Rihanna, Lady Gaga, and every fashion tastemaker you follow are fans of her headwear.
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It’s noon on a bright April afternoon, and her Chinatown boutique hasn’t opened yet for shoppers.
“Should we do a tour?”
She walks past strawsummer hatsand 1920s-inspired cloches to pick up a Swarovski crystal-studded veil fascinator lying on a workbench.
Milliner Gigi Burris attaching a veil to a felted taupe hat.
But she anticipates an unprecedented boom for her brand in the coming months.
The shift excites Burris.
It obviously bodes well for business, she says.
Future upticks in sales aside, Burris hopes thefall 2024 hat trendheralds a widespread movement of more expressive dressing.
She references her web link of industry tastemakers who use her statement pieces to punctuate their personal style.
The latter is exactly the kind of self-assured person Burris designs hats for.
But all are welcome within the Gigi Burris universe.
A peek at Gigi Burris Millinery’s founding inspirations.
Keen on hats and headwear as a kid, Burris was always slightly ahead of her time.
From that point forward, she was hooked on hatmaking.
Burris realized it was time to level up as more commissions came in.
She officially launched her hat business in 2012the eponymous Gigi Burris Millinery.
Today, the brand is a best-seller amongst only a handful of other hat designers at retailers likeNeiman MarcusandNordstrom.
Her roster of celebrity clients even more robust, ranging fromHailey BiebertoDr.
Sarah Jessica Parker in the straw beret while filmingAnd Just Like That…
Admittedly, Burris’s trajectory is atypical.
I didn’t set out to have my own brandit sort of happened organically, she admits.
The magic for me is the materiality [of hatmaking].
Midway through the tour, Burris walks over to a shelf lined with them.
She’s worked with the same local NYC hat block manufacturer since her Parsons days.
A super advanced sewer named Chandra makes [these] for us.
She recognizes that, while not quite extinct, the art of millinery is certainly at risk.
And just as you need people to make the hats, you need people to wear them, too.
Burris is optimistic, though, that the incoming fall headwear phenomenon will inspire a far-reaching renaissance.
Part of the barrier to entry is that people don’t have the confidence to wear hats.
Inside Burris’s atelier is a wonderland of ribbons, fabric swatches, and straws.
“It’s just getting over that first hump.”
The designer also encourages wearing hats for the everyday, menial moments.
“People always ask, ‘Where do you wear those veiled fascinators?’
I think it’s really more of, well, where do you not wear them?
The hatmaker recently wore a black mesh headpiece for an early, casual dinner in Paris.
“We were just eating fries and having a glass of white wine.”
She’ll debut it on the court at an upcoming tournament.
The Duchess of York showed her fun-loving personality outside St. George’s chapel in Windsor.
No wonder she wears it constantly.
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