Confluences

Fusanna Magdalena Kroenke

France

• HATalk Issue 169: Millinery Masters – Sally Victor

The “Confluences” is inspired by Sally Victor’s work, and in particular by her Guggenheim Museum-shaped hat. My entry takes inspiration from the angular architecture of the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France, where I live (pictured).

The Confluences is a double-sided hat that the wearer can employ in its more casual, “day” side, or the more sparkly “evening” mode.

Guitar strings were used as structural support to create a spring effect that facilitates the transition from one form to the other. Internal wire interacts with headband magnets, making mounting the hat a straightforward affair. This evokes Sally Victor’s exploration of collapsible hats and innovative materials. As an additional hommage, the “museum” side of the Confluences is made of straw (sinamay), like Ms. Victor’s Guggenheim Museum-inspired hat.

The silvery side of Confluences represents the flat, brushed metal panels of the museum building. The verso, leather side is wavy and chaotic, like the waves of the rivers Rhône and Saone that merge at the tip of the Confluence peninsula, where the museum premises are located, and to which it owes its name.

• Sinamay
• Leather
• Buckram
• Bondaweb
• Wire (to interact with the magnetic headband)
• Nickel-wound guitar strings (structural support)
• Magnets
• Headband

• Blocking buckram by folding
• Wiring buckram to mount the hat on magnetic headband
• Wiring buckram with guitar strings
• Blocking leather on the buckram form and assembling with bondaweb
• Blocking three layers of sinamay by folding
• Assembling sinamay and leather/buckram parts with bondaweb
• Blocking sinamay edge over guitar string
• Assembling magnets on the headband
• Attaching both faces of the hat (sinamay and leather) on the magnetic headband