And the Winners Are! Official Hatstruck Competition Winners and Award of Prizes

1st & Judge's Choice--Mar Balmón Montiel

2nd--Zorza Goodman

By now most of you have probably gotten word of the winners of the The Hatstruck Millinery Competition--Elegant, Fun Couture Hats, 2014.  The competition, at least in my eyes was more than a success, with a few surprises on the side.

The winners are: First in Competition--Mar Balmón Montiel, Madrid Spain.  Mar also won in the categories of Design, Color, Presentation, Theme, and Innovation.
 

Second in Competion--Zorza Goodman, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Workmanship and Judge's Choice--Jill Cavanagh, Perth, Western Australia. 

Wearability--Татьяна Иванова

Workmanship--Jill Cavanagh

Judge's Choice--Cécile Hammache

Wearability--Татьяна Иванова,  Moscow, Russia.

Originality--Ron Shelton

 Originality--Ron Shelton, Lakewood, Ohio, of Res Hats.



There were four Judge's Choices (one for each judge), two of which have been acknowledged in winning categories.  The two remaining are:

Mark Anthony Garvie--Dublin, Ireland; and Cécile Hammache (Au couvre-amour),  Saint Antoine l'Abbaye, France.

Judge's Choice--Mark Anthony Garvie

Honorable Mention--María Patata Fría

An Honorable Mention was extended to María Patata Fría for her high score, No Residence Given.


The Prizes--Top Prize! besides the prize I'm awarding the First in Competition, Anya Caliendo is also awarding a session with her in New York next year, 2015, valued at $1,750!
 
 First in Competition, Mar Balmón Montiel, will choose her prize first; followed by Second in Competition, Zorza Goodman.  After they have chosen their prizes, the remaining winners will be randomly given a number and that number matched with the number on the gift, including the Judge's Choices.
 
I have to thank my wonderful judges for the wonderful job that they did in picking a wonderful and deserving group of winners.  Besides yours truly, my judges were, in alphabetical order Anya Caliendo, Essie Edwards, and snd Shurie Southcott.


 Anya is world known for her sophisticated avant-garde millinery creations, bursting with color and her works having a unique style that sets her apart from other milliners.   Not only is Anya a milliner, she is, from what I've heard, an outstanding millinery instructor.  Anya is published in books and magazines.  She has a wonderful blog and keeping with the aesthetics of her beautiful, colorful millinery creations, brings her wit and color into word and images there.

Mrs. Essie Edwards just had to be one of my judges, over 60 years as a milliner and teacher and seamstress, and one of my millinery instructors, she is still a very stylish lady.  She makes almost every stitch of clothing she wears and her work is impeccable to this day.  Going into her second year of retirement, Mrs. Edwards is now a volunteer teacher to her  former students.

Shurie Southcott, milliner and instructor, makes the most wonder hats that are fun and topnotch.  Shurie specializes in Victorian-era hats and accessories.

 Thanks to all of my judges; you too will receive a gift for your services.  I thought I had that figured out, but for one of you, I have to go back to the drawing board. 

Again, thank all of you, even down to those that offered to help with postage.  Fortunately, I guessed exactly who would most likely be participating in this competition, and having sold on Ebay before, I had already set aside for that expense. 

Thank you for participating in my dream.  I hope all winners can find some use for all of the junk I'm awarding.  

Winner, please message me on the Hatstruck Couture Millinery Facebook Group page to leave your mailing information.

 

    #Millinery, #Hatstruck, #LeeDuncan

Judges Announced for the Hatstruck Elegant, Fun Couture Hats Competition!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, usually I make a hat before I post but laziness has taken over, and once again, I'm posting one of my old hats.  I think I made this hat maybe five or six years ago, more or less.  It's a leather purse top hat trimmed with a leather flower.  The removable top has a mirror inside for checking makeup.  That year I also won Best in Show for a black cloche.  I reblocked the cloche into another shape a couple of months ago, and it's still on the block.  For this hat I won Most Innovative, also.  Anyway let's get to the important stuff.

This is a little emotional for me because months ago when I was thinking about putting a competition together I had at least two people I wanted to be judges.  One I knew "had my back" as always, and the other, although I wanted her to be one of my judges, I felt as if I was imposing on her; she too has been so supportive over the past several years.  I didn't want to ask her and put her in a position of declining my judge request.   Even after I asked and she accepted I still felt the need to protect her, asking her if she really wanted to do this.   I would have more than understand if she had declined.  Plus I didn't know if she, a world famous milliner, would really want to be associated with being a judge for a contest given by an unknown lady that practices millinery as a hobby. 

Harper's Bazaar Arabia/Ruven Afanador

So in alphabetical order, my first judge (she) is Anya Caliendo.  By-the-way, the link is to her blog, the best millinery blog on the Web.  If you are into couture millinery and fashion, chances are that you know Anya's work.  If you've been on another planet and you haven't seen her work, view a partial collection I've pulled up in a Pinterest search!  Anya's hats have graced the covers of many magazines, one of the latest being Harper's Bazaar July 2014 issue where Rihanna is shown on  its cover wearing one of her hats.  Anya interned under the great milliner Stephen Jones.

Twice Anya has brought tears to my eyes: when  she accepted my judge request, and when  she sent me an invitation to Fashion Week in New York.  I'm so sorry I couldn't  make it.  I think I'm so touched because, not only is she a wonderful person, but she is a confident, caring, and sharing person.  This is hard to find amongst many milliners, sorry to say.

My next judge is Mrs. Essie Edward.  Those of you that follow my blog know Mrs. Edwards as one of my millinery instructors.  Mrs. Edwards has well over 60 years of millinery experience.  She worked for the school district her in Southern California for over 40 years.  She is an excellent seamstress and milliner and just an all-around beautiful person.


As far as being a good judge, well let's just say that she is more flexible than I am and much more fashionable also.  She taught me how to be more flexible in my dealings with millinery, while maintaining the highest of quality in my work.

My final judge is Shurie Southcott.  When I sent out a hint Shurie immediately volunteered, and I thought wow!  My response came because Shurie is into couture steam punk millinery.  I had seen some extremely beautiful steam punk hats made in another contest by other milliners that were above exceptional--the hats were extremely well made, the trim was exquisite, and the designs were awesome--not too far out, right in my "sweets spot."  None of those hats even placed.  So Shurie will complement this team.  I really wanted a team made up of milliners that would represent as many tastes as possible. 

Shurie teaches millinery and she also works at Clockworks Couture here in Southern California.  Actually, it was a book I ran across in the bookstore written by Clockworks (the owner) that led to my understanding of Steam Punk millinery and clothing.  Naturally, I purchased the book.  Shurie is also published in another book.  One last thing, Shurie and I had the same millinery instructor, at least I took a block carving class from her mentor and instructor, the late Jill Pfeiffer, perhaps a decade or so earlier.

Thank you so much ladies, and let it be known that I deeply appreciate and admire all of you.

Essie Edwards' May 2012 Annual Fashion Show

I introduced Mrs. Edwards to you last year in my post, "Essie Edwards: A Phenomenal Milliner, Seamstress, Instructor, and Fashionista."  Nothing has changed much.  Mrs. Edwards is still the same phenomenal lady she was last year.  Her beautiful seniors, including the facility director, Toni, and facility caretaker, Dorothy, are still in place and are still wonderful.  Mrs. Edwards is always speaking well of them.  One thing that will be changing is that Mrs. Edwards will be retiring this year.  I'll miss seeing my senior friends at the Rose Garden.  I have been blessed to have friends in my millinery classes (Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. King) that have been so supportive.  I'll miss the support of people that know me, as well as my character.  Nothing will ever replace the presence of warm and caring people.  As for Mrs. Edwards, we'll always keep in touch with each other and hang out together.  When I talked to her this morning, she informed me that she may volunteer a few hours at the senior center.  If she does, I'll make an extra effort to visit my friends at the center, plus Ms. E' would love all of the attention she would receive.

Also, I must mention how much of an inspiration these ladies have been to me.  Some of the ladies that attend the center are over 30 years my senior.  Most of them drive to the center one to three times a week.  The cloths and hats you will see in the following video were made by these wonderful ladies.  If you could see the clothing and hats up close, you would think that they were bought from department stores; that's how well they are made--a wonderful reflection of the instructor.  Thank you Mrs. Edwards.

Also, since all of our millinery classes may be cut, I have to say thank you to Mrs. Eloise King, my millinery instructor, on-and-off, for 28 years.  To Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. King, no matter how many millinery instructors I may have in the future, if I have the chance to study abroad, none of them will top you guys.  I'm good at what I do because of the foundation you gave me.

I'm not going to introduce the following video as Mrs. Edwards final fashion show video because I attended a spectacular fashion show this afternoon that was moderated by Mrs. Edwards.  Some ladies had attended her fashion show and liked it so much that they invited Mrs Edwards to do it again for charity club.  Now on to the video!

Note:  I wasn't home to select the video cover image when it stopped processing on YouTube.  I would have preferred that Mrs. Edwards image appear on the video cover.  Click twice on the video to maximize video screen and to see the text that has been written on the video images.

Essie Edwards: A Phenomenal Milliner, Seamstress, Instructor, and Fashionista

I am totally amazed by this lady.  She's a graduate of Pepperdine University, she has been a milliner for over 60 years (yes over 60 years!), she has been an instructor for the Los Angeles Unified School District for almost 40 years, she is a mother, a source of great support for her students, she is a fashionista, and she is a lovely woman both inside and out.  Mrs. Edwards is a walking example of a phenomenal instructor.  When she walks into the classroom she wears what she has made--suites, purses, hats, belts, etc.  All perfectly made by her loving and guiding hands. As you can see from the image on the left, she is one cute lady, and she really looks sassy in the sporty black BMW she drives.  You Go Girl!

But what I really love about Mrs. Edwards is that she encourages me to be me.  She never insists that I do something the same way and in a particular manner.  In her words, "There is more than one way to do something."  For a person like myself who loves to experiment with different millinery techniques, her words are like music to my ears.  A student has to grow under an instructor with this attitude.  She is patient with her students, and they always praise her for this.

Mrs. Edwards only teach day classes, and I waited seven years to take her class, begging her not to retire.  When I retired,  I could finally attend her class.  Then, I was blessed with Ms. E, my granddaughter.  So once again, I'm without my Mrs. Edwards because I lovingly babysit Ms. E during the day.  I still take an evening millinery classes from my other millinery instructor, Mrs. Eloise King (off and on for 26 years), but I also miss my day class with Mrs. Edwards. 

On May 21 Mrs. Edward held her annual fashion show at the Watts Senior Center and Rose Garden.  I really love attending classes at the Rose Garden; it's lovely, quiet, and peaceful.  Dorothy Sampson is the gardener and caretaker for the garden and center.  She is an extraordinary lady who keeps the grounds and the roses beautifully groomed, even using her own resources at times allowing the roses to maintain their award winning status.  I just have to mention Recreation Facility Director Toni Hester (image to the upper right) because Mrs. Edwards constantly praises her for going beyond the call of her job duties, especially when it comes to her sensitivity to the needs of the seniors, as well as Mrs. Edwards'.

I'll get to the images in a moment, but I wanted to mention how wonderful it is to have a place to go where people are sincerely genuine and supportive and enjoy each others' company.  Below are some images from the fashion show.  These ladies, and the gentleman helping the ladies to the walkway, all make beautiful things in Mrs. Edwards' class.  When I was editing the images, I was thinking how blessed I would be to be able to drive to classes and socialize with people as wonderful as these are 25 years from now, as these ladies are doing today.  Thanks to Mrs. Edwards and all for being such an inspiration.