PPS. V&A instructions

If you happen to find yourself in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London at any point between now and April 2013, why don't you go and visit my "Cross Dress"? 

...Oh yes, because it's impossible to find.

BUT WAIT! 

NO MORE!

HERE'S A STEP BY STEP GUIDE ON HOW TO FIND MY DRESS:

H'ochkay. So. If you're going in the main entrance, go in and go straight. Not completely straight, or you'll walk straight into the reception desk and people will look at you. Go around the reception desk, and through the entrance to the gift shop opposite. Go straight through the gift shop (or stop and buy stuff, but that's a bit weird if you've just got there), and into the sculpture corridor on the other side. Turn left and walk to the end of the sculpture corridor. 

You will see this:

 To the left is the Exhibiton Road entrance, and to the right is the entrance to the tunnel and the Sackler Centre, where the Inspired By... Collection is on display.

T

The exit to the tunnel will be straight ahead, and the doors to the Sackler Centre on the right:

See? Go through them.

You will find yourself in a long, mysterious corridor. It smells of toilets. Probably because there are toilets to your right. You may stop for a bathroom break here.

Carry on through the corridor and you will get to the end that looks like this:

When you enter the Pea Soup Centre, some of the exhibition will be immediately to your right:

After you've had a look, carry on and turn right before the Neon Vomit desk:

Travel in an upwardly motion, utilising the companionway ahead of you:

Here's what it will look like when you're using the stairs:

Here you are at the top of the stairs. Turn right and you'll be able to see the little sign for Room 220 where the rest of the exhibition is being shown:

 Turn right and you will be able to see ... the dress. Dunh dunh DUNH!

So, no excuses! I have written the Idiot's Guide to finding the 2012 and, indeed, the final "Inspired By..." collection, and if you don't see it, you're an idiot.

HAPPY TRAILS!

xxx

PS. V&A

My "Cross-Dress"

Available for viewing in the Sackler Foyer and Room 220 until April 2013.

That's right, baby.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/education-project-inspired-by-

Summer Summary

Here is a late summary of the project I was doing over this past summer:

I started off very well, as you might have seen from my first blog post - drawing out designs, creating them, etc. etc. Pretty quickly, though, I became very very behind schedule.

On one particular Saturday, I was so eager to get to the beach, I bashed out 3 hats in a couple of hours. .....Predictably, they were shit.

Like this one.

Close to the end of my estimated schedule, I was 10 hats behind - a whole week! I spent the 7th week, making all the 60's and the 70's, trying desperately hard to catch up and be on time. The next Monday, I made two more, still on schedule at 82... then on Tuesday I found out that the whole thing wasn't happening anymore. 

AAAAARRRGGHH.

Admittedly, I knew from the beginning that it wasn't set in stone. In fact, it was a very offhand comment made by somebody almost a year ago; there was a very large possibility that they wouldn't take the hats, even if I made them. However, they scrapped the entire thing this year, so it wasn't a case of they saw the hats I'd produced, thought they were hideous and went with someone else.

How do I feel about it? Well at the time I was bummed, feeling like I'd wasted my summer... Thinking about it though, I hurried through some of them, and am kind of relieved they won't see the light of day. Besides, it was fun to have to make something in bulk and have a schedule to keep to! 

Also, a few of them are on sale at the Hatwoman pop-up shop at the Hong Kong horse racing in Shatin, four of which have already gone! Hooray!

The whole 84 of them... somehow made 2 more than I thought... are available to see here on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.306553822775973.63858.193675597397130&type=1

For the ones that aren't being sold by Hatwoman, they are either going to be dismantled and used for parts (the ones I made that Saturday, for instance), or to be sold separately, if I can pull it off!

Am now studying for a Higher Diploma in Millinery at the Kensington and Chelsea College (previously the HNC... still the same course, but due to government funding the college have changed the title so the students don't have to pay through the nose - sweeeet). More on that later.

If you're keen on buying any of the remaining ones, let me know by contacting me on Facebook or Twitter!
Here, have another photo!

Well, THAT was predictable.

I said it, and so I jinxed myself.

I am now behind again. Or still behind, and yesterday I was just overly optimistic/an idiot.

But, I did swear by Odin's Beard that there would be photos, so here are some:

Here are the ones that are completely completed, headbands, combs, labels and all:

(The middle row are Saturns and Saucers)

Here are the ones that I still have to label, etc:

(The pointy bases are drops, the round are domes)

Heading to the last horse races of the season now, followed by Ladies Night (girls drink for freeeeeeeeeeeee). Buut since I'm not ahead of my schedule now, I still have to come into work tomorrow and DO STUFF. AARGH. Toss it.

Happy Handover!*

Today is the 11th day of my challenge, and for the second Monday in a row I have completely forgotten it's a public holiday:

June 23               Tuen Ng Festival (Saturday)

July 1                  Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day (Sunday)

July 2*                 The day following Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day (Monday)

*Happy Day Following Hong Kong SAR Establishment Day!

15 years yesterday!

Fireworks - happy.

Public holiday - happy.

Political protesters marching the streets - not so happy.

Shops closed meaning I cannot buy supplies like I had planned - annoyed and grumpy.

Anyway, I've *mostly* done 20 hats, so I'm roughly on target, yay! Here's a couple of previews.

The new ones... my office is starting to get a bit crowded...

This one is my baby... I am so tempted to keep her!

Quite proud of this idea... Pheasant feather wrapped around the edge of a saucer. Going to add a burgundy flower to the headband when I attach it.

Tomorrow I plan on buying buttloads of headbands and combs and attaching them to the hats that need them. Then I'll have a little photoshoot and upload them so I can pack away the finished hats and start on the next lot!

Hatwoman

I AM A MILLINER. I AM. NO, REALLY.

I made the decision to go into millinery almost with a shrug and a non-committal "Meh. I could do that..." After acquiring a Bachelor's degree in Art History at the University of Nottingham, I, like most of my friends, was nowhere close to knowing what I wanted and millinery seemed as plausible an option as any. But as I've progressed over the past year, learned the basics, gained experience and begun to develop my own style, I've come to realise - I fucking LOVE IT.

It all began, as it often does, with My Mother. She decided a couple of years ago, suddenly and without warning, that she should start wearing a hat every day. In part because it was more flattering, and partly because it doubled as a tool to disguise yourself in plain sight. Unfortunately now, as one of the only regular hat wearers in Hong Kong, that second point has probably been rendered null and void. At first I thought she was just asserting her right to be a little bit odd, and I chuckled and went along with it. Now, of course, I realise she was ahead of the curve. As per usual. Or, depending on how you look at it, waaayyy behind the curve. People gave up wearing hats on a daily basis in the 1960's, when the fashions at the time began to focus on hair and the shapes created by stylists like Vidal Sassoon. Indeed, the millinery industry has mostly survived on the back of traditional events that require wearing hats; weddings, races and the like. As a being that puts little to no effort into taming her hair/mane, or care when applying make-up, hats are the simplest and most fabulous solution, darling.

After a short while, it dawned on Mother Dear that it was nigh on impossible to find quality hats in Hong Kong, and she needed to take matters into her own hands if she was going to be Odd But Cool. She dreamed of a magical place, a place where fashion pilgrims could come and stand in awe at the heretofore unheard-of collection of beautiful, sculptural, functional, bizarre, but all hand crafted, completely individual pieces of millinery. April 2010: the dream becomes a reality. If you believe this to be an exaggeration, go check it out for yourself - HATWOMAN, SHOP 209, MAN YEE ARCADE, 68 DES VOEUX ROAD CENTRAL, HONG KONG. And if you're not lucky enough to live in Hong Kong, take a gander at the website: http://www.hatwoman.hk/eng/index.html

This astonishing and sudden move by Mother Darling simultaneously seemed idiosyncratic and made perfect sense. Ever since retiring from soliciting - hee hee - I mean lawyerdom, and during the years she was a foreign office spouse to My Father, she had visualised several business ideas that she would occasionally vaguely pursue. Until Hatwoman, none of these venture seedlings ever developed further than the germination stages and when she finally followed through, I was delighted. Proud. Inspired.

I've always been more creative than academic; I think it was obvious from the get-go that Big Bro had acquired all the brains in that department... The memory of Mama trying to teach me to read springs to mind. I believe she worried that if I was having trouble reading Ant and Bee at the age of two, I would be destined for a life working behind the counter at a fast food chain. So, when Hatwoman opened at the long-awaited close of my academic career, I knew instantly that millinery would be something I would enjoy, and something that I suspected I might be good at. This statement, even now, when I have been making hats for a year, still feels uncomfortably cocky.

However, whether I myself am good or not, the subtle power of hats is undeniable. Wearing them continues to be edgy and unusual - people today seem to believe that it requires a certain amount of confidence. This is not so - while wearing a hat attracts more attention, it can also be used to either create a flattering light on your face, or as a shield to hide completely, if you're in that kind of mood. Hats can be used to make you confident. Mysterious. Coy. Invisible. Alarming. Anything you want.

After a year, and for the foreseeable future, I remain in love with the fashion, the art, the design and the creation that makes up the millinery world. And My Mother remains my inspiration.