Sultan Blue

I love hats and a few years ago I campaigned to be the designer on a local production of Caryl Churchill's "Far Away," a play that calls for at least 50 hats. I've also made more traditional hats to sell.

I've named every hat I've made (just as old artisans used to name everything). For some reason that delighted the lighting designer.

This one is called Sultan Blue. It's vent tubing on a cloche hat base with an electric blue feather boa. It was quite large, but very wearable because of the hat base. I kept several hats from the show--as many as I felt I could store, but for some reason I didn't keep this one and I've regretted it ever since. One of the dressers on the show took it, but I suspect when she moved she couldn't have kept all of the hats she took.

It's called Sultan Blue because it reminds me of a Sultan's turban as done by Hollywood--think "Kismet" or "Arabian Nights," not reality. There's a great book called "Hollywood and History" that discusses how Hollywood is never accurate, but ever after reality looks disappointing after Hollywood glam.