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In Junior High I started wearing my GrandmotherÕs hats.
By High School I was wearing a different one everyday,
and have ever since. Many people donÕt know my real nameÉIÕm
simply the "Hat Lady" to them.
Vintage hats have always been my preference, but those
donÕt always fit modern lifestyles, so I borrow the look
and use antique jewelry and ribbons to create updated
versions. Most creations are hand-blocked over antique
wooden blocks and trimmed using old-school methods, meaning
hand sewn. It wasnÕt until 1997 until I actually started
to make hats. The "I Hat it Made" guy in Deep Ellum told
be about a Millinery class at El Centro, and I was off.
I still take private lessons from the teacher, Ian Dellar,
who has been a Milliner in 4 countries for 50 years. During
this time I was working in the Internet Industry. Very
few hat designers had their work online, or knew how to
use the medium to itÕs full advantage, so I decided not
only to create my own site, but to let other milliners
use my website and Internet knowledge so that they could
concentrate on making the hats. In December 2000, I finally
quit my corporate job at Yahoo! Broadcast to work on Hatmonger.
I create my own label of hats, do custom work, and run
a hat portal for myself and other milliners. Each aspect
is a full time job in itself, but being able to spend
each day working on my true passion makes it worth it
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