Tonight:
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When staff at Mulberry's New Bond Street HQ decided to have a team bonding day, they didn't end up playing paintball. Instead they opted for a hat party. As milliner Katherine Elizabeth showed them how to make headpieces, they wolfed down tea and cupcakes. Then, to much hilarity, they tried on their finished creations.
Forget wig or shoe parties, hat parties are the smart new way to bond and spur creativity. You can book a hat designer to come to your party and teach the guests how to make a bespoke, designer headpiece while sipping champagne. Hip fashion brand Asos is having one for its Christmas party, ditto Liberty, Instyle magazine and the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
The queen of the hat party is award-winning milliner Katherine Elizabeth. After working for Stephen Jones and Dior, she set up her own studio in fashionable Farringdon. She has made hats for Lily Allen's stage tour, as well as pieces for Peaches Geldof, Dita Von Teese and the band Soho Dolls.
Elizabeth arrives laden with sumptuous vintage fabrics, Swarovski crystals, delicate beading and the lightest of feathers — and helps you design your dream hat.
“It's a creative way of getting together with friends and learning a new skill,” she explains. “Craft, home-spun and home entertaining are all back in vogue, with people now knitting and hosting dinner parties instead of going to expensive restaurants. Plus, people are far more curious about learning where products are sourced from, how they are made and returning to simple pleasures.”
You don't have to have sophisticated dressmaking skills. Elizabeth will analyse your face shape to decide on the best style. Once you have constructed your hat she will help you with the basic stitching to finish it off.
Recently she hosted a hat party for Shoreditch Sisters (Hoxton's achingly cool, postmodern version of the WI) and a private one in a hotel suite for Dita Von Teese and her agent. Alexa Chung, Peaches and band-of-the-moment Noisettes are in talks with her to hold their own parties. So the next time you see Lily Allen sporting a startling headpiece, just think — she may even have made it herself.
07866 552 818, www.katherineelizabethhats.com
Katherine also holds day classes for £95 in her studio, where you can learn how to make cocktail hats from start to finish, including blocking and trimming. The next class is on 3 October.
