Cool Hunting
by Sheena Sood
Doing her part (along with John Galliano and Marc Jacobs in their Fall '08 collections) to bring the art of custom millinery back to the mainstream, Katie Burley creates whimsical and one-of-a-kind hats for a variety of occasions. With a supply of vintage materials and rare objects, the San Francisco-based designer hand-blocks and trims each couture hat. Katie discovered her obsession with "all things cranial" as a student of Fibers and Wearable Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. For her, hat-making is all about line, gesture, color and composition; each hat is a sculpture. Also a part-time art teacher and a part-time florist, she takes inspiration both from children's uninhibited imaginations and from nature.

Katie has collections for cocktail occasions, summer weather, bridal affairs, and for men. My favorites are her pheasant feather cloche and the "Apple Martini" cocktail hour piece (both pictured). She's also happy to create a special hat for a particular event or individual. Hats can be ordered through her website. Feel free to request that a specific material be used on your hat in order to match it to an existing garment.
Katie also participates in runway shows at The Crucible art center in Oakland with other Bay Area designers, and in various San Francisco trunk shows; you can find her next week at Vessel.
|
previous entry Tom Dixon: Beat Collection |
next entry David Capra: Always Driving into the Sun |
After winning the i-D Styling and Maria Luisa awards at 2007's International Talent Support (ITS)—an annual event in Trieste supporting young fashion designers and photographers—a shell-shocked Justin Smith threw himself into celebrations. Smith, born in 1978, is the millinery world's new rising star. His masters show at London's Royal College of Art was extremely well received. "The concept for my show was based all...
Designed from pieces of hand-painted leather, these sexy men's-style dress shoes recently premiered at Neon's winter fashion show and bring action and color to any get-up. The Brazilian label's co-designer Dudu Bertholini has been collecting leftover painted cow skin—some of them rare—from his trips abroad to New York and throughout his home country, at last finding the best use for them. Because he only...
Award-winning London based illustrator Von has long been a CH favorite so when he decided to launch a range of tees and totes we grabbed the chance to find out more. Why did you decide to brand into fashion now? As much as t-shirts have been done a million times before I still get excited when I come across a really nice design printed...
The Banana Splits Beanie from London design team You Must Create is a 100% cotton hat with two eyeholes in the brim to perfectly execute your springtime Dumb Donald look. The hat is available in both camel and a darker mushroom color for £35. Update: Thanks to Brian, a reader, for pointing out that it was actually Dumb Donald of Fat Albert fame who...
Contrary to its appearance, the Meccanico dG has no digital components. Below the more conventional analog portion of the two-timezone watch is a numerical display driven by the intricate interplay of 651 strictly mechanical components. Numbers are formed by the motion of 23 cams, which are connected to gears and a synchronization system. To prove it, the watch's back features a transparent dial plate...
by Jonathan Lawhorne "Sustainability has always been integral to our philosophy," says designer Timo Weiland of his new line TIMO!. The eye-popping, graphic wallets (think pixelated scans and wild graphic illustrations) use eco-friendly materials such as recyclable paper, soy ink and post-consumer vinyl in their super-slim design. "We wanted to create basic bi-fold and tri-fold wallets that allowed users to streamline their life with...
