HATtitude: The Milliner in Culture & Couture

Featuring over 150 hats from 40 contemporary milliners and private collections, HATtitude highlights the hat’s function in global cultures and its position in 20th and 21st century couture fashion. Also featured will be the Milliners Guild showcase, One Block, Many Milliners, with forty unique hats all formed from the same hat block. An exciting calendar of engaging lectures by fashion and art historians as well as hands-on workshops lead by exhibiting milliners rounds out the associated exhibition programming. Even people who say “I just can’t find a hat for me,” will find a bit of HATtitude tailor-made to suit their taste.

Lecture programs:

Thursday, February 20, 7:00-8:30 PM |The ‘Big Three’ in the 1940s-1960s New York hat industry: Mr. John, Sally Victor and Lilly Dache Lecture by Colleen Hill, Associate Curator of Accessories, The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

Thursday, February 27,  7:00-9:00 PM | The Smithsonian ‘Will to Adorn” project and Folklife Research on Style and African American Hat Makers in the Bronx and Brooklyn, Lecture by Jade Banks, Lecture Presentation by Madadaha Kinsey Lamb, Folklorist Founder and Director of Mindbuilders Creative Art Center, Bronx NY, in conversation with milliners Carlos Lewis, Cejunuel Lewis and Marcus Malchijah.

Thursday, March 6, 7 PM | Studio Artists – Popular Culture – Vogue – Couture Artists: Who were they and how they got their hats out there, Lecture by Ellen Christine Colon-Lugo, Ph.D., Exhibiting milliner and historian of millinery

Thursday, March 13th, 7 PM | A look at the Origins of Head Coverings in the Middle East, Lecture by Nazanin Hedayat Munroe, M.A., M.F.A. Textile Artist and Art Historian

Family Programs:

Saturday, March 1

1:00-3:00 PM – Workshop:  Up-Cycling Sweaters into hats.  Debra Rapoport Space is limited. RSVP required

3:00 – 5:00 PM – Performance and Demonstration: Dance Hats of Peru with the Ballet Folklórico Acuarelas del Peru and scissor dancers, Los Chankas del Peru, with live music.

Saturday, March 15^th,1-3PM

Workshop: Hat-Making with VIVA paper Towels, with Debra Rapoport Space is limited. RSVP required

Docent Tours:  Groups of up to twenty person may request special docent led tours. For workshop RSVPS and request for docent tours, Email LBanks@artswestcester.org

Curated by:  Kathleen Reckling, MA, and Tom Van Buren, Ph.D. and Judith Schwartz, Ph.D.

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The exhibition closes 4/12/2014