Summer 2021
Spring Review
by Karen Henriksen
As we emerged, holding on to our hats (hopefully literally!) from the Winter lockdown, all those Spring cliches seemed particularly apt this year…brighter days bringing fresh new horizons, or in these strange times, leading us slowly towards freedom to do more things and enjoy a social life that doesn’t necessarily involve sitting on a park bench with one friend (much as that can be lovely of course!)
For me, Spring has always been the best time for catching up, re-grouping and planning ahead - a breathing space after the insanely busy start to the year that runs up to Paris Fashion Week, and before a summer spent on production and new collection, which in turn is followed by the busy autumn schedule of public shows and fairs! But of course, things are a little different these days…
The images above show some work in progress shots of the S/S21 wholesale order which I sent off in early March to South Korea. Although this is an area of my business that has almost disappeared for now, thankfully a couple of my stockists have been able to continue ordering.
For Wear a Hat Day, I persuaded some of my friends and fellow studio-holders at Cockpit Arts to wear some of my hats for the event, and they stepped up magnificently. March also saw an extension of my range of face masks to include some embellished styles, as well as some co-ordinating hat and mask sets, which has been a lot of fun. After all, if we have to wear masks, they might as well be stylish ones.
In April we shot the S/S21 women’s collection - shockingly late, but I was very happy with the results. We had a fabulous day at photographer James Champion's East London studio, and model Molly even brought her own hair and makeup artist, her sister Freya - the perfect fashion bubble!
When things opened up, including galleries, I got to see The Walled Garden at Tristan Hoare Gallery - the first solo show for ceramicist Kaori Tatebayashi. Kaori and I are collectors of each other’s work, although so far I only have her tableware. My collection might need to expand very soon to include some of her glorious flower wall pieces…
I also started a new range of work myself, for the home - using millinery techniques and materials to create wall art, small vessels and light shades - although it is very early days yet!
Later that month, I wore my BHG-website-designer hat to add all our new members’ profile pages - it was great to get a preview of everyone’s work and achievements. We were all so happy to expand our ranks - something we’d been wanting to do for some time.
In May I turned my attention back to the men’s range. Last year I was very productive in creating several new flat cap shapes, so I now wanted to add to my range of brimmed hats, including a tailored version of a bucket hat. This proved to be good timing for a meeting (in the studio, in IRL!) with talented print designer Rory Hutton, to discuss a future collaboration.
We also added to our online style guides, with an A-Z of the men’s brimmed hats. These guides are, I believe, useful to my online customers, and include tips on face shapes, sizing and fitting. I am grateful that the online side of my business has continued to flourish (indeed it has for now become almost my entire business!) I have also noticed a change in the balance of my business - with men being happier to buy hats online than women, this is definitely now reflected in my sales.
The month ended with a very nice invitation - to speak on the Robert Elms show on BBC Radio London, for his Whose London feature. It means a lot for an independent designer to be featured in this way, and I was very happy that I managed to mention some of my favourite organisations, including of course The British Hat Guild!
Finally - some book recommendations - one re-read of an old favourite, the others new. In particular ‘Hamnet’ by Maggie O’Farrell - if you thought Anne Hathaway was just some simple, shadowy lady who lived in a cottage and inherited Shakespeare’s ‘second best bed’, think again!
