Ladies and gents, we have VINTAGE SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS!
This is not a drill.
From giant heliotrope round crystals to petite hearts, we are smitten. You may have heard that earlier this year Swarovski announced that it will no longer be supplying consumers with their elements, so these babies will be really difficult, if not impossible to get your hands on. Best to stock up now!
Even better, these babies are vintage, mostly dating to the 80's and 90's. We picked up quite a few discontinued styles, too!
Alongside these top-shelf finds, we have an enormous amount of German and Czech crystals that mostly date to the 1940s and 50's. All in original brown paper packet packaging, they are a treat for the eyes.
And just look at these pastel aurora borealis beauties!
We are adding new items weekly, so to see what we have added this week check out our new items here
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A nice chunky straw that is surprisingly lightweight, it's natural texture is a bit more refined than one would expect from your typical chunky straws! Often described as 'crispy', it blocks up beautifully and is quite easy to use.
One of the most adored straws on the block, true Ecuador panamas are handmade, often taking days to complete by skilled craftsmen and women. The native 'toquilla' straw is super smooth to the touch, and it's ability to be crushed and pop back to shape makes it a superb candidate for summer hats. We wouldn't try crushing these beauties though - they are far too gorgeous for that!
Jute and seagrass have long been hat making materials. They take to being stiffened really well and this roulette curve pattern would look great blocked into a structured boater or button.
Super fine sisal is not very easy to come by anymore in this 1x1 weave, and this version is extra cool being hand-dyed in pastel rainbow tones.
It really is. Big, bold, zig-zagged patterned. Made up of the most delicious lightweight buntal-like straw, it feels like a million bucks on your head. Trust me, I kept one for myself and made the summer hat of my dreams!
For all your summer straw inspiration you can see our entire range of hat bodies here
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No doubt you have seen these beauties on the 'gram!:
And do you remember this stunning moment?! This headdress actually inspired us to get in sequin film as a millinery supply.
To see our full range of sequin film, click on the photo below:
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Headbands decorated with vintage sequins and velvet ribbons are so easy to do! And our new sequin and beaded alphabet letters can turn an ordinary beret into a personalised hat in a matter of minutes!
We've put together a collection of our most loved handmade crafting essentials in our Handmade Holiday shop, so check it out!
Stuck for gift ideas for your favourite miller (or yourself!). Our Petershams Christmas Edit has got you sorted.
From all of us here at Petershams we will you all a magical holiday season.
Stay safe!
xoxo Michelle
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It coincides with us moving to our massive new warehouse in the Kent countryside, and as that was only last week we have quite a bit of unpacking to do....so we thought you might be able to help us!
We have piled up all of our not-yet-for-sale goods and have dubbed it 'millinery mountain'. You will be pleased to know that the majority of it is vintage and comes from our adventures in Germany, France and even Africa!
So, here's how it works:
1) We are going to open a box from our millinery mountain every hour on Instagram Live from 10am-5pm this Friday, Saturday & Sunday (October 9th, 10th & 11th). Our mountain is completely full of vintage and top shelf millinery magic so who knows what we will find!
2) We will instantly upload our finds to our website for you to buy! We will post up a link to the product as soon as its's online.
🌞Also keep a lookout on our stories this weekend where we will be putting up for grabs one off finds and goodies 🌞
Follow us @Petershams on Instagram to stay up to date on all our discoveries. See you at the (virtual) fair!
xoxo Michelle
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The halo shape originated in popularity in the Australian millinery scene and has made it's way to the UK. It looks like it is here to stay as big headbands and headpieces continue to walk down the runways this season.
Prada Fall 2020, Photo: Getty Images/John Phillips/WireImage
What is making this shape so popular is that it can be edgy and bold, or make it sparkle and shine for a more romantic look.
Medium Moon Headpiece by Jane Taylor at Liberty, £935
Our halo crowns are made from a double layer of our heavy stiffened sinamay, so you can really load up on the trims without worrying about the sinamay collapsing.
Available in 19 colours, they are dyed to coordinate with our sinamay trims so you are sure to get a perfect match.
Click here to see 'em all, and if you have made something amazing form our new shape be sure to tag us @petershams on Instagram to share the love!
xoxo Michelle
xoxo
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The team at London Hat Week has launched a podcast series, 'London Hat Week at Home', and you can catch us, Michelle & Fiona on Episode 3.
]]>The team at London Hat Week has launched a podcast series, 'London Hat Week at Home', and you can catch us, Michelle & Fiona on Episode 3.
Hosted by Morley Radio, we follow on from the magnificent Stephen Jones. What a tough act to follow.
Enjoy!
xoxo Michelle
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Michelle and Fiona getting down and dirty!
So much good stuff!
Supplying vintage has always been close to our hearts. The idea of making hats from things that already exist is not only great for the planet, but working with such well made materials is really gratifying. Anyone who has ever blocked out a vintage felt will know the feeling. Once you get over your nerves of messing up you are instantly launched into its buttery bliss. Don't even get me started on vintage sequins and velvet! And in an ever changing landscape where people can pinch your hat designs before you can say 'Instagram', using unique vintage finds is at least one way to ensure that your pieces are one of a kind.
Vintage gradient ribbon found on our travels
In addition to all of the vintage madness we've picked up over the past year we have expanded our range to over 3000 core products for the modern milliner. On trend padded headbands and silk abaca has stormed our store and we're so pleased to have one the largest selections of veiling online! Some of our customers will remember when we were just a veiling shop on Etsy named 'Squirlgirl'. Do you guys remember that? Wow, things have grown!
In the earlier days of our first shop in Elephant & Castle
Veiling for daaaays...
As we have grown so has our team, and adding more hat-mad staff to our operation has taken up space alongside our ever growing stock. Visitors to our London store have seen how amazing we are at cramming in merch into every possible crevice. I've been waiting for an honorary degree in Space Management to come through the post, honestly. I'm sure it's on it's way, but the fact of it is that 1) We have run out of space and 2) Our shopping habits don't look like they are easing up anytime soon.
Michelle, Coco, Ella, Poppy, Sarah and Fiona visiting Brenda at the historic Shirley Leaf & Petal Co. for our staff Christmas Party in 2019
We really wanted a space that we could hold all of our stock, house all of our staff and still have some room to dance when 'The Chain' by Fleetwood Mac crops up on our playlist. You feel me? Stevie would want it that way.
So, all of that coupled with an urge for a simpler, greener life drew us to Canterbury. Did we want to be far from London? Heck no! St. Pancras station is a mere 1 hour journey to Canterbury West Station. With our sights set on a giant space it just fell into place, and our move to Canterbury was sealed!
Vintage melusines and peachblooms we found in Germany
For now we are going to hole up in an industrial park whilst our dream shop is being built. Having a space where our customers can pop in and out is at the core of what we are and what we like to do. Chatting about colours, designs, dogs, doughnuts - everything - is part of what makes our days amazing.
From March 21st our new home will only be open to the public on select Open Days until the most amazing millinery supply shop in the world opens up (more about that in the future!). Open days at our industrial home will be announced on our Instagram and Facebook pages, so stay tuned to be one of the first to come say hello.
We are so excited for this new chapter at Petershams and we tip our hats to all of our amazing customers, online and in-store.
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Our London location at 3 Creekside, SE8 4SA will be closed to customers from Wednesday March 18th while we make our big move. Online orders made after 12pm on Wednesday March 18th will ship out at our new Canterbury location from Monday March 23rd.
Interested in working at Petershams, Canterbury? We're hiring!
xoxo Michelle
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For the very latest updates visit the official London Hat Week website for events and bookings. https://www.londonhatweek.com/
For the milliner who has it all, this handy sketchbook has hundreds of pages of head templates to sketch onto. A dream when designing a new collection.
These galaxy scissors are out of this world!
With ribbons, feathers and vintage berries this little helper is a great stocking stuffer.
The infamous Winter edition of The Hat Magazine comes with a free 2020 wall calendar marked with all important hat events. A must for the organised milliner!
This incredible tin is a real collectors piece. Dating to around the 1930s it is sure to impress!
This elegant hamper was curated with on-trend items for 2020. Puffy headbands, sequin film, straw capelines and veiling will give you plenty to work with to make some winning designs.
Perfect for the milliner just starting out or the intermediate milliner looking to refine their work, The Art of Hat Making covers techniques across the board.
Everyone loves a lucky dip, and these motifs are an instant win for milliners.
Wowza! This jam packed hamper is rammed full of hat making supplies and even includes a vintage hat cone in a surprise colour! Worth over £154 it's a mega bargain.
You just can't go wrong with this one! Available in denominations of £10, £25, £50 and £100, our E-Gift cards are emailed instantly and can be ordered right up to the last minute. Not that you would leave it to the last minute, right?!
xoxo Michelle
]]>Around January each year Fiona and myself start chanting a familiar sentence - this year will be different - let's make out hats well in advance so we are not making them in the rush of our busiest time of year.
Queue 3 days before Ascot, and let the hat making begin!
To be fair we did start a Pinterest board which we actively filled with our chosen theme months in advance. Which would have been useful had we not do a last minute theme change based on our new found love of tube crin. The advantage to having a whole shop of goodies to choose from sometimes leads to a little bit of distraction.
So with only 72 hours to go we get started. Fiona was a trooper and let me block out my hat base first as we were both fighting it out to use the same halo crown shape that has been oh so insanely popular this season.
Our theme then? We choose 'Day and Night'.
After blocking and wiring up my halo crown in aqua blue sinamay, I popped in a 24mm wide satin covered headband in an effort to decrease the inner radius of my crown a touch the headband made it sit just right on my head. The real stabilisation comes from a small flat basic metal hair comb sewn into the centre front of the crown, though. We always find that the combination of a hair comb and a headband can hold up just about most fascinators no matter how large. Since it was ascot I added a third line of defence with a 1.2mm millinery wire tab at the back of the hat to avoid hat tippage in all directions!
For trimming we wired up 8mm tube crin with 1mm millinery wire, secured at the ends and arched it over to form a rainbow. I ran a few strands of nylon thread through at key points to ensure the colours did not get out of whack.
Next up was the sun! I topped two sinamay hat bases with 1cm yellow straw braid and sandwiched them over the rainbow for a nice 3D effect. Next was to add a puff of shredded tulle and viola!
After making her halo hat base, Fiona traced out a similar shape of the halo crown to make a flat pattern moon. After cutting out the sinamay and pinning it all together, she sewed her moon so that it had an open back.
To decorate the moon, small diamonds were cut from the sequin film and pierced in the centre with a pin to make custom sequins! After the external decoration was complete, an added layer or sequin film to the inside of the moon gave it a shimmer from underneath which looked amazing! To close off the back of the moon a carefully cut layer of sequin film was glued to the back and the whole thing finished off in 2.5mm white crin around the outside edge to give it a bolder shape.
A 1.2mm wire support was attached to the moon so it could join the halo sinamay base. But first clouds! Sequins was free-form cut and glued onto the front surface of the hat, alternating between glitter and glossy varieties for interest.
After the sequins dried a generous puff of pink and white clouds was added to the back of the moon with a few hand stitches. Say hello to the night!
We had an absolute blast this at Ascot and it was such a joy to see so many milliners in the mix. It really does feel like a celebratory day of relief after a big rush for hat makers!
So how are we going to top next year? Maybe we will give ourselves a generous 4 days to do our hats...
xoxo Michelle
]]>Are you ready for it? It's Hat Watch - Met Gala Edition. This years theme : 'Camp'.
And a special honourable mention goes to Jered Leto, who unfortunately was not wearing a hat but decided to bring a replica of his head along to the party. Because art!
Next up on Hat Watch we will be attending Ladies Day at Royal Ascot where people won't quite be up to Jered Leto levels of madness. But who knows, we have yet to make our hats, actually....
xoxo Michelle
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Lovers of hats, sparkles and glamour rejoice! Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams exhibition has landed at the V&A. After missing out on the Dior exhibition last year at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris I had a bad case of FOMO, and not only booked tickets to the exhibition but became a member as well. A member! Oh dear.
First stop was the members bar for a pre-exhibition coffee.
Swanky, eh? Noted to self to come back in the evening sometime for cocktails.
Right, it's time for the show!
The exhibition covers everything you would expect from the New Look era, and to my delight has plenty of modern pieces from creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri.
And if you are a fan of Stephen Jones then ding ding ding - you have hit the hat jackpot. The exhibition itself has hundreds of hats on display, but our buddy Stephen, with his 20+ year partnership with Dior has crafted over half of them.
Dreamy, right? This room was organised by colour and had me in full swoon. I've never seen a more glamorous rainbow.
And hats! The hats!
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is now sold out, but a limited amount of tickets are being sold on the day on a first come first served basis. Alternatively you can be naughty like me and get a membership which entitles you unlimited entry to the exhibition for the duration of its run.
If anyone needs me I will be in the rainbow room.
xoxo Michelle
For more information on Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams head to the V&A website here.
]]>The Cheltenham Festival is well known for kicking off the hat wearing season. It's often a chilly affair so hats often have a functional practicality in addition to being utterly fabulous! Countryside chic is the order of the day. Cossacks and fur fedoras are popular shapes on the day, but fascinators incorporating wools and tweed are often seen at this big racing event. Pheasant feathers in all varieties are a popular trim nicely fitting into the countryside theme.
Hat-maker to the stars, Stephen Jones OBE takes over the Royal Pavilion in a dazzling new exhibition, showcasing some of his most famous designs. The Royal Pavilion has long been an inspiration to Jones and many of his hats reflect the wonderful, whimsical, radical nature of the Royal Pavilion, specifically his Spring/Summer 2012 collection Chinoiserie-on-Sea.
The site-specific exhibition shows hats worn by celebrities, including Lady Gaga and Diana, Princess of Wales and also those made in collaboration with the world’s best fashion designers, including Dior, Thom Browne, Giles Deacon and Comme des Garçons.
For more information and tickets visit The Royal Pavilion website here
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