Alla Stepura – United Kingdom

Hollywood Glamour

Category: Traditional

Description

The reason why I decided to choose a theme “Fusion. Hollywood Glamour” was to present the luxury and fashion of the Golden Age style.

Hollywood, California, the birthplace of the movie industry and still the centre of the motion picture universe nowadays. This land of glamour and glitz is just minutes from Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills and the high priced shopping on Rodeo Drive. Hollywood style of the Golden Age era was a blend of on- and off-screen fashion and accessories, including dramatic costumes created by famous designers such as Adrian, Travis Banton and Chanel.

My hat is a fusion between traditional classic men’s tall hat and a Hollywood Glamour fashion. The hard stiffened felt, a sharp shape of the hat give us a sense of power, security with an influence of the traditional British millinery school from the past. The sparkling beads, streaming veil, long weightless ostrich feathers, colourful peacock plumes, which sway from side to side, and a streaming veil add a feminine ladylike look.

Materials

• Wool felt capeline
• “Hollywood” lining fabric
• satin fabric for a bespoke made bias binding
• millinery wire
• ostrich feathers
• peacock feathers
• small beads
• medium beads
• sequins
• organza fabric
• decorative ribbon
• Petersham ribbon
• satin fabric
• black and green thread bobbins

Techniques

• Traditional blocking technique using a wooden tall hat block, millinery pins, ring, hot steam and stiffened wool felt capeline.
• After a process of drying the tall hat was hand embroidered with a variety of sizes beads, sequins and feathers.
• The millinery wire was attached to the edge of the hat using a button hole stitch, thimble, black thread and a millinery needle.
• The satin bespoke made bias covered the wire using a stab stitch technique.
• The black veil was cut out, its edge was covered with a bespoke made satin fabric bias, then attached with two satin straps to the hat’s crown.
• The “Hollywood” lining was cut out and hand stitched to the hat.
• The decorative ribbon was hand sewn between the hat and lining for hiding a seam and gaining a couture made look.
• The tall hat was cleaned from any threads, chalk marks and got a final hot steam, was left to dry on the millinery head.