normafreda@gmail.com

Yes, you have found the Hat Lady!

Norma Shephard is the founder and director of the Mobile Millinery Museum, a unique travelling museum whose “working hats” have raised funds for diverse causes; from homeless teens in rural Ontario, to cancer research and diagnostic equipment, to a women’s and children’s shelter in Israel.

Shephard’s use of hats, shoes, and vintage garments as cultural story blocks to prompt the telling of tales, myths, and legends transforms audience members into folklore informants, eager to share their own reminiscences.

Recognized as an historian and authority on vintage costume, Shephard has appeared on Canada A.M., CBC Morning, CBC Fresh Air, CBC Ontario Today, CH Morning Live, Breakfast Television, Canadian Living Television, This Morning Live, Main Street, CKCO, The Source, and Neighbour to Neighbour and has been featured in numerous print media.

In 1985 she earned a Canadian Achiever’s Award for entrepreneurship and since founding her museum in 1999, has penned and photographed Accessorizing the Bride; Vintage Wedding Finery Through the Decades), 1000 Hats, In Step With Fashion: 200 Years of Shoe Styles, Lingerie; Two Centuries of Luscious Design, T-shirts; A HIStory & HERitage of Pop Culture, and Dear Harry; The Firsthand Account of a World War I Infantryman.


Saturday, June 9, 2012

In King City to Celebrate the Queen

The Jubilee tea and hat show was a success. Met lots of wonderful people, many of whom arrived in hats.  We showed our standard selection of pieces from the Victorian era to the present day with a few 'special' 1960's pieces thrown in. These closely resembled hats worn by Her Majesty herself on official visits to Canada during that decade.
We were also gifted with some fine donations - hats by a former Toronto milliner who marketed her pieces under the name Jo-Anne. Now the unpacking and repacking begins as we prepare for another exhibit of Titanic-era fashions.  
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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Exhibiting Victorian to 1970's Wedding Gowns at the Royal Henley Today



The selecting, steaming, and packing has all been done and the car is packed for my  wedding gown presentation at the Royal Henley in St. Kitts. Which are my favourite dresses? It's hard to choose, but amongst the group is an 1865 upholstery-weight ivory duchesse, formal bustle gown made in Quebec by Glover, Fry & Co., Dress & Mantle Makers.
The satin empiecement is overlaid with ruches of transparent lisse, the is waist wrapped in pleated silk and finished with a trailing bow. A double bow punctuates the corsage.
The sleeves of ruched lisse are capped with a double ruffle to finish at the wrist with a tapering ruffle to cover the hand. This gown's heavily padded detachable train reaches 6 feet.
The corseted bodice hooks to a skirt, the front and side panels of which are shaped without gathers or pleats. The back panel is tightly bustled at the centre.
This was one of the gowns that inspired and is photographed in my book, Accessorizing the Bride: Vintage Wedding Finery Through the Decades.    



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Monday, June 4, 2012

A Tip of the Hat to Fulford Place

Late Edwardian Fashion Plate

The opportunity to meet the Brockville public at the Fulford Place Doors Open event last weekend was just one of the many pleasures associated with executing my Mode in Millinery 1899-1946 installation at the historic mansion.  

Hats off to Pam Brooks and the staff and volunteers there for making it such a pleasant experience. Certainly, the hats selected for the exhibit have found a safe and happy temporary home for the next year within the seven glass cases which have taken up residence in Dorothy's bedroom. A selection of classic gentlemen's toppers look on from the corner.  

I'm looking forward to returning to the scene for our Retrospective Millinery Fashion Show on the 24th.      
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