Hat-cha-cha-cha-cha!**

The Fabulous Hats of Ignatius Creegan and Rod Givens

Ignatius Creegan and Rod Givens are the mad geniuses behind Ignatius Hats. Longtime readers know of our well-chronicled addiction to their millinery creations. Valerie even commissioned them to make her a hat in the shape of the Guggenheim Museum! (For more about the origins and adventures of the Guggenheim hat, click here.) We spent an inordinate amount of time in their booth at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, a fact we can document for you now. The opening shot gives you an idea of the whimsical nature of some of their designs, to say nothing of the technical prowess involved, or the creative thinking.

Here are the guys themselves.  (Rod left; Ignatius right.)

Their straw creations run the gamut from crazy, geometric cartoonish shapes like those in our opening shot

to traditional shapes like the top hat.  It's always interesting to see how two different people will wear the same hat.

While the bulk of their creations are in straw, they do design whole winter collections of sumptuous felt hats. They have even started to produce a few men's hats. Our pal Mary Joy tried on one of the men's top hats. While we were wondering who could possibly wear such large headwear, a gentleman walked up and tried one on and it was TOO SMALL! Go figure.

Ginny found an olive felted wool cloche with button detail that fit like a glove.

Mary Joy went for a large grey wool hat with brim with a spotted cat motif that has a wonderful silhouette.

Valerie tried on one of several leaf creations on headbands.

These double feather pom-poms appealed to Jean.

A dramatic veiled number with crystals that encircles the head and neck was designed for a runway show.  It looks worthy of a dowager duchess, or Queen Elizabeth I.  It does raise issues for would-be smokers or imbibers, however chic one might look with a cigarette holder or a glass of champagne.

Here's Jean wearing a hat with large button detailing, with Rod.  The guys buy all sorts of trim from all sorts of places, and put them together in wonderfully unexpected ways.

Valerie tried this large brimmed matte gold hat in feather-light sinamay.

Jean took this Dr. Sesuss-like hat for a spin. The top swirl moves when the wearer does.

A straw disc under the shadow print silk fabric gives shape to this Renaissance print hat.

Jean's selfie in a mini-straw hat that caught her eye.

This pink feather concoction is just the thing to wear for cocktails, don't you think?

Not ready to commit?  Ignatius and Rod have you (and your head) covered.  They have a selection of fun fleece hats like this one. Which you can wear the traditional way, with its tail down your back...

Or, because the fleece is fuzzy, and the fibers tend to adhere easily to themselves, you can pile the tail on your head for a different look.

The gents told us they had a client who had bought a hat from them that day based on our postings!  A convert!  Can't get a much better compliment than that.  And later on we ran into her, hat box in hand.  Here's Deborah, below.  We only wish we'd asked for to show off her new hat for us.  Deborah, if you're reading, send us a photo to post!

Nothing makes our hearts go pitter-patter like hats! Ciao, until next time, kiddies.


**  Thanks to Jimmy Durante for today's title.  (Younger than we are?  Click here to find out who he was.  And for the record, he hails from our parents' generation.  We're not that old.)