Remember back in the day when women dressed up for every occasion? No matter what the style of dress was, there was always a fedora, newsboy, cloche or anyone of the many popular hat styles to complement the outfit. Well, Hungarian-born milliner Krisztina may just have hats creeping back into our wardrobes again.

Krisztina, founder of Kankalinhats, isn’t just sticking to millinery tradition either. She is creating unique fashion forward pieces that are truly works of art. However, she doesn’t consider her work to be hats but hatlings.

“I don’t like to call my creation hats (because they are not) and I don’t like the word fascinator. So, after much brainstorming with my friends on Etsy we came up with the word ‘hatlings’. So there, I make hatlings!”

“A hatling can be worn by young and mature, thin and voluptuous, classic and quirky. There is a shape and color combo for everyone,” Krisztina said.

Kankalinhats began shortly after Krisztina moved to London’s Chelsea area and attended a real English wedding. After researching what to wear she saw the hats and immediately fell in love. She enrolled in a taster course at Kensington and Chelsea College, found herself deeply enamored with millinery and continued to learn more about the craft in a proper course later in autumn where she had the opportunity to study under hat-artist Ian Bennett.

Krisztina came up with the name kankalin, which is Hungarian for primrose, because she felt it was a good, strong brand name. And primrose is also her Canadian boyfriend’s favorite word.

Currently residing in Brighton, Krisztina is busy branding Kankalinhats and working on her upcoming collection based on new and modern materials such as nylons, plastics and crystals. She is also planning to work with British style icons Duffy and Alexa Chung.

Even though hat popularity is constantly faltering, Krisztina has faith that her creations will keep her consumer’s interest.

” I think that in the traditional sense hats’ fashionability might be faltering, but I also think that today’s fashion is all about the individual. I hope people will want to express themselves by wearing my less than traditional creations.”

“I feel 2008 might be the year of the hatling,” Krisztina said.

For more information on Kankalinhats please visit: www.kankalinhats.etsy.com or www.indigoroses.com.

SHOUT OUTS: Thank you for finding me! It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful people are, the amount of incredible art around!

More photos below.

Technorati : View blog reactions
Posted at : March 15th, 2008 - 1:07 pm
Filed under : Kids on the Come Up
Navigate : Previous post / Next post