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October 25, 2007 10:23 am
The windows of the Maria Luisa shoe store on Rue du Mont-Thabor in Paris are usually filled with footwear, but since the city’s most recent fashion week, they’ve been home to the fanciful hats of London hairdresser-turned-milliner Justin Smith. His highly decorated creations—think Victorian jet beads and three-foot-tall ostrich plumes—had editors buzzing during the collections, and are now getting the award-winning Royal College of Art graduate attention both at home and on this side of the Atlantic. You can custom order the headgear of your choice in his Soho atelier, or you can buy from his Web site, www.jsmithesquire.com. He talked to us about dandies, Victorian circuses, and the art of the handmade hat.
How would you describe your aesthetic?
Traditional with a twist. By traditional, I think of early 1900’s to 1940’s England, when everyone was really wearing hats. My last collection was based on a burlesque Victorian circus.
So do you think that people should wear hats every day?
They’re certainly coming back because the style makes one look more dressy and dapper. It’s a big British trend right now, everything dandy. But I love even flat caps and trilby hats as well. Each of my hats has an individual character to them. They create a quite stylized individual look.
How should a woman work a hat like yours into her wardrobe?
It can be for a special occasion or for every day. For example, a client bought a beautiful Dries Van Noten jacket with an empire waist. She commissioned two hats, one that would make the jacket dressier and one that would make it more casual for daywear.
Why don’t we see celebrities wearing hats on the red carpet?
I think it’s ridiculous and something we need to change. People are a bit scared to wear hats. But really, it’s just another way of adorning yourself.
Your hats can be really intricate—you’ve got one made of silver knitted wire and another one made of tattooed pigskin. Which of your creations took the longest time to make?
The burlesque corset hat with detachable ostrich feather fans took two and a half months to make because we made the fans from scratch, and the patchwork beading was all done by hand. I think it’s the most beautiful piece in my collection because it’s not just a hat, it’s also a performance object.
Do you think people realize that your hats are made by hand?
I hope so! When working with felt, it’s quite time consuming—steaming, shaping, and pulling with your bare hands and with pins. But the result is a hat with no obvious seams or telltale marks of factory manufacturing. I always include a vintage brooch or jet beaded Victorian appliqué to make it more special and unique.
What’s your next project?
An eight-page shoot with i-D magazine. And I’m starting a line of lower-priced ready-to-wear hand-trimmed hats that I will be presenting next season.
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