Hat Haircut

While at Paradise City in Marlborough last month, I had a very interesting experience—there was a woman who liked one of my hats but found the feathers too dense for her. She agreed to buy it if I could thin the feathers. I agreed to sell it if she was willing to sit through the process, haircut-style. And that's how it went. She sat in my booth while I trimmed her feathers one piece at a time. That was certainly a first for me, and quite the curiosity for those passing by. She left happily with the hat, I made a sale, and the floor of my booth was peppered with maroon fuzz.

Custom Hat: Spring 2010

If you've kept up with me in the past then you know that I have an especially wonderful client who comes to me for couture hats. I get to see what she's going to be wearing and am told some general guidelines: "Something small, pick up the purple color, she'd like a good flourish on this one." And then I make.



The whole experience is both thrilling and terrifying all at once. I fear that my creativity will cease to exist and that I'll come out with nothing. But the thrill is he challenge—to meet a specific, yet open-ended need.

Here's the sketch that was approved by the client.