The name of London Hat Week official exhibition series came from the historical event that took place in London in 1851 – ‘The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations’ or ‘The Great Exhibition’. It was the first in a series of World’s Fairs, exhibitions of culture and industry that became popular in the 19th century, and it was a much-anticipated event. We celebrate world cultural heritage in magnificent hat designs at The Great Hat Exhibition series. Following last year’s exhibition where over 1500 hat lovers enjoyed the 200 hats created by milliners from 30 countries, we are pleased to announce the theme for 2020 London Hat Week official exhibition – ‘The Great Hat Exhibition – To the Future and Back’. We invite milliners from around the world to showcase hats inspired by the past and future, for thousands of visitors to see your vision and memories on the hats created by you. The exhibition will be held at Menier Gallery, a wonderful central London venue within walking distance of some of the most celebrated London landmarks, The Shard, Tate Modern, and London Bridge.
The year 2020 has always seemed fictional when it was mentioned, but now we are at this point of time, we would like to invite hat lovers to time travel to the future and back with your creativity in hat design. We are introducing a dual “future” and “retro” themed London Hat Week exhibition this year.
A. “Future” theme – we invite milliners from around the world to craft hats which show us their vision of the future in their hat designs, whether it’s inspired by space travel, virtual or imagined world, sci-fi movies, or made of environmentally friendly, high technology, non-traditional materials, by a 3D printer, or in fluid, in out of the world shapes. We invite you to go wild with your imagination!
B. “Retro” theme – we invite milliners to time travel to the past to show the glorious eras when people wore a lot of beautiful hats, you could choose to use vintage fabrics, recycled felt or accessories, or you could try to re-create the elegant shapes and lovely details that have disappeared from the fashion and millinery scenes since 1920’s – 1960’s. We invite you to reflect and recall the beautiful moments in your mind!
Good news for those who have not yet submitted their hats, we are extending our application deadline for one week to celebrate the exciting collaboration with The British Hat Guild at our 2020 London Hat Week exhibition.
The British Hat Guild is thrilled to give out three outstanding entry awards of “Creativity”, “Technique”, and “Wearability”. The judging panel will present the awards at the exhibition Opening Party, the winning milliners will be given a certificate from The British Hat Guild, a cheque for £100, and coverage of their work on The British Hat Guild website to celebrate their outstanding achievement!
We invite milliners from all over the world to showcase their vision of the past or future in beautiful original millinery art.
Fill in the application form below to showcase your hat in the exhibition!
To buy tickets to the exhibition click here
Selected hats will be announced on 29th November.