Costume Society “Hats Made Me” The Culture Trust Luton Exhibition Review

10 December 2023, by Alice Janssens

In this week's blog, lecturer and Costume Society member Alice Janssens reviews the Hats Made Me exhibition, which closed at The Culture Trust Luton today.

Showing from April 22nd to December 10th 2023 in the Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton, Hats Made Me is one of the first exhibitions of its kind to tie the global significance of hats and headwear to the heart of English hat making. Marrying work from celebrated fashion and performance milliners with the extensive collection of The Culture Trust Luton, the exhibition spans 400 years, showcasing over 200 objects. Highlights include a 17th century leather firefighter’s helmet, a lace mantilla worn by Queen Isabella II of Spain, an enormous and politically inspired hat worn by actress Keira Knightley in the 2008 film The Duchess, and a prototype of the headpiece worn by Iman to the 2021 Met Gala.

“We wanted to celebrate the Luton hat industry, to really show the amazing and varied work in hat manufacturing and millinery that is being created in the UK today, and we wanted to represent the many cultures that exist in Luton and in the UK more broadly” says Yona Lesger, Curator of Significant Collections of The Culture Trust Luton. To do so, the exhibition employs thematic curation, structured around the reasons we wear head coverings. The fourteen themes range from protection to religion, celebration, belonging, transformation and performance.

Before entering the main exhibition, the visitor is greeted with a mini display featuring the winning designs of the 2023 Worshipful Company of Feltmakers Competition which emphasize the creativity and vitality of the millinery industry. This thread runs throughout the whole of the feature exhibition which includes holdings from the extensive Culture Trust collection alongside loans from milliners. Each of these loans is accompanied by a panel showcasing a biography and image of the milliner alongside some thoughts about their design. This places not just the hats, but also their makers at the forefront of visitors’ minds. As Yona says, “I wanted to really platform them and promote their work” allowing them to “describe their own work in their own words”.

Providing space for easter bonnets, cycling helmets, IKEA bag festival hats and even a 1950’s half hat inspired by an artichoke from Covent Garden Market, the breadth of headwear is strikingly apparent in the exhibition. Cream hat blocks bearing exhibited item on simple shelving units create a casual, wardrobe-like feel. Yet, space is still provided for discussions of the cultural, social and political connotations and debates around head coverings. The creativity, extravagance and play within the millinery sector is also clearly visible with the Icon, Chic, Festive, and Performance sections showcasing bright colours and extravagant designs such as a ship headdress worn by an opera diva in the National Theatre production of Amadeus.

The Culture Trust is under no apprehension that their exhibition covers everything, with the final panel featuring a request. It reads, “if you have a style of headwear that is missing from the exhibition, I would be delighted if you would consider giving it to the museum. Even if you don’t have the piece but notice an omission, I would be grateful if you got in touch”. The Culture Trust doesn’t just want to represent milliner’s work, but to also be a museum for them, providing support and inspiration to a thriving industry. Plans for a tour and publication inspired by the exhibition are in the works alongside a project which will allow milliners to take out machinery repeated in the Trust collections on a long-term loan to support their work and preserve skills.