Where Hat Magic Happens

It will come as no surprise to any regular reader of the SNAP Journal how much I love hats, and what a rather large collection I own. Today, while organising the wardrobe for a photoshoot next week, I flitted through the millinery workroom where I work at Melbourne Theatre Company, and paused to breathe the rarefied air and take a few snaps.

It is really like an Aladdin’s Cave of millinery delights!

It is really like an Aladdin’s Cave of millinery delights! There are wooden hat blocks in a multitude of shapes; feathers, ribbons, tulle and other trimmings galore scattered all over; and vintage hats and cuttings provide inspiration.

This is where hat magic happens!

 

Grab Your Pearls, Girls

I have long had a passionate love for pearls of all kinds. There is something so beautiful about the sheen and lustre; they feel silky to the touch. There is also the romance of how they are created (so lovely that a clever little oyster makes something so beautiful from an irritant!), and the history of pearl fishing is fascinating.

I love all kinds of pearls: from the beautiful South Sea pearl that made up my former engagement ring, to multicoloured freshwater pearls, and even the fake pearls used in some of my vintage costume jewellery.

A pearl collar was a classic accessory to ladies of the 1950s, worn with woollen twinsets, or in the evening with a cocktail dress. I had a hankering to own one because they are just so pretty, even though I generally don’t like garments with little collars (I hate shirts and absolutely loathe the Peter Pan style collars popular in the 1960s).

I searched Etsy off and on for a long time (seeing many in my wish list get snapped up while I dithered) before I finally bit the bullet and made a purchase. It was difficult to choose because really it is the type of accessory that ideally one wants to try on. This one I bought is in excellent condition however, and features gunmetal bugle beads amongst the deep clotted-cream pearls.

It feels too prissy and dated for me to wear it as it originally would have been, and I thought I could wear it as a neckpiece, and the effect here appears amusingly like a bowtie – I look like a cigarette girl of the Art Deco period! (Which is a totally awesome idea for a costume party, I must say.) I just need a tuxedo jacket to complete the picture.

Photos: February 2014

Fancy Hat!

Since I have been in a more minimalist phase in the last year or so, I have not been wearing my more fancy vintage hats – I’ve donned the ones with simpler shapes and minimal trimming. However, last week I suddenly declared to the marketing department at large that I was going to wear a crazy vintage hat the next day.

The next morning, in my hurry dressing for work, I almost forgot, but at the very last minute I remembered the previous day’s avowal. Fortunately I have an app cataloguing my many hats (a bit like Cher Horowitz’s computerised closet in the film Clueless), which I can search by style, colour or trim; the app also records in which hatbox I have stored each hat so that I can find them quickly.

I have always thought [this hat] resembled Mickey Mouse ears …

As I was wearing black, I used the colour search filter, scrolled through the selection and voila! This 50s nylon crin hat was perfect. I have always thought it resembled Mickey Mouse ears, and in fact someone said as much that day. I suspect it ought to have three giant pearls, but my 60s pearl bauble earrings are a fabulous substitute.

It always amuses me how much I get stared at on my morning commute whenever I wear an unusual hat – I always want to demand have they never seen a hat before? The girls I work with, however, were delighted.

Photo: May 2013

International Arrivals

Today is Australia Day. There is a lot of controversy in this country about whether we should celebrate our nationhood on the 26th of January as it is in fact the day Europeans invaded a country that belonged to the indigenous people, decimating and dispossessing the population. Aboriginal people call this ‘Invasion Day’, ‘Day of Mourning’, ‘Survival Day, and in the last few years ‘Aboriginal Sovereignty Day’. It is a commemoration of deep loss.

Aboriginal woman Professor Jakelin Troy is the Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research at the University of Sydney. “We shouldn’t have to be marching and protesting and making big political commentaries in order to get recognition – that should be built into this day,” she says. “There should be, in all the advertising that goes out about Australia Day… it shouldn’t be this frivolous, frothy sort of stuff about barbeques and coloured towels and spending the day at the beach. It should be, you know what does Australia Day mean for all Australians?” [From Creative Spirits]

In that spirit, I’m sharing what Australia means to my family. Everyone who has emigrated here has a personal story. My parents and three older sisters escaped from Communist Yugoslavia, and, via the Catholic Church in Austria, were accepted as refugees into this country. Australia, to them, meant freedom. It also meant that they felt fortunate enough to have one more child. If they had not immigrated here, I may have never been born!

The photo above shows them arriving in Melbourne in 1969 via a domestic airline, most likely from Sydney; probably my uncle who was already living here took the photo.

Yes, there are tragic things that happened in the past, which are difficult if not impossible to atone, but here and now I personally am grateful that I can call Australia home.  

What I Actually Wore #109

Serial #: 0109
Date: 16/03/2013
Weather: 21°C / 70°F
Time Allowed: 10 minutes

It was a cool and rainy autumn day with intermittent sunshine, and I was attending the Castlemaine Arts Festival on this Saturday with two of my sisters and a brother-in-law. I dressed in what I call a ‘story-book’ style, defined by the inclusion of some striped garment with bold colours.

The orange cardigan is by Anthropologie, and I loved it, although I wished too late that I had bought the oatmeal version instead. I think the neutral colour might have toned down the frivolous ruffle details. However, both my sisters admired it. The matching striped socks amused me because they were tan and clear nylon mesh – sort of now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t tattoo socks.

I chuckle now when I look back at this outfit because it is so colourful, in spirit as well as tone. The socks wore out eventually, and the cardigan was retired from my wardrobe in the Big Cull a year or two ago, but the other items still survive, although admittedly I have not worn them often, except for the bag. However, it’s still a fairly simple outfit, not over-accessorised, even if it is too cute to appeal to me now. I still love the ceramic ring though! It was a souvenir from Barcelona, and looks like a bit of coral.

It was a fun day of food, music, shopping and gallery-hopping.

Photos: April 2013

Items:

Cardigan: Anthropologie
Top: Zara
Skirt: Kokomarina
Necklace: souvenir (various)
Earrings: hand made
Ring: souvenir from Spain
Watch: Kenneth Cole
Bag: vintage
Socks: Kinki Gerlinki
Shoes: John Lewis Women