Bugs in the Moonlight

Yvonne Nevard

United Kingdom

• HATalk Issue 176: Bes-Ben Hats: A Legacy of Delight. Behind the scenes with author Elizabeth Jachimowicz

My millinery project has been influenced by the legendary milliner, Benjamin B. Green-Field. In the research I have conducted, the language often used to describe the milliners’ work has included; Wit, fantasy, surreal, amusing, whimsical, avant garde and elegant, to name but a few. These words were my focus, along with his stunning work, in creating a finished piece for this competition.

It is notable that, Green-Fields’ headpieces, whilst using deeply creative and often richly encrusted techniques, were often on a diminutive scale at the foundation level but he used the negative space around the hat to great advantage, in height, width etc to create a, larger-than- life character piece. In this way, whilst my headpiece uses the currently popular shape of a halo band as the starting point, I have introduced a subtle 3D/over the edge technique to create a smaller scale sculptural look, enabling the continuation of the aesthetic story of bugs and flora. Moving the eye gently into the negative space around the base shape so that, from every angle, a little stitched garden world of creatures and plants can be seen, whilst still remaining a halo headpiece. The colour choices provide not only a vintage Hollywood echo representing some of Benjamin B. Green-Field’s glamourous clients but also works to hold the design together from a distance while following contemporary trends in colour for 2021/22.

The use of animals and bugs in Benjamin B. Green-Field’s work, particularly captured my imagination and this was something that I knew I wanted to emulate in my finished work, along with a smaller scale headpiece, something that Benjamin B. Green-Field often favoured.

This work also displays my love of colour, my passion for hand stitching, theatre, upcycling, vintage jewellery, millinery design, fashion, fine art, children’s book illustration and storytelling.

• Items found in second-hand/charity shops and recycled beach litter. Such as, broken pieces of old jewellery, off-cuts of silk fabric, jewellery wire, second-hand beads, a remnant of jacquard woven Italian silk, buckram, covered millinery wire, flannel fabric, thread, needles, shoe laces, cling film and pipe insulation. Benjamin B. Green-Fields’ work used materials that, were not likely to be included in usual millinery fabrication choices and practices. He was brave, experimental, resourceful, (rationing during the war years) and stylish, creating what must have been headwear objects of many conversations and admiration. I attempted to honour those characteristics.

• My halo form was blocked using buckram over a piece of pipe insulation that I found washed up on the beach near my home.
• After, blocking, wiring and mulling the buckram, the silk fabric was stitched in place.
• Pieces of machine embroidery were cut carefully from tulle and were appliqued by hand to the fashion fabric.
• Jewellery pieces were wired and stitched to the surface in multiple ways, mostly invisible.
• The reverse of the work was again, blocked buckram, mulled and covered with a grey silk off-cut.
• Hand slip stitched to finish.
• Comb added for security, hand stitched in place.