Creative Headwear Inspired By Their Founders' Asian Sensibilities

Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop checks out four millineries that are making a splash with creative headwear inspired by their founders’ Asian sensibilities

- Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop

Heads of state millinery Self-taught Singaporean milliner Chee Sau Fen launched Heads of State Millinery in 2011 with the aim of reviving traditional Asian handicrafts while uplifting marginalised groups. After talking to various communities in South-East Asia about how they made their indigenous crafts and textiles, Chee soon realised “that in order to preserve these traditions, they need to evolve”. That is the reason she uses innovative techniques to apply these crafts to hat-making.

Most of her designs use abaca fibre, made on handlooms by communities living in Mindanao in the Philippines. “This was not traditionally used to make hats, so I developed a number of new techniques to create millinery from it, such as using bands of twine and Japanese washi paper to make the boning that gives the hats in our Kyu – Beautiful Bow collection their sharp yet flexible structures,” Chee says, adding that her hats allow one to appreciate the beauty and utility of both abaca fibre and washi paper.

She has also started to incorporate sustainable principles into her work. Besides starting to work with recycled aluminium, she has also weaved biodegradable 3D printing filaments – made of polycaprolactone – into the latest designs in her AirLoom collection. She prefers using a 3D printing pen over a 3D printing machine, as the former allows her to draw freehand with the filaments to create the forms. “I follow weave patterns inspired by traditional handwoven baskets to stabilise the printed structures of the hats,” she explains.

“There is a special kind of magic when unassuming raw materials are brought together by imaginative and skilled human hands – a philosophy I call ‘nature nurtured’. There will always be a trace of the raw beauty of natural materials or indigenous craft techniques – or both – in our designs.”