China sparks milliner’s creativity
Print Edition
For an elegant woman, a hat is much like a mask, a veil that allows her to show just enough without giving away too much. Creations from Beijing-based Elisabeth Koch’s aesthetic plays on that, an almost quirky play on the classics.
An obsession with millinery also changed Elisabeth Koch’s career from working in the financial sector to being an entrepreneur starting a millinery business in Beijing. “I have always been making things with my hands from as far back as I can remember. When I was working in banking, I would come home to knit, sew or draw,” she said.
“There is nothing so satisfying as watching something you are making progress through the stages and then being worn so beautifully by people all over the world. I also always loved hats and had a huge vintage collection that reached over 100 pieces when I finally documented them.”
Koch took a course in millinery in the United Kingdom and set the whole thing up in China. Every hat is different and therefore the creation and crafting process varies. Yet Koch loves to experiment with non-traditional millinery and free-form hats.
“These are hats and headpieces that do not come from a mold or any other pre-existing form. They are created as you go along and every hand-stitch makes it different. I have used plastics, wood, cork, metal paper and many other materials in hats that one wouldn’t usually find in everyday millinery,” she said.
Since Koch has lived in China, Chinese culture influences her in hat creation. “I have made hats using chopsticks, parts of fans or even inspired by the Beijing Bird’s Nest stadium.”
She was commissioned to make a series of hats for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, with each hat representing a disappearing image from a city in China where InterContinental had a hotel or a resort. She has created a panda hat, a pipa (a four-stringed plucked Chinese musical instrument) hat, a bridge with water underneath, a temple, a black-faced spoonbill and others. The creations were sold by the hotel chain at auction in Sanya, Hainan Province for 80,000 yuan (US$13,000) wholly to benefit the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Koch added that the design works by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Maison Martin Margiela and Stephen Jones have impacted her work. In terms of work methods and their business ethics, she was greatly inspired by Salvatore Ferragamo and his story of tailor-made shoes and how he built his business.
Koch’s beautiful hats have graced Vogue China, Harper’s Bazaar, Self, Good Housekeeping and Madame Figaro.
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