Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I have decided to start a regular blog post with news on hat in the media. This is a good source to see what people are wearing, where and when.

With the Royal Ascot in progress this week it was sure a week for hats in the media. There were also a number of other smaller media stories that I picked up and also a few millinery stories associated with the Royal Ascot and the tradition to wear hats. Enjoy!

Hats! Heels! Horses! Flashy fashion at Ladies Day – Fashion & Beauty – MSNBC.com

This is a link to an article on fashion at Royal Ascot.

So, where can one find a good hatpin these days?
This is an article with with quotes from How2Hat’s – Mrs Morse-Brown in relation to millinery and hats at the Royal Ascot

Hats off to Ascot! The wild, wacky and wonderful outfits of Ladies Day | Mail Online
The images in the gallery on this page show some of the less spectacular hats, but these still give a good indication of the styles of hats worn at the races this year

Rochdale Online -Hats off to the ladies for charity race day

ladies day at Royal Ascot.

The Associated Press: Hats and heels take the day at Ascot’s Ladies Day
Hats at Ascot

The Press Association: Stylish hats on Ladies Day at Ascot
Some more hats at Ascot.

Zara Phillips tops celebrity hat list – Telegraph
Who are the biggest celebrity hat wearer? According to this article Zara Phillips and Brad Pitt…

Mad hatters – Lifestyle News – Cairns, QLD, Australia
Article on local milliners in Cairns.

At the start is contains a glossary of millinery terms, this contains the a description of different styles of hats as well as trims. This book is aimed at the collector of vintage hats and as such contains a price guide for the hats listed. The photos are all clear and in full colour and they contain a description of what the hat is made out of and of the trimming.

The book is broken up into chapters based on the era for example chapter one is 1790 to 1837 and chapter 2 is 1837-1901. The book goes right up to the modern day. With each section containing a description of the hats and inspirations of that era. Chapter 12 contains special collections such as Ascot hats, Christmas hats, daisies, feathered hats, red hats, wedding hats and more.

An example of the description given with each hat is…. ‘A brilllliant wool felt in antique red is folded on the right side to create a wing effect and finished with an art deco pin; a stylish interpretation of the aviator’s helmet. label: Jeanne et Jacques.’ this is for a hat in 1920′s to 30′s era.

With 253 pages of hats in full colour (1000 photos), this is one stunning book and one I am sure to draw inspiration from for many years.

Image via Wikipedia

I just thought I would put up a quick post to share with you my favorite website for Millinery information. This is a vintage sewing: http://vintagesewing.info

This site contains a number of different vintage millinery books. The books have been copied and indexed onto the site. These books are from the 1920′s, 30′s and 50′s, times when wearing hats was still popular and as such more was known about the art. These books are a great source of inspiration and provide great instructions on how some classic hat making techniques.

I found this hat on Etsy and just thought I would share the inspiration. It is designed for Etsy Milliner, Boring Sidney. The Etsy site can be found here: BoringSidney :: Crazy Chip Bag Headpiece

What great recycling!

Image via Wikipedia

I have been researching better ways to put together tutorials on making hats… The ones that I like the best are on the Instructables website… Here are two I found on hats.

A girl pirate hat – I think this is quite a good design and the way the instructions are set out it would make it easy to make Girl Pirate Hat .

A brimmed beanie – this is a simple hat that could be worn by males or females. How To Make a Brimmed Beenie.

I will have to work a bit to make my instructions as easy to read as these. I have just found my camera cord (which had been packed away in some obscure box) so will download the photos for the rest of my cocktail base hat in the next few days.