This issue’s artist is Katy Brennan from Whitefish, Montana. Katy has been making fun hats for 32 years. She worked as a seamstress making wedding dresses for 12 years but wanted something different.
“I have always collected vintage clothing and fascinated by it. For Christmas one year, my husband had given me an antique millenary book. I went upstairs and was reading it and decided to make a hat that I wore to town to work the next day. Before I could get out of my car, a lady tapped on the windshield, and bought the hat. The next three hats I made I sold before I got home from work. My darling husband said, okay, you’ve got a business go upstairs and get busy. I sewed all the rest of the winter, and he took me with him to a gun show in Missoula that summer. I had garbage sacks of hats sitting out on the hot tarmac while he was getting his guns out, and women were coming over and seeing the hat on my head and started rifling through my sacks. It has been a little thriving business ever since.”
Katy uses all types of materials from new to old and works primarily from the early 1900’s through the 1930’s style wise. She creates fun in each hat, from big hats to pub caps. These hats are all hand sewn by her like a Milliner of the 1900’s. Her daughter and granddaughter have taken over the business part, doing the shows, taking care of shipping, and purchasing supplies. They even have a little one who is not quite five, who works in sales. It has become a generational business that they are all having so much fun with.
To see her work and many others, stop by Latigo & Lace at 122 Main Street in Augusta. While you are there, don’t forget to get some of the best coffee in town.