Happy Wednesday at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley

It was a great honour to collaborate with the Hong Kong Jockey Club at Happy Valley racecourse last Wednesday night. The event was held at the well known Happy Wednesday evening and was sponsored by Godiva chocolate for Easter.

The brief was to create 10 Easter hats/headpieces in a vibrant, playful and colorful theme.

Fellow Hong Kong Milliner Jay cow was also invited  to present 10 pieces. It was a fantastic fun evening promoting millinery with well known Hong Kong celebrities Cara G and singer/musician JW  wearing our designs. A mini fashion show was held on stage showcasing three hats from each of our collections and the remaining 14 hats were available in a booth for the public to try on and have their photos taken. 

Inspiration for this Easter theme collection came to me easily. It started with my love of  ornately decorated Faberge eggs. I hand painted large and mini eggs and embellished each one by hand. It was time consuming and tedious but totally worth it as I achieved the look I was going for.

My Inspiration Faberge Eggs 

One of my decorated eggs.

Egg Basket Hat.

Decorated eggs on a  helmet style hat with flowers and fur.

Up turned Breton style hat decorated with silk flowers and eggs.

 As much as I love hats, I also have a life long love of flowers. Flowers and nature are always inspirational.  Lets face it, who doesn't like flowers? After living and working in the flower auction in Holland in the late 90's, flowers will always be engrained in my head. Easter Sunday, flowers and eggs all go hand in hand. 

Flower Auction Holland.

Everyone knows you can't beat real flowers, but silk flowers handcrafted to a high standard come pretty close.  I love to create luxurious silk flowers. Again, this is quite labour intesive but the outcome is beautiful and can be enjoyed for many years. Here we have some of my Cambodian silk flower petals hand cut out before they are tooled and cupped using brass french flower making tools. I used three different varieties of flowers for the Easter hat collection, petaled roses, dogwood roses and blossoms, in a variety of colours.

JW holding my take on a modern Easter Bonnet

Noeleen & Cara G 

Easter wouldnt be complete without the Easter Bunny. I was inspired by this real bunny to create a bunny down a hole hat.

NOELEEN ™ Bunny down hole hat

Here we have my American white bunny rabbit peeping out of a grass hole surrounded by bunny tails. Everyone seemed to love this one, lots of comments about it being "fun and cute". This hat definitely got the  Easter stamp of approval.

I made two mens hats. I don't usually make mens hats. The  bowler hat below has pleated detail  in printed fabric and a grey sinamay brim. I also created a large top hat in printed fabric in vibrant colours of green. I was very happy how these turned out and may start a menswear hat collection in the near future.

Mens bowler hat with decorated eggs in silk and printed fabric.

 NOELEEN ™ Top hat far right.

All of the hats will be at Happy Wednesday again on the 23rd  March for more Easter celebrations. I really love seeing the hats come to life on people and the enjoyment it gives them. Easter is a special time of year to spend with family and welcome new life.

Have a Glamorous Happy Easter.

Noeleen x