40°43′38.51″N73°59′13.04″W / 40.7273639°N 73.9869556°W /40.7273639; -73.9869556
TheBarbara Feinman Millinery is a customhattery in New York City'sEast Village. Feinman hats are made by two other milliners using a 100-year-old sewing machine and various materials.[1]
Feinman studied English atVassar College and worked 20 years in corporate jobs before taking a millinery class at theFashion Institute of Technology and switching careers.[2] Her work has been described as elegant and of "impeccable" workmanship with a "dash of whimsy".[2]
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.[3]
Julia Knox has added hat making classes taught by herself and guest teachers from around the world.[4]
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.[5]
Feinman sold her hat designs through retailers until opening her shop in 1998.[2]Themillinery 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 ofanarchy,counterculture and edginess."[2]
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".[2]
Styles range fromfedoras tocloches and fur hats,[6] as well asretrofilm noir andcocktail hats with face veils.[7] The hats start at a price of $250.[1]The store also stocksjewelry, and sunglasses.[2]
Barbara Feinman Millinery was number four inNew York Magazine'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 uptownmatrons to Japanese tourists.[2] Brookelynn Starnes from the showCloak & Dagger said she wears Barbara Feinman's Panama-style hats.[8]
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 [the] face."[6] Her motto is "If you want to stand out, wear a hat,"[9] and she has said that "There really is no substitute for a handmade hat."[2]
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