Last week I was privileged to be invited to the launch of Paris Kyne’s Spring collection of beautiful hats for the racing carnival, at Madame Brussels.

Inspired by the books “Birds of Paradise” by Clifford B. Frith and Dawn W. Frith and “Feathers for Phoebe” by Rod Clement, the theme was Birds of Paradise, and it featured many lovely models and millinery creations:

– Diane Masters as the Buff-tailed bird of paradise
– Elise May as the Blue bird of paradise
– Ajah Dau as the Emperor bird of paradise
– La-Toyah James as the Raggiana bird of paradise
– Lydia Licorice as Phoebe
– Nicole De Silva as Zelda
– Natalia Strzelczyk as the Ribbon-Tailed Astrapia bird of paradise
– Emma Bodiner as the Steampunkbird of paradise
and
Paris Kyne, of course, as the Birdcatcher

Paris confided that he has a secret stash of vintage gloves and certainly I was impressed by the colours he had matched to his wonderful hats. I particularly liked how different each of the ladies were from each other, and so were their hats – which, I should add, I had trouble fitting into the frame as many were very high. I like high hats, they draw the eye upwards which is flattering to most of us.

As always, click on each image to see in full – especially if you’d like to see the wonderful hat.

The racing carnival is my busiest time of the year: for many people it’s the best opportunity they get to dress up, and dressing up of course means vintage glamour! I’ve been stocking up on gloves and hats and pretty frocks for you all. Bright colours are particularly lovely to wear to these events, and apart from weddings it’s the best chance we get to do a dressy day look.

If you’d like a bit of help with creating a vintage look for the races or perhaps just for Spring, Candice DeVille, Peter Jago and Fanantique in Brighton are presenting a couple of workshops – you can see details here.