Hats off to new exhibition

A HEAD for fashion: project manager Michele Pouncey

HATS have been hitting the headlines from Princess Beatrice’s eye-catching creation at the Royal Wedding to ladies day at Royal Ascot.

But a hands-on exhibition in Oldham town centre is proving that you don’t have to be blue blooded or well heeled to turn heads.

Hats! is an opportunity for people to admire and try on a range of headgear from vintage to woolly and floaty to formal.

Visitors can pop in and have a go at repairing hats or making something new at the exhibition which runs from Wednesday to Saturdays until July 9 at the Shop Project, 12 Albion Street.

Work by members of Oldham Community Hat Club is on show and there is a display of hat blocks, supplied by Oldham firm Parkin Fabrics, made to use hats for the Royal Family.

Milliners Sue Carter and Rosie Oliver are also running workshops on Saturday, Sunday, and next Wednesday and Thursday.

Oldham Community Hat Club has more than 30 members, aged from 17 to 68, including chairman Sorielle Ndjoumbi, from Failsworth. The 34-year-old has a range of hats for different occasions and said: “It is part of my personality, my identity, and it gives me confidence. When I don’t wear a hat I don’t feel complete. Nowadays more and more people are wearing hats, even for everyday wear.”

Some of her hats cost hardly anything to make and she added: “People can make hats out of anything, any bits they have at home. You do not even need a hat block.”

Hats have been staging a resurgence as the fashion accessory of choice — from trilbies at summer music festivals to 1920s-inspired felt winter cloches.

Hats! project manager Michele Pouncey said: “When you put a hat on it makes you feel a little bit glamorous. We think it is very daring. Most people wear hats to keep warm or keep the rain out, but a hat can also be a beautiful thing.”

Parkin Fabrics, at Vulcan Street, Derker, is the UK’s largest supplier of millinery fabrics, feathers and accessories.

It supplies fabrics to world-famous designers and used to own the Queen’s hat-maker Philip Somerville.

Chairman David Parkin said that demand has changed, with a growth in people making their own fascinators.

He explained: “Years ago you needed machines to do the big wedding hats and all the ladies’ hats were made in Luton.

“That was the hat centre and the football team is even called the Hatters.

“Then along came the Chinese and ruined the hat industry with cheap imports, but at the same time fashions changed for the big wedding hats.

“What’s called the fascinator became popular and a lady can make that at home.”