Sculptural Headwear for Earthlings by Jasmin Zorlu: My Dynamic Life with Panache Cocktail Hat

I remember reading this Vivienne Westwood quote at an exhibit of hers at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco and also at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London:

"You have a much better life if you wear impressive clothes"

And it has stuck with me. You should not only wear impressive clothes, but if you wear an interesting hat, you'll magnetically draw to you the people and circumstances which will improve your life!

As Karen Henriksen writes in the first sentence of the introduction of her instructional millinery book, Design and Make Fashion Hats,

"Of all fashion accessories, hats are the most personal and the most powerful. How could they fail to be, worn as they are on the most important, the most visible and the most photographed part of the body?"

I recently made this black cocktail hat out of sisal straw. I added the butterfly last minute because I felt that it needed a little something extra. I remembered what a famous contemporary milliner named 'Louise Green' once told me (via facebook): "Put a butterfly on it, and it will sell right away!" Last week, when I had dinner with another famous milliner, Lola of Lola Hats, she said that naming hats is so very important, that's how her Japanese store buyers remember them. Read some more wisdom from Lola here.

And so because this black sisal straw hat reminds me of smoke, I had to look up 'plume of smoke' in French. It translated to 'panache de fumeé', but that was too long, so I named it simply, panache. According to Wikipedia, "Panache is a word of French origin that carries the connotation of a flamboyant manner and reckless courage". I certainly felt this way when wearing the hat with the dress you see below.

I haven't tried to sell it yet, but did take it out on a test run last weekend with this lovely silver glazed linen one shouldered dress by Ilse Eriksson of Mel en Stel . Check out her brand new Autumn collection 2012 on a Vimeo video (link is at bottom). You can find Ilse's lovely collection at the designer cooperative boutique 'Trunk Brooklyn' in the Dumbo neighborhood, at 68 Jay Street. Just take the 'F' train to 'York Street'. This is the store where I bought my lovely Aimee G dress also, last summer. See me in it at the end of this post.