Reviews: More millinery books!
So, i'm FINALLY getting around to my second half of the millinery book reviews. (If you are in a book-review-reading mood, you can find all my previous ones by clicking on the "books" tag in the sidebar--that'll take you to a whole mess of previous posts of book reviews on costume craft artisanship topics!) Here we go!
Paper books (as opposed to digital books):
Reconstruction Era Fashions: 350 Sewing, Needlework, and Millinery Patterns by Frances Grimble.
This book isn't just specifically hats--it's all sorts of garments and accessories from 1867-1868, taken from ladies magazine sources of the period and "translated" into scalable, constructable, concise pattern pieces with description and discussion of each piece. In it are included a large range of caps, hats, hoods, and bonnets, with detailed information on the materials used. I went through it specifically looking for bonnet and hat info, but it is also an invaluable resource for ladies clothing construction info of the time as well.
The Mode in Hats and Headdress by R. Turner Wilcox (Ruth Turner Wilcox, that is, mother of the painter Ruth Wilcox Dawes).
This is another resource text by the author of The Mode in Footwear, The Mode in Furs, and The Mode in Costume, all of which are long out of print. Wilcox has done exhaustive period research and augments her historical overview with hand-drawn examples of hundreds of actual hats and hairstyles. The book is broken down into time-spans going back as far as the ancient world. It's not a primary source--all headwear shapes are filtered through the eye of the ilustrator, of course--but it's a great overview and wonderful for project inspiration in my class. One of my students is making a hat out of there for her first project, and i predict she won't be the only one to use it this semester.
Philip Treacy, edited by Elena Carotti and Debbie Bibo.
This is a slim volume of mostly photographs featuring not only Treacy's hats but the hatblocks and other equipment he uses to make them; it's essentially an exhibit catalog that went along with a traveling installation of his hats and blocks. What text there is is presented in both English and Italian, and the book is worth its cost alone for the opportunity to see candidly inside Treacy's workspaces (which are messy!).
E-books by How2Hats.com:
Sinamay 1 & 2
Finishing Touches
How to Make Stitched Strip Hats
First, some overview info. How2Hats.com has a summer e-book sale every August, where all their titles are 50% off. If any of these interest you, now is the time to buy them!
That said, when i purchased these they were having cart issues and i initially was charged via PayPal but then directed to a screen saying that the funds were insufficient for download permission (presumably due to having paid half the regular price). I emailed them about the situation and it was swiftly and apologetically rectified; hopefully they've fixed the glitch, but if not, don't be concerned that you have been ripped off. They'll make it right and get you your e-books.
The books are supposedly published by "The Wombourne School of Millinery," but if that is an actual institution teaching courses in real-time (and not just what they are calling themselves for the purpose of writing and publishing instructional texts) i could find no info online about how one might register or enroll. They publish a free newsletter which you can sign up for on their site, but don't be too tempted by the "free e-book" unless you want to see just the general layout and setup of what the actual instructional ones are like--the free book is mostly millinery cheerleading with a few photos of modern hand-blocked hats. It's a teaser, intended to inspire you to purchase their titles.
Sinamay 1
38 pages long with generally two full-color illustrative photographs on each page, outlining a method for blocking hats with sinamay straw. This one's quite useful, nice to see clear images and straightforward directions, and tips on working with sinamay itself. If you have ever tried seeking out info on straw millinery techniques, you know there's precious little out there to be found, so the rarity of the info itself in written-down form is enough to justify my purchase, in my opinion.
They've put a cliffhanger in this one, in that they've trimmed their sample hat with sinamay lilies, which they don't explain how to make--you need to get Finishing Touches for those instructions (or, be willing to try to figure it out on your own, which wouldn't be difficult if you enjoy improvisational creating). As someone who's written an instructional text on an almost-dead, largely undocumented artisan skill myself, i completely understand the authors' reluctance to "give away" information that was difficult to come by, that they spent time and energy and devotion learning and researching and practicing, transcribing and documenting and editing and compiling. At the same time, i find myself as a consumer somewhat irritated by blatant marketing tactics of the cliffhanger/teaser sort.
It's a delicate balance, this world of free and open flowing information versus writers and researchers and skilled artisans being justly compensated for sharing their hard-won knowledge, and in general i *am* a proponent of what i call "open source costuming"--i wouldn't write this blog if i were slavishly devoted to keeping my "trade secrets" to myself. However, I know how many hours i put into writing and illustrating my own book, coordinating with photographers and students and collecting waivers and permissions and working with editors and proofreaders and my layout artist and all that--it's a TON of work, a lot more than when i throw together a post for this blog on the fly, armed with nothing more than a digital camera, enthusiam, and an open blog-update window.
Though they include some transparent marketing, it isn't enough to make me pan the books or the company--they're invaluable, well-produced, concise, lovely resources, well worth the money i paid for them.
Sinamay 2
35 pages long with generally two full-color illustrative photographs on each page, pretty much the same gist as Sinamay 1, except the blocks used are more complex forms and the hat produced features two types of sinamay instead of one. I could've saved my money and done without this one, myself, but i'm someone who's blocked hats with a range of different materials. If you are a more literal-minded person who likes following specific directions rather than learning a method and then improvising, or if you have minimal or no hat-blocking experience, perhaps you want both of these books!
Finishing Touches
58 pages long, same format as the others, this book features how to make a range of trims from sinamay: spirals, roses, lilies, daisies, and leaves. It's great for step-following instruction, and also very inspiring--you could modify a lot of these techniques to create any number of other fun, exciting, dramatic shapes in sinamay.
How to Make Stitched Strip Hats
Remember my post on unspiraling old strip hats to scavenge the braid? This book completely advocates that right in the first chapter! It's more photographically dense than the other three books i purchased, in that each page has sometimes as many as four large full-color photographs depicting the steps of the process. It's only 21 pages long, but in those pages it shows how to use the technique with both a narrow straw braid and a wider flat horsehair, plus shows several really cool and inspiring examples of more complex hat forms created with the stitched strip technique. Best of all, it shows how you can do these hats on your regular domestic sewing machine, with only a head-form (which, you could use a styro head even for this technique) as "special" equipment. The only difference between making these hats on your home machine and making them on the industrial machines that are/were used, is that those machines sew a chain-stitch (so you can easily pull out a mistake or deconstruct a completed hat) and have an arched arm to better accommodate odd brim dimensions.
Some of these books have also been reviewed by Barcelona milliner Cristina dePrada in her blog, if you are looking for a second opinion! Ms. dePrada is a hobbyist couture milliner so she has a more contemporary fashion perspective. Overall, i do recommend the books from How2Hats.com; the information contained within is very clearly presented and concise.
...And, that's pretty much it for the time being on millinery texts i've been reading recently! Feel free to use the tags to navigate back to older reviews if you like, and if you have any other new titles to share, please feel free to comment!
Paper books (as opposed to digital books):
Reconstruction Era Fashions: 350 Sewing, Needlework, and Millinery Patterns by Frances Grimble.
This book isn't just specifically hats--it's all sorts of garments and accessories from 1867-1868, taken from ladies magazine sources of the period and "translated" into scalable, constructable, concise pattern pieces with description and discussion of each piece. In it are included a large range of caps, hats, hoods, and bonnets, with detailed information on the materials used. I went through it specifically looking for bonnet and hat info, but it is also an invaluable resource for ladies clothing construction info of the time as well.
The Mode in Hats and Headdress by R. Turner Wilcox (Ruth Turner Wilcox, that is, mother of the painter Ruth Wilcox Dawes).
This is another resource text by the author of The Mode in Footwear, The Mode in Furs, and The Mode in Costume, all of which are long out of print. Wilcox has done exhaustive period research and augments her historical overview with hand-drawn examples of hundreds of actual hats and hairstyles. The book is broken down into time-spans going back as far as the ancient world. It's not a primary source--all headwear shapes are filtered through the eye of the ilustrator, of course--but it's a great overview and wonderful for project inspiration in my class. One of my students is making a hat out of there for her first project, and i predict she won't be the only one to use it this semester.
Philip Treacy, edited by Elena Carotti and Debbie Bibo.
This is a slim volume of mostly photographs featuring not only Treacy's hats but the hatblocks and other equipment he uses to make them; it's essentially an exhibit catalog that went along with a traveling installation of his hats and blocks. What text there is is presented in both English and Italian, and the book is worth its cost alone for the opportunity to see candidly inside Treacy's workspaces (which are messy!).
E-books by How2Hats.com:
Sinamay 1 & 2
Finishing Touches
How to Make Stitched Strip Hats
First, some overview info. How2Hats.com has a summer e-book sale every August, where all their titles are 50% off. If any of these interest you, now is the time to buy them!
That said, when i purchased these they were having cart issues and i initially was charged via PayPal but then directed to a screen saying that the funds were insufficient for download permission (presumably due to having paid half the regular price). I emailed them about the situation and it was swiftly and apologetically rectified; hopefully they've fixed the glitch, but if not, don't be concerned that you have been ripped off. They'll make it right and get you your e-books.
The books are supposedly published by "The Wombourne School of Millinery," but if that is an actual institution teaching courses in real-time (and not just what they are calling themselves for the purpose of writing and publishing instructional texts) i could find no info online about how one might register or enroll. They publish a free newsletter which you can sign up for on their site, but don't be too tempted by the "free e-book" unless you want to see just the general layout and setup of what the actual instructional ones are like--the free book is mostly millinery cheerleading with a few photos of modern hand-blocked hats. It's a teaser, intended to inspire you to purchase their titles.
Sinamay 1
38 pages long with generally two full-color illustrative photographs on each page, outlining a method for blocking hats with sinamay straw. This one's quite useful, nice to see clear images and straightforward directions, and tips on working with sinamay itself. If you have ever tried seeking out info on straw millinery techniques, you know there's precious little out there to be found, so the rarity of the info itself in written-down form is enough to justify my purchase, in my opinion.
They've put a cliffhanger in this one, in that they've trimmed their sample hat with sinamay lilies, which they don't explain how to make--you need to get Finishing Touches for those instructions (or, be willing to try to figure it out on your own, which wouldn't be difficult if you enjoy improvisational creating). As someone who's written an instructional text on an almost-dead, largely undocumented artisan skill myself, i completely understand the authors' reluctance to "give away" information that was difficult to come by, that they spent time and energy and devotion learning and researching and practicing, transcribing and documenting and editing and compiling. At the same time, i find myself as a consumer somewhat irritated by blatant marketing tactics of the cliffhanger/teaser sort.
It's a delicate balance, this world of free and open flowing information versus writers and researchers and skilled artisans being justly compensated for sharing their hard-won knowledge, and in general i *am* a proponent of what i call "open source costuming"--i wouldn't write this blog if i were slavishly devoted to keeping my "trade secrets" to myself. However, I know how many hours i put into writing and illustrating my own book, coordinating with photographers and students and collecting waivers and permissions and working with editors and proofreaders and my layout artist and all that--it's a TON of work, a lot more than when i throw together a post for this blog on the fly, armed with nothing more than a digital camera, enthusiam, and an open blog-update window.
Though they include some transparent marketing, it isn't enough to make me pan the books or the company--they're invaluable, well-produced, concise, lovely resources, well worth the money i paid for them.
Sinamay 2
35 pages long with generally two full-color illustrative photographs on each page, pretty much the same gist as Sinamay 1, except the blocks used are more complex forms and the hat produced features two types of sinamay instead of one. I could've saved my money and done without this one, myself, but i'm someone who's blocked hats with a range of different materials. If you are a more literal-minded person who likes following specific directions rather than learning a method and then improvising, or if you have minimal or no hat-blocking experience, perhaps you want both of these books!
Finishing Touches
58 pages long, same format as the others, this book features how to make a range of trims from sinamay: spirals, roses, lilies, daisies, and leaves. It's great for step-following instruction, and also very inspiring--you could modify a lot of these techniques to create any number of other fun, exciting, dramatic shapes in sinamay.
How to Make Stitched Strip Hats
Remember my post on unspiraling old strip hats to scavenge the braid? This book completely advocates that right in the first chapter! It's more photographically dense than the other three books i purchased, in that each page has sometimes as many as four large full-color photographs depicting the steps of the process. It's only 21 pages long, but in those pages it shows how to use the technique with both a narrow straw braid and a wider flat horsehair, plus shows several really cool and inspiring examples of more complex hat forms created with the stitched strip technique. Best of all, it shows how you can do these hats on your regular domestic sewing machine, with only a head-form (which, you could use a styro head even for this technique) as "special" equipment. The only difference between making these hats on your home machine and making them on the industrial machines that are/were used, is that those machines sew a chain-stitch (so you can easily pull out a mistake or deconstruct a completed hat) and have an arched arm to better accommodate odd brim dimensions.
Some of these books have also been reviewed by Barcelona milliner Cristina dePrada in her blog, if you are looking for a second opinion! Ms. dePrada is a hobbyist couture milliner so she has a more contemporary fashion perspective. Overall, i do recommend the books from How2Hats.com; the information contained within is very clearly presented and concise.
...And, that's pretty much it for the time being on millinery texts i've been reading recently! Feel free to use the tags to navigate back to older reviews if you like, and if you have any other new titles to share, please feel free to comment!