Hat's the way

Adorned with feathers, flowers or flip-flops, milliner Shilpa Chavan's creations are head-turners

One day, when Shilpa Chavan was a child, her father, a transport official, got her a Viewfinder — a toy with removable film cartridges that was quite popular then. One picture in it had her hooked for life. It was that of Audrey Hepburn from the film My Fair Lady in the horse race scene at Ascot, where she has an exquisite — and outlandish — hat balanced on her head.

Hats have since been Chavan’s passion. From international icons like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj to Indian celebrities such as Sonam Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut and Carol Gracias, several well known faces have been seen sporting her headwears. When it comes to hats, the Mumbai-based milliner believes that everything goes. Whether it is toys, flip-flops, discarded packaging material, plumes, odd pieces of wood, everything finds its way into her headgears. Like the designs, the collections have unusual names like Battle Royale, Rainbow Totem, Invitation to the Voyage, Headonism, Cranes Flying Across the Sky, and Walt Disney: Memories of Mickey and Minnie.  

The hats are open to interpretation and evoke a sense of intrigue, mystery and romance. Some tell a story. Some might even appear sinister. But they’re all dramatic. Take the example of the helmet-shaped hat created from Perspex material with kaleidoscopic flowers piercing it. Here you see hard elements molded with soft fabrics. Another is designed with brocade paisley. Yet another comes with green seaweed-like fabric swaying from the top of the head. There are also the pillbox hats.