Lucy Barlow
I recently had the pleasure of a long and intriguing conversation with Lucy Barlow. As a child, she first fell in love with hats reading comics and watching cartoons like Top Cat and Deputy dog. It was the wonkiness, quirkiness, and wit, the dip of the trilby crown sideways, or the ears popping out of the boater which caught her imagination.
She left home at an early age and moved to London to follow her dream of becoming a hatmaker. In the early days, whilst learning her trade and running around millinery suppliers in Soho, she would visit the iconic reggae shop Daddy Cool in Dean street and listen to all the new tunes. This love of music introduced her to a young toaster DJ, Mekka, aka Little Dennis. She made him a custom hat which led to her hats being in huge demand. She still has many loyal customers from back in the day, including the great master of the Outernational Sound System, Sir Lloydie Coxsone.
Lucy took a hat-making course with Marie O' Regan. She recognized her talent and arranged an apprenticeship with Philip Somerville in Bond St. There, Lucy learned from the most amazing milliners about the discipline and respect involved in making a hat. While at Somerville's, she saw a beret made by the master milliner Jean Barthet. Lucy thought it a thing of beauty and her mind was set upon working for him at his studio in Paris. Once there she made hats for the catwalks of; Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, Claude Montana, Balenciaga, Thierry Mugler, Dior, and Yves St Laurent. This exciting mixture of Haute Couture and the influence of Reggae music and lifestyle has sculpted her fascinating headwear career.
In the early '90s she opened a little shop in Portobello. Fusing couture hats for Ascot and weddings with streetwear from Kangol and Stussy, and bespoke pieces for funky dreads. This eclectic mix showcased her talents. She specialized in stitched braids and was approached by Harvey Nichols, Barneys, Rei Kawakubu, and the Royal Shakespeare company. By 1995 Lucy sold her collections internationally, showed at London Fashion Week, and had a licensing contract with Japan's most prominent headwear distributor. Jump to 2005; She began working with her sister, Niyati, a textile designer. With her knowledge, they started working with the braided straw factories in Italy which opened their world to a broader range of markets.
Describe your creative process?
It always starts with a piece of music, a dream of a shape or color, an intuitive feeling. Then I create a basic model with any scrap material I have laying around, after lots of thought and mental edits. Then when I am ready, I make it fast. Sometimes I will look for external references, but generally, it's all in a visual library in my head. I find it hard to organize things on paper, my brain has its own Bermuda triangle, some things just disappear.
Tell us about your favorite hat?
That's difficult, there are so many for so many different reasons. Mainly I love the way people wear them—the relationship to their hair and their personality. Even a boring hat comes to life when worn with panache.
If I had to choose one, the Omo Valley headdresses in Ethiopia would be my favorite. Nothing to me can come close to the attuned master-ship, conceptual, drama, balance, sophistication, and sustainability.....beyond beautiful.
Natural Fashion Tribal Decoration Africa by Hans Silvester
Who/What are your biggest inspiration?
My mother, Emery Blagdon and his Healing Machine, Jean Barthet, Papa Michigan and General Smiley, Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubu, Jean Michel Basquiat, Tapias, Rothko, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, designer Nick Cave, Massimo Osti, The Omo milliners, Chronixx. Eek-a-Mouse. Craig Green, Sankuanz, Gabicci, Margiela, John Boyd, and nature...particularly bowerbirds. Too many!
What themes are you exploring in your work?
Adjustability, versatility, sustainability, life, music, and sound. I have an ongoing theme; rather than thinking in the four fashion seasons, I am looking into the four elements of life; water, air, earth, and fire, with the underpinning questions of climate change. I am working with a good friend on four short films for each element, maybe a 5th element...the spirit.
Photo by Hans Silvester for Natural Fashion Tribal Decoration Africa
What projects are you currently working on?
There are a lot of collaborations in the works with people I respect and find exciting. Harris Elliot ongoing for his brand Le Tings, Ten Motiwa, a fusion piece for travel, a four-element film with Klaywithak and Etian Anutche Almeida, and Max Sho; a digital genius who is investigating how to create hats using sound waves. I am also trying to find a way to regenerate the stitch braid industry and trying to get a website together with an online shop, so working on more commercial styles.
You recently completed an MA in Menswear millinery at the RCA. What were the highlights, and what did you learn?
Coming from a commercial background, having learned my craft from apprenticeships and trial and error. The RCA pushed me to stop referring back to my comfort zones and mindset of commercial and old rhetoric and free myself to be conceptual. They encourage you to be truthful to your heart, to take risks. It was complex for a mature student to grasp all the digital and presentation skills needed. I decided to focus on bringing menswear to the front. My project was called 'Life Saver' and focused on themes of fleeing from floods, being displaced, and on the move. I looked into wearing your home on your head, waterproofs, life jackets, and the need for music and sounds to lift the spirit for survival. I made a padded hat with speakers in the ear flaps. I also produced a raffia puffer hoodie as a nod to my past. Raffia is a natural rain-proof in the fields of Asia. It was a wonderful learning process that changed my way of thinking.
What parts of your hat journey have you enjoyed most, and can you share your favorite hat stories.
So many stories....but disasters stick in my brain the most.
It was tough to create a business from scratch, and I often worked all-nighters. I slept in my workshops as I had no money for two rents. I was sleeping in a hidden bed, in the rafters of an old warehouse building. To this day, people talk about a ghost in the building!
Once when I was at Jean Barthet's, we were making for a Claude Montana show. There was a wedding piece finale, and this time it was a colossal crin bell hat. Jean Barthet had delegated it to someone who had made a total disaster of it. It arrived into the showroom the evening before the show, and then someone let it slip to Barthet, who became distraught. To fix the problem, me and a colleague decided to work all night re-making this hat from scratch. It was literally finished in the open-top 2CV, screeching around Paris....running through the tents to backstage...to the head of the model who walked on. I rushed to the front but could not see, too many paparazzi and people. Ravels Bolero was booming. It was electric. I did notice it was a little wonky...but no one noticed. I fell in love with the drama of the catwalk then—pure theatre.
You have been involved with many different parts of the headwear industry. From Haute Couture to more commercial areas of our business. What parts have you enjoyed most, and can you share your favorite hat stories?
Everything in life informs and forms you. I love mixing it up, merging, and fusing. I love elegance and understated taste, but also street style too. I tend to love things that don't look overworked or contrived. I dislike anything precious or pompous and enjoy things that have heartfelt joy. As I worked up through the trade, the customer will always be in the front of my mind. The most enjoyment has simply been in workrooms and factories, with fellow workers. At heart, before anything else, I am a maker. The stitching of braid is a form of meditation to me, it keeps me sane in the crazy world of fashion.
With the pandemic hopefully past us, what are your hat plans for the future
I'm now developing my website, etail is now essential, and I continue to collaborate with other artists. I'm in the process of collating images and stories for a book on the magic of stitched braid. I can then pass down my stitched braid knowledge and love. Before the pandemic, I worked on a stitch braid school in collaboration with one in Italy, so I am now creating online classes.
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