Hatcessory
60 West 38th Street
New York, NY 10018
212-302-3934
(no website)
I am not a possessor of what people like to call "Hattitude". I wish I were, since, boy, do I have ideas - fantasies, really, of what I would create...
But let's get real, who has the closet space for all of those "ideas" anyway?
What I do have, is a real penchant for home dec, and I imagine a wonderful oversized hat lampshade, that I might get to create one of these days... Think crazy lampshade stories about some crazy lady from long ago who had a few too many at a party... and only the hat lingered, immortalized as a lampshade to tell the tale... Even all these years later, we just giggle and heave a deep sigh at the memory.
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| Inspiration - Do you see the lampshade in this picture? From "Masquerade and Carnival" Butterick Publishing Company, 1892 |
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| So literal, but I love it! Also from "Masquerade and Carnival". |
In the meantime, I'll just do the fun, sculptural hat stuff for myself and the occasional client.
Last week, I wandered into Hatcessory, and found exactly what I was looking for, but until now, didn't know where to find. This place is not intimidating, just very full and colorful, with staff who are polite while gently offering to help you. Many years ago, at least a decade or more, one of the wonderful supplies I used to sometimes buy near the garment district, was one of the many plain, stiffened, unadorned hat shapes, to which I could apply all sorts of fabulousness. In my life, these served me well when making costumes. This amazing millinery shortcut made my experiments inexpensive and fun, and I just adored the stores that carry many classic and exciting shapes.
Hatcessory has lots of churchy and Broadway hat shapes, lots of ready to wear hats, and lots of adornments to add your own "hattitude"! Sparkly things, flowery things, feathery things, jewel-like things, buckles, clips, and more. A Google image search for inspiration hats reveals a seemingly endless array of lovely sculptural, things to try.
Millinery can be very serious business, and, for the serious milliner, there are specialty supplies you can buy, assuming you know what they are called, how to use them, and how much of the hat making process you want to take on. However, for those of us who want to play inexpensively, like me, to create fun conversation and artsy costume-like pieces, Hatccesory is a great place to start.
(Psst... If you want to find more fun places to shop in the garment district, sharing the creative energy of a group, come along on a Speakeasy tour.)
