Choosing a Wedding Hat

Nessa Wrafter: I’m here with Georgina from La Modiste Modeste which means the modest millionaire. Hi Georgina. Georgina Abbot: Hi Nessa. Nessa Wrafter: So tell us all, are you the modest millionaire? Georgina Abbot: Not until—actually. I think wearing hats allows you to show off a little bit and allows you to get us with the ordinary and the everyday and then allows you to just dress up and go out and show off and well say great if you’re having a bad hair day. You can put one on and go out and hope not everybody notices. Nessa Wrafter: So, how did you get into hat designing? Georgina Abbot: I’ve always been interested in fashion all of my life and not most of the girls—and my grandmother seems does this so I’d always done dressmaking and some furnishings and then I went to an evening closet and then they called it to fashion and—absolutely inspirational tutor and it just grew from there. I just became obsessed with this and it became my passion and then it grew into my business. Nessa Wrafter: Well it’s a lovely story, so how long have you been doing it now? Georgina Abbot: It’s about five years now and I lose track really because I get so in grace in it. I started doing just making hats for friends and people I knew and then it grew from there and became private commissions. I went into wholesale for a little while and selling by various boutiques around London and the Southeast and now I brought it back to being mainly private commissions because that’s the best I really love. I don’t like—up the same thing over and over again. Well, this one is called Evita. Nessa Wrafter: Oh, make sense. Georgina Abbot: You know I think the color works really well especially with your make-up today and then it makes you look a bit like a 40 starlet. Nessa Wrafter: I can't get enough, I really can't. Georgina Abbot: Absolutely. Nessa Wrafter: So, were each of your designs an individual design or do you over do to the same one? Georgina Abbot: The more less individual and I’m sure they are all set in things that run through and people can see that as your signature and your design but I try to do something different every time and it’s actually quite hard to reproduce the same thing over again if you’re making things by hand and I certainly prefer to do different things if I can. It’s just more interesting that way. Nessa Wrafter: Where would you find that you get your inspiration from? Georgina Abbot: That is actually a really difficult question to answer because I couldn’t tell you where it comes from. I guess just popped into my head and for one collection it was all about mathematical symbols which sounds really silly but it just about a tough idea and most of the time it’s about bold colors and strong contrast and strong shape, those are the things I love. Nessa Wrafter: So, this is almost like a wedding hat for instance in 1920 bridal look. Georgina Abbot: That’s right. Yeah I mean this is called the—design so it sets quite low on the head but it’s very cute, its only like a flower part shape. Nessa Wrafter: Yeah it’s beautiful. So, most people think of hats. They think they wear them to a wedding and not really anywhere else but do you find that you do much for other events as well? Georgina Abbot: Weddings obviously the most popular side of what I do and I think every woman who gets an invitation to a wedding has that first thought “Oh my goodness where am I going to buy my hat” and how exciting you know. You don’t get the chance to wear it everyday but I always sell a lot to people who are going to the races so in the summer it’s very popular and for people getting to christenings—also some other events and also more frequently now know it’s for teenagers going to proms. Nessa Wrafter: Oh wow, I would never have thought that people going to prom would actually buy proper hats. That’s really nice to know actually. It seems quite experimental. Georgina Abbot: Yeah I think they’re looking for something different. It might be a hobby. As a fascinators have become more popular and young girls and more likely to wear head piece rather than a hat because it’s easy to wear and it’s just something fun place of that individuality. This one is in a lot of my publicity—and it’s one of the first styles that I’ve made actually. It took me weeks at the time because I was barely in experience and each piece has to be twisted and stitched and all the beading is by hand so it’s actually quite elaborate but it’s proved a quite a popular style so I’ve done lots of variations on this thing. Nessa Wrafter: Yeah but it really frames the face isn’t this which is lovely. Georgina Abbot: Yeah it’s very flattering. Nessa Wrafter: So last but definitely not the least is the gorgeous velvet one of my—so tell me about this? Georgina Abbot: Well, I think it just goes to prove you’ve got the head perhaps because they all see— Nessa Wrafter: Well, I’m going to see if can sneak at the door with this still on my head. Georgina Abbot: Okay. Nessa Wrafter: But thank you so much for showing us all your hats, it’s been such a pleasure. Thanks Georgina. Georgina Abbot: Thank you.