Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Millinery: Why didn't this happen when I was studying there?

Oh boy...I just saw this article copied below. I took my millinery studies at the Houston Community College; nothing like this happened while I was there!

Kate, Marie...we deserved this, not them!




January 30, 2008
Master Class with Lynn Wyatt and the World's Best Hatmaker


Clifford Pugh
Lynn Wyatt (center) and Philip Treacy (in blue hoodie) surrounded by Houston Community College fashion design students.


Students in the fashion design program at Houston Community College were ecstatic when master milliner Philip Treacy dropped in to say hello and brought his good friend, international style trendsetter Lynn Wyatt.

Treacy, who has designed eye-popping hats for Queen Elizabeth II as well as for runway shows by major designers like Ralph Lauren, Alexander McQueen, and Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, had come to Houston for an appearance at Neiman Marcus. Before he crossed the pond from London, "they told me no one in Houston wore hats," Treacy said. "They do now."

Indeed, the luxury retailer sold a ton of Treacy's wonderous hats, which range in price from $600 to $10,000.



Franois Guillot/AFP/Getty Images
A Treacy-designed hat for the Alexander McQueen spring runway show.




Emmanuel Dunnand/AFP/Getty Images
Treacy designed this hat for the 40th anniversary Ralph Lauren runway show.

Treacy rearranged his schedule to visit the college after after being impressed with the enthusiasm of an HCC fashion student who approached him at the Neiman Marcus event. He brought along a DVD of a recent runway show featuring his hats in Japan and his good friend, Wyatt, who is enshrined in the International Best Dress List Hall of Fame. They talked fashion and encouraged the students to follow their dreams.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. All I can say is, Wow. Even I (knowing very, very little about the millinery biz) am very impressed!

Jane Carlstrom said...

How fabulous for them, I bet the student who approached PH was an enthusiast much like you Jill, so if he had been in town when you were taking classes, you would have been the instigator. :) Wish you could have been there for the visit too.

An how wonderful you have had formal millinery study. Hugs, Jane

Jane Carlstrom said...

Oh, also ment to say, wow - did it shock anyone else that only two people in that photograph were wearing hats of any kind?

Lovella ♥ said...

I was looking for the hats. Where are the hats from the class.
Completely unfair that you didn't have this opportunity.

Kate said...

Yes, indeed. WHERE are the hats - and I'm talking to you Lynn Wyatt! Rumor I heard was that Neiman Marcus was talking about getting rid of their millinery dept. and Lynn stepped in and brought Philip in to turn that around. Of course, NO ONE at HCC mentioned Houston Hat Net or all the Houston hat lovers. I heard that Barbara was there wearing a hat but she's not in the picture. Hmmmmmm! Guess it's true that everything is politics. Anyway we can still wear our hats and look gooooooooood!

L&D said...

I can see your drool dripping on the keyboard. Here's a tissue.

Marie said...

Oh, well ... we hang out with a better crowd anyway, don't we! LW's big hair doesn't do well with a hat (didn't she say that once). After all, she's one of the original "big hair" ladies.

And note it was the "fashion" students - not the millinery students.

I'd like to know which student had the smarts to approach Mr. Treacy in the first place --- kudos to her (had to be a female).

HHNer - Marie