Showing posts with label tilt hats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tilt hats. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Queen Mary: A Royal Wedding

On Saturday, June 23, we were fortunate enough to be guests at the wedding of our good friends Jesse and Emily.  

The happy couple, Emily and Jesse
Don't they look like the perfect cake toppers?

You probably already know Emily as she and her love letter to old Hollywood, The Silver Screen Affair, have been mentioned numerous times in the annals of wacky tacky.  If you're a lover of classic films and Hollywood glamour, then be sure to check out her blog.  Although, it may be kind of quiet around there for a couple of weeks as they are enjoying a tropical honeymoon.

Emily looked picture perfect in a vintage, 50's,
lace wedding gown and handmade veil.
I love this photo of her, pre-nuptials.

The ceremony was held at a beautiful, historic Catholic church and the reception was in The Queen's Salon on the Queen Mary, a stunning steamliner and one of the premier examples of well-preserved Art Deco in Southern California.

Dappled in the light of the afternoon sun, St. John's
was a beautiful setting for a wedding ceremony.

The getaway car complete with tin cans and "Just Married" banner!

The Queen's Salon aboard the Queen Mary - pretty majestic if you ask me.
You can just barely make out Holly, of The Temperamental Broad, on the right.
I should have been taking a lot more pictures, but I was too busy making a fool
of myself on the dance floor.

Why do I always have to sit at the kids' table?
Mary, Amber, Paul, Jordan, Memo, Ben, and Nicole

I didn't really want to do a feature exclusively on the wedding itself because Emily is a pretty private person and their wedding wasn't so much wacky tacky as it was traditional, elegant, and gracious.  For the record, I like both but I have a hard time behaving like a grown up at either!  So, here are a few snaps of our hijinks aboard the R.M.S. Queen Mary featuring the suit that I made Mary for the occasion.


I really have no idea where the inspiration came from on this one except that I love this kooky color combination and sometimes I like to try and challenge myself a little - two days, three pieces, and a  marginal skill set (I have never sewn a proper collar of any kind before).

Apparently I have developed such a reputation for turning
placemats into hats, that everyone immediately assumed
that was the case for this verdant topper.  This was actually a
 vintage hat that I got from a friend a few years ago.

Mr. Tiny & Mary gettin' groovy.
Once I start, I just can't stop.
(photo by Amber U.)

I am the worst kind of shopper.  I have a very specific idea of what I am looking for before I go out shopping and expect whatever it is to be in the store, happily waiting for me to buy it, at a discounted price.  Needless to say, I spend a lot of time disappointed.  Imagine my surprise when my first attempt to find a chartreuse-y colored fabric, with enough weight to be suitable for a suit and enough drape  to make it feminine, was peeking out of a row of totally dissimilar fabric just waiting for me.  It was the right color, the right price, and there was just enough left on the bolt for my project!!!  That NEVER happens.

The green gloves were bought on a road trip to
Hearst Castle and the red baubles were on loan
from a friend.  Here's Mary wishing that she
didn't have to give them back.

There's room for a dumbbell joke in there somewhere.

I have to stick with the dumbbell jokes; after seeing some
 of the pictures of Mary (including this one with the bride),
she has already been referred to as the Jolly Green Giant!

The free bonus of the evening came when were about to leave the party and ran into a group of friends who just happened to be touring the ship that night.  We ended up joining their tour and I'm almost positive from the looks we were receiving, that guests of the hotel were starting to believe that the Queen Mary was indeed haunted!


Congratulations Emily and Jesse!  It was a particularly beautiful wedding and we really appreciate you allowing us to participate in your special day.  We don't even have to wish it for you, we already know that you'll live happily ever after!  


Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Monday, April 4, 2011

Mad Hatter on the Tilt-O-Whirl

There is something inherently wacky about taking a bundle of tulle or veiling, horse hair, ribbons, flowers, buckram, wire, and other assorted miscellany and smacking them down to perch like a deranged bird's nest on the front of one's head.  Perhaps that is the very reason why wacky tacky so fully embraces the tilt and "doll" hats of the 1930's and 1940's.  Straddling the line between chic and totally insane, they are incredibly stunning and make a bold statement about the lady underneath the hat.

Rosalind Russell in The Women (1939)

Available at unionmadebride on etsy.

Eve Arden in Cover Girl (1944)

photo from: lulusvintage.com

She knew how to wear a hat!!!!

Available at RoadLessTravelled2 on etsy

Some of the very best hats that film has to offer are found in these movies:

Cover Girl (1944)
The Women (1939)



DuBarry was a Lady (1943)

Inspired by the hats in these and other films, I have tried my hand at homemade millinery.  The results are marginal, but I think I am improving with each attempt.  Some of these photos have been posted before, but they reflect the hats that I have made that have actually been worn outside!  I have looked around for millinery classes and they are either non-existent or strange and far away.  Does anybody know of good millinery instruction in Southern Callifornia?

A pint-sized witch's hat for Halloween
with black tulle and rhinestone spider adornment.

A smart, little topper made with vintage, green veiling
and antiqued, silk magnolia blossoms.

Matching marabou hat and muff in black.
Tell me she doesn't look like a Russian spy.

The Lily Pad hat in navy.

The Victory Garden hat of
miniature roses in patriotic hues.
I know, I know, victory gardens were not for roses.
Photo by Nicole at Paper Moon Vintage

I'm thinking about adding a few of the Lily Pad style to my etsy.  What do you think?  Are they too weird?  Probably.  Don't tell me.  They're weird, right?  Tell me, tell me.  No don't.  Okay, tell me...

California Millinery is a great (and probably the only) millinery supply resource in Southern California.  One could spend hours foraging through dead-stock supplies and vintage velvet ribbons.  Plus, the people who work there are very nice.  I have also heard about a shop in Morro Bay, CA that sells millinery supplies but I can't recall the name and the shop was closed the one time that we were in the area.  Please let me know if you are familiar with that store as I will want to stop again the next time we are on the central coast.

My next adventure in hatmaking comes courtesy of Lauren at Wearing History.  Wearing History is the source for amazing, reproduction vintage patterns in an easy-to-understand format with clear instructions.  These two hat patterns are so cool and I can't wait to dive in - pictures to follow!!!

My very favorite is the Peter Pan style with the lacing up the crown

California Millinery
721 South Spring St.
LA, CA
(213)622-8746
californiamillinery.net

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny