Patricia Underwood: The Way You Wear Your Hat
WOW and OMG come to mind after just having just completed Patricia Underwood: The Way You Wear Your Hat. Isabella Blow might have summed it up perfectly when she said, “I don't use a hat as a prop. I use it as a part of me.”
For the woman, Patricia Underwood, this book is not just about hats as an accessory or body of work but hats/millinery as a way of life, as an integral part of fashion and as a means of self-expression for the designer.
The book is exquisitely crafted to provide the reader with everything he or she might need to know about millinery, millinery techniques, the designer’s inspirations, and her life.
The authors have accomplished a book of the fashion genre that appeals to its reader on more levels than one can imagine. How wonderful to be reminded of the retail and editorial talents who were clairvoyant enough to recognize what would be passed over today, and that would be an extraordinary, independent talent with no PR machine behind her, no gimmicks, and no endless bankroll. Underwood had and has what most cannot conceive of and that is raw innate talent combined with incredible drive and the ability to translate her ideas as well as those of the many talents she collaborated with during her career to create hats!
If you are unfamiliar with Patricia Underwood, let it be said now that she is not a milliner who creates fantasy or “editorial-centric” hats. She creates hats that women wear more than once and consider those hats to be essential for the completion of their look. She is a milliner of note, and that is what she has in common with Phillip Treacy and Stephen Jones; they are all milliners but the men are of the fantasy/ fascinator school while Underwood is far simpler in her expressions of fashion.
If you are looking to learn, to explore, to be visually sated, entertained, and often astounded, then have I got a book for you. In today’s world of fashion we are so often exposed to just those who design clothes and rarely to an independent designer who has withstood the tide and trials and tribulations of fashion as well as the test of time. Here is a book about a designer who not only respects her craft but acknowledges ALL of those who paved the way for her—and that includes her loyal support group, staff included.