As a seasoned Kentucky Derby and Derby Party goer, over the years I’ve had need for a lot of hats. I bought my first real hat from Linda Campisano in Evanston, IL and I still love it. However, real hats are really expensive. And they’re big, with big hat boxes that require lots of storage. So more recently, I’ve taken to making my own Derby Hat. Sort of. It tends to start with my favorite black sun hat (and a mint julep!). And lots of wire. Because at the end of the Derby, I want to be able to remove all my flowers and glitz and glamor and return my black sun hat to its original condition. When it comes to Derby Hats, it helps to start with your dress in terms of millinery design, because it will help you pick colors and a theme. Of course, you can match the dress to the hat, but since I had the objective of not buying a new dress, I picked out a dress I bought at the end of the summer that hasn’t seen much wear. It’s pink and black, so, my hat is too. I knew my mom had some beautiful silk roses and peonies leftover from her garden store, so I asked her to ship them out. While I was awaiting the mail, I bought a few types of feathers, some black netting, and made sure I had plenty of wire, glue for my glue gun, and ribbon. Finally, the flowers arrived and it was time to start construction. Of course, hats never require as much decoration as you want them too, so it’s best to lay out a plan before you start tying and gluing things down. I always start with pinning the ribbon on the brim. Then, I lay out the biggest elements of the design, in this case flowers. I don’t attach them at all, rather I see how I’d position them and then I build a cardboard base for the largest piece. Finally, I cut slits to attach the heavy elements to the cardboard.  Once I’m sure they’re how I want them, I wire them in. The hat goes through many iterations as I position the large element and then attach more and more small pieces around it. I twist ribbons that are edged in wire around my fingers to create ribbon curls. I glue them together into larger accent pieces. In general, when it comes to floral design, odd numbered groupings are best. I use the glue gun to attach small pieces to cardboard and to each other, but I never affix anything to the hat permanently. Finally, when the large cardboard piece is complete, I wire it to the hat. This is a nice part about the hat, I can feed the wire right through the porous hat material. When everything is wired in place, I covered the whole thing with black netting. I promise a picture on Saturday when I’m in my Derby finery, but for now you’re stuck with hats from the past and a mirror shot of my 2014 hat. Good luck with your hat and your horse! And enjoy these pix of derby parties past. And don’t forget about my Kentucky Derby Party Menu.