TRAVELS WITH MY HAT
with new styles. In general, most of the hats worn in Australia are for special occasions, racewear and weddings. This is a big thing that we have to try to change here, to get people to wear hats as a fashion accessory as well.” In her shop, Catherine sells some designs from Dutch hat designer Mirjam Nuver. One of them is a foldable wool hat that can be worn in different ways. “As soon as I saw these hats in Mirjam’s shop in Amsterdam, I knew they would sell well. The design is fantastic, so I worked out how to make them. Next I wrote to her to ask whether I could license the design. So we worked out a deal and now every time I sell one, Mirjam gets paid for it as well. I always tell students this is the way I work. I want them to know that you can’t just copy what you like. Apart from the ones I buy at trade shows and from hat designers, I make quite a lot of hats for the shop myself. It is a team effort actually; I have a great team of five milliners who help me put the collections together.” Catherine’s team of milliners is generally small but as soon as preparations for the racing season begin in September, more come in to help. Most work full time in the shop in the final weeks coming up to the Melbourne Cup Carnival. “It’s quite a hectic period as during the races almost everything we make is on commission. Our customers bring in their dresses and we design all kinds of matching headpieces for them. To try to ease the pressure somewhat, we start working on our own racing wear collection a few months before the season starts. This means we can offer our customers a ready-to-wear collection to choose from. The more hats we have on the shelf, the less exhausted we will be at the end of the season.”
Competitions Getting students and a new generation of milliners involved in the hat business is very important in Catherine’s view. Catherine offers a special sponsorship award for the First-year millinery students at the Kangan Institute of Fashion. This small competition gives the students something to strive for from day one of their training. “The winner receives a certificate and all entries are displayed in my shop where customers can view them and vote for their favourite. Students’ hats
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are made available for sale, and for most students this is their first exposure to the hat-buying market. The students came up with some wonderful designs this year and we sold some of their hats.” Catherine doesn’t just organise contests for students. In 2017 she also ran the Melbourne International Millinery Competition - MIMC. “We started this competition to showcase Australian and international millinery and we’re already planning the MIMC 2018 event. Anybody can enter, from anywhere
in the world. In 2017 we had 42 hats from Australia and 28 entries submitted from international milliners. We anticipate getting an even better response in 2018!” As well as organising her own international millinery competitions, Catherine regularly enters competitions around the world. Most recently (and in 2015 also) she received the first prize at the Estivales du Chapeau in Caussade.
For more information, see
www.essentialhat.com
City Hatters When Melbourne’s Flinders Street
railway station opened in 1909, the station master’s office was located on the ground floor. In 1910, the
station master moved upstairs, and the office was turned into a hat shop.
That shop is where City Hatters now stands, recounted its salesman, William Mark. “We’re a bit of an institution around Melbourne. We have a very broad client base, from a couple of very well-dressed 12-year-olds, to men up to 95 in age.
Because we’re located in the centre of Melbourne, a lot of tourists come in. But locals know where to find our shop as well; besides that we supply hats for stage productions and TV shows. In Melbourne there aren’t any hat shops like this; we’re pretty unique”. City Hatters sells some women’s hats but is mainly focused on men, for whom they have a substantial range of both country and urban styles on offer. Their principal brand is Akubra. “We sell more units of Akubra than any other brand. As they’re made in Australia, they are relatively inexpensive. In Australia, men’s hats have always been in vogue for practical reasons. In some parts of the country, they are worn mostly year-round as protection against the weather. They give you shade when it’s hot, keep you warm in the winter and as they’re made from rabbit fur, they’re water-resistant and serve as an umbrella on your head when it’s raining. In urban areas we can see a change though: hats are not just worn for practical reasons anymore — they’re definitely becoming more fashionably acceptable.” City Hatters doesn’t make hats to order, but they do provide their customers with a repair and alterations service. Their resident milliner, Tess Abinger, has a small work table in the shop where she helps
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