REPORT
Lola spoke of the good design of the baseball hat; she made a good argument that its simplicity, ease of wearing and the practical visor for sun protection are factors valued by many hat wearers. She believes in the practicality of design, making it usable and functional for today’s life, such as it is with the ubiquitous baseball cap and T-shirt. She loves good design that people can afford. Lola advocates for the hat to be democratic, not elitist. However, she acknowledges that her hats cannot be priced for everyone as they are handcrafted in the USA, which is no get-rich-quick scheme. She makes hats for ‘l’amour de l’art’ (the love of the art).
tip
Finished hats waiting to be packed and shipped
Sewing the plait edge to edge with a zigzag stitch results in a more flexible hat (a tip that Lola discovered working with Luis Aleman)
She designs with a range of fibres. Though we spoke mostly of wheat straw plait, Lola also uses raffia in her collection. Wheat is more rigid and suitable for designs which need the structure, she explained. She likes to use the materials that are appropriate for the purpose and does not add stiffeners and wires to support the shape. Lola uses a
“We are the
lot of traditional braids in her hats, and she is excited to explore modern materials such as silicone and plastics, and modern manufacturing like 3D and laser printing. Some of her experiments are a success: Lola Hat uses a gasket
‘Eyelash’ model
inhabitants of the tradition and its successors here
and now.” Raisa Ramanenya
of leather or another stable material on the inside to support rivets used on straw, and that tighter plaited straw makes for a more secure rivet. Not all experiments have such a happy ending – she told a story of experimenting with newspaper braid, which turned yellow. Another idea is that of
working in parallel and mixing; Lola goes big on this idea that combining makes everything better,
not just with hats but also culturally, religiously and culinarily. Lola discovered that her designs are often
quickly copied. However, her philosophy is: ”A good designer can always design more.”
‘Double-Dutch’ rollable hat
its successors
While each expert referred to the risk of losing the art form, the degradation of the expertise of plaiters, weavers and makers is not set in stone. K. Dorfzaun offers classes to locals to learn weaving of hat bodies; Ishidaseibou offers workshops for trimming, plaiting and hat making; Lucy Barlow is offering classes on the sewing of the plaits. Every person who does the work, does it for a love of the art and is welcoming to any who might join them in that passion. There are now 900 pieces of Larned straw with its heads (spikes) in a nearby box in my studio. Some of these are slowly being plaited into a seven straw Dunstable plait alongside the writing of this article. With tired hands and a delighted heart, the ongoing plait is getting tighter and more even, but it is still a long way to a finished hat.
may 2022 | 61
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