Fabulous Hats

'Fabulous Hats’ featured new work commissioned by the Royal Mail to celebrate the individual skills of four British milliners. International fashion photographer Nick Knight photographed each of the hats separately, modelled by Erin O'Connor, clearly identifiable in silhouette. This was the first time in history that the identity of a living person, other than HM the Queen, has been revealed on a stamp.

The hat selected pioneered a series of pieces, which continued a five-year investigation into ideas and techniques employed to create innovative structures for the head-using feathers.

Examining the qualities of transparency that could be achieved using white Turkey ‘broads’, the feathers were transformed with the application of clear lacquers and varnishes that both increased the transparency to different degrees and created an inflexible structure that could be cut and accept further surface applications. This surface technique, appropriated from Japanese lacquer work, was re-examined in relation to a composite form comprising numbers of feathers, whereby frequencies of repetition correlated with differing densities. Through experimentation, the span of the final structure could be defined.

Accepting the resonance with the wings from which the feathers themselves are taken, and with reference to the biomorphic structures of Engineer Santiago Calatrava, the individual feather units pivot around a fulcrum and are secured to achieve the frequency, span and opacity required to mask the identity of the wearer. The silhouette of the construction is defined with the ‘clipping’ of the margins that the lacquer enables, and the further application of a stencilled motif with coloured lacquer acts as a further foil.

The work was published as part of the Royal Mail Year Book and disseminated in The Times newspaper, South Wales Echo and Graphics International Magazine.

Dai Rees

Research Interests

Craftsmanship, Fashion, Fine Art, Media

Current Research

The research project 'Patronage, Artisan, Media and Audience, A Model for Twenty First Century Craftsmanship', is focussed around an installation of abstract, figurative, structural casings created from inlayed leather-hide.
Conceived to expose the level and range of skills, techniques and time required to design, assemble and decorate objects that exhibit crafts excellence, the central installation is a collection of suspended sculptural skins that extends our awareness of garment construction and embellishment, and heightens our sensitivity to the significance of craftsmanship.

Researching marquetry, illumination and the Intaglio process of acid etching from the sixteenth century, the work identifies links between historical and contemporary techniques. Inlayed materials transform the surface of the leather hide, complementing the developed techniques for the moulding, manipulation and construction of the pieces which combine the technical skills from different craft and manufacturing fields to create new aesthetic qualities.

The work produced during the AHRC Fellowship will form part of a national and international touring exhibition from October 2005 supported with a lecture, seminar and discussions.

• http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/dai-rees.h...