head On at the London College of Fashion

The exhibition space at the London College of Fashion is somewhat limited in size, yet one room and adjacent cabinets are certainly used to maximise impact in the new millinery show: Head On.

"While contemporary society no longer dictates the daily use of hats, the appetite for millinery on the catwalk, in editorial and even on the high street, continues to flourish," says the preamble. Focusing on decorative millinery, the exhibition features mannequins styled to incorporate headwear as part of a total look. 

Dress by AF Vandervorst, hat by Stephen Jones

Dress by Giles Deacon, millinery by Stephen Jones

You would probably get very odd looks if you wore any of these outfits - and the curious headwear doesn't look to be very practical. However, ShopCurious drew attention to the emerging trend of promoting fashion as art some years ago.

Dress by Gareth Pugh, headwear by Philip Treacy

Dress by Yiqing, headpiece by Paul Stafford

The show runs until 23rd March, so do pop in to see the display if you are in the Oxford Street area. 

Will you?

Flowers, frills, feathers and fans

 

The Queen was dressed simply, in powder blue, for the first day of Royal Ascot. My own curiously cobbled together outfit comprised of faded pastel shades – I customized an old pair of Top Shop shoes with ‘found’ floral embellishment, which I’d purloined from a vintage hat the night before. Thankfullly, I found a pair of 'nude' tights before I left too...

I wore one of the 'mad hatter' creations from my extensive millinery collection, along with a Missoni (thrift shop) dress, a vintage couture jacket and a 1950s beaded bag,which was borrowed from ShopCurious. Amazingly, I didn’t spot anyone wearing anything similar…

Along with the inevitable red, white and blue, hat and dress trends on Tuesday seemed to fall into several categories: Floral hats – ranging from modern, nature inspired to old fashioned bathing cap style.

Frills (and later in the day spills) were spotted on hats and dresses alike.

      
































Feathers were everywhere – occasionally getting in the way.

One lady couldn’t get enough of them and took a spare hat along, just in case her companion didn't turn up for afternoon tea.

Flying saucer hats were also in evidence, like the ones worn by retro girl-band, The Tootsie Rollers (below right). 

And there were Far Eastern style fan-pleated numbers too.












As well as fitted trouser suits. One woman sitting under an escalator reminded me of Diane Keaton. Whilst another seemed to be wearing her pyjamas.

Then there were the fashion mavericks – like Tracy Rose, who never conforms to any style but her own. 

I also noticed a couple of girls with crazy tattoos. And, from afar, saw a fabulous pair of striped-heeled sandals.

    

After a fun day of fashion spotting, I pirouetted back to the car park. Next time I might even watch the races..

Will you?

PS check out men’s racy Ascot fashions in today’s post at The Dabbler.

Arty, attention-grabbing accessories

Last week’s unusually warm and sunny weather had me skipping out all over the place to arty events, hence the lack of blog posts. One of the more glamorous was a party at Sketch in Mayfair, to celebrate Shingai Shoniwa (of the Noisettes) and hatmaker Katherine Elizabeths’ new millinery collaboration.

One of the biggest hat trends is customization. Hats are being embellished with all sorts of curiosities and turned into works of wearable art. It’s fun to create your own millinery masterpiece too – in fact, Katherine Elizabeth holds hat parties and day-long millinery classes, at Craft Central in Clerkenwell. The next one is this Saturday 22nd.

Now the weather’s taken a wintry turn though, I feel more like hibernating. Forget going out to fashion tribe gatherings, all I want to do is sit in front of the television and cozy up to something soporific, like the X-Factor, with a nice mug of cocoa (Ha! That must account for the curious spelling in my latest post at The Dabbler…)

This morning it was actually cold enough to contemplate wearing gloves - which by the way, also seem to be getting an arty makeover this season. I’ve been waiting for ages to try out the luxuriously embroidered new gloves by eccentric Englishman Mark H at ShopCurious. Mark’s oddly extravagant OR WOT! designs are a small but valiant contribution towards saving niche handicrafts of the British manufacturing industry… Now I’ll raise a cup of cocoa to that.

Will you?

Hollywood hair accessories

These days, there’s no need to go overboard on the millinery front – elaborately sculpted and embellished headgear has given way to more subtly elegant hair accessories and smaller scale fascinators.

A simple, but uniquely decorated, Hollywood style headband can bring a touch of glamour to the proceedings at Summer events like weddings and Royal Ascot.










These seriously stylish hair bands by Sheena Holland at ShopCurious are handcrafted using natural fabrics, including feathers and leather - and decorated with original vintage jewellery and curiosities.








Hats can sometimes get in the way, but these are easy to wear and will take you from day into night, without having to worry about your hair getting all messed up.

























You can even make your own, by buying a plain metal or velvet covered hair band and adding your own feathers, trinkets and beads.












However, leading ladies usually have far better things to do with their precious time - like posing for photographers and signing autographs...

Do you?

Curiouser and Curiouser

No, I ain't forgotten how to speak proper ... but I was referring to the Mad Hatter's tea party. I'm sure we can all identify with a bit of good old-fashioned lunacy, especially if it has to do with hats. A curious fact is that the term 'mad as a hatter' originated beacuse milliners used mercury to bind felt fibres. Over time, as the fumes were inhaled, the mercury made some milliners go insane. Apparently, the art of millinery has existed in Britain since 1700 and comes from the travelling Italian salesmen - Milanners.


At ShopCurious, we're offering a new range of beautifully handmade hats by a rather original designer called Sandra Bamminger. What I like is that she creates organic shapes, using natural materials - and the unique way they're designed makes them almost come to life. These are the sort of hats that look really funky and will work for any occasion, or none at all if you're just quirky and eccentric.


I bumped into some eccentric hat wearers over Christmas and took a few pics (as if I had nothing better to do ...) These hats are also very authentic and some look handmade too - though I have a feeling they're less Mad Hatter and more Mad March Hare. What d'you think? This one (left) reminded me of a curious question mark - and the one on the right is just plain silly.




One thing's for sure, hats are fun for people of all ages and they seem to give an added dimension to the personality - if not just a bit of extra height, which these very tall young ladies (right) didn't need at all. And there always has to be one show-off who wants to stand out from the crowd - this time it was Napoleon ... only joking Martin, you're a wonderful host and a great sport too (as well as being a curiously stylish dresser).




Have you seen any curious hats lately? If so, do send us your pictures, we'd love to see them. Just add a link to your comments at the end of this blog, or send to info@ShopCurious.com.

Will you?