The Barbara Feinman Millinery is a custom

hatter Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners made and sold a range of accessories for clothing and hairstyles. ...

y in New York City's East Village. Feinman hats are made by two other milliners using a 100-year-old sewing machine and various materials.The Eye; Value proposition March 2009 page 32 Forbes Life

Feinman

Feinman studied English at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

and worked 20 years in corporate jobs before taking a millinery class at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college under the State University of New York, in New York City. It focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It was founded in ...

and switching careers. Her work has been described as elegant and of "impeccable" workmanship with a "dash of whimsy".

The store

Feinman has retired and sold her business to her former partner Julia Knox. The business is renamed East Village Hats now and has moved over a block to 80 East 7th Street. Julia Knox has added hat making classes taught by herself and guest teachers from around the world. Julia Emily Knox is an English milliner, trained at FIT New York, she leads a small team of milliners at East Village Hats, where they hand craft the hats on the premises, using traditional tools, methods and materials. Feinman sold her hat designs through retailers until opening her shop in 1998. The

millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners made and sold a range of accessories for clothing and hairstyles. ...

store was a member of the nine store Designers of the East Village Association or (DEVA) group. It was located in an area that has "a history of

anarchy Anarchy is a form of society without rulers. As a type of stateless society, it is commonly contrasted with states, which are centralized polities that claim a monopoly on violence over a permanent territory. Beyond a lack of government, it can ...

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

and edginess."Sandra Jamiso
Positively 7th Street
Dec. 18, 2000 Time The store is unusual in having hats made on site. Feinman works with business partner, Julia Emily Knox and milliner Katherine Carey to "hand-block and hand-craft hats from start to finish using techniques and equipment scarcely changed since the 19th century". Styles range from

fedora A fedora () is a hat with a soft brim and indented crown.Kilgour, Ruth Edwards (1958). ''A Pageant of Hats Ancient and Modern''. R. M. McBride Company. It is typically creased lengthwise down the crown and "pinched" near the front on both sides ...

s to cloches and fur hats,Sharon Bridbor
Mad about hats
October 11, 2004 Baltimore Sun as well as

retro Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. It has been argued that there is a nostalgia cycle in popular culture. Definition The term ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

and

cocktail hat 230px, Empress Michiko wearing cocktail hat A cocktail hat is a small, extravagant, and typically brimless hat for a woman. It is usually a component of evening wear and is intended as an alternative to a large-brimmed hat. These hats are often ...

s with face veils. The hats start at a price of $250. The store also stocks

jewelry Jewellery (or jewelry in American English) consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment such as brooches, ring (jewellery), rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the ...

, and sunglasses.

Reception

Barbara Feinman Millinery was number four in

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'' a ...

's 1998 Christmas shopping guide "50 Great New Stores" list and included in the "New York Magazine Shops — A Guide to the Best Stores in New York" in 2000. Customers range from uptown

matron Matron is the job title of a very senior or the chief nurse in a hospital in several countries, including the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth countries and former colonies. Etymology The chief nurse, in other words the person in charge ...

s to Japanese tourists. Brookelynn Starnes from the show ''Cloak & Dagger'' said she wears Barbara Feinman's Panama-style hats.Lauren Murro
Cloak & Dagger’s Brookelynn Starnes Envies Your Harem Pants
Interview May 26, 2009 New York Magazine

Comments on hat wearing and buying

Feinman suggests trying hats on when shopping for them because "two hats can look the same, but a small difference in proportion makes a big difference when worn" and to "stay away from small hats if you have big hair" in favor of a "loosely fitting hat that that frames heface." Her motto is "If you want to stand out, wear a hat," and she has said that "There really is no substitute for a handmade hat."

References

Notes

External links

* {{East Village, Manhattan, state=expanded Clothing companies based in New York City