Goodbye Sydney

🕰️ FAREWELL SYDNEY 👋

After a lifetime in Sydney… I’m moving

Born and raised here, this city has shaped every part of me. It’s where I fell in love with vintage fashion, taught myself to sculpt hats by hand, had two retail shops and where The House of Hats came to life.

But life is shifting, and like the song says… “The rest is still unwritten.”

I’m packing up my little showroom and heading to Queensland to begin a brand new chapter. It’s emotional and a little overwhelming, but also full of hope, growth, possibility and big dreams...

To all the beautiful clients who stepped through my Sydney doors — thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ll be sharing the journey as it unfolds, and I hope you’ll keep walking with me.

Here’s to trusting the unknown, starting fresh, and letting the next chapter write itself 💫

See you on the other side

MERRY CHRISTMAS From The House Of Hats

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas , Wow can you believe how fast has this year gone.
We've had a super busy year creating our new Sydney showroom and meeting some amazing new clients and existing ones.
We have some new arrivals just in time for the party season and lots more coming early next year so stay turned.
We are also now offering hat repairs and restorations so if you have a hat that needs so love you can send it our way to bring it back to life.
Thank you to every one of you who supports our small business it means the world to us, we are so proud to be Australian made & owned.
We are so looking forward to you all visiting our new showroom in 2023 , we have so many ideas in the works for the year ahead so it's going to be a fantastic year..

Wishing you all a very Safe  Merry Christmas & a Happy new year !!! 
Love your Milliner ..

See you all in 2023 !!

ilana x

One of my favourite Christmas Songs - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Gift Cards are now available to purchase

Behind The Scenes of our new Showroom

We have been super busy designing and renovating our new space and creating our beautiful new showroom.

Before our renovation

We started off with a blank canvas in this victorian room with stunning marble fireplace and ornate ceiling as our feature.

Black Feature Wall

We wanted to stick with my logo colours , so went with a black feature wall around the fireplace and light green walls.

The theme for the room was inspired by the old victorian millinery shops back in the 1900s , we already had this antique timber mirror but we jazzed it up by painted it gold and how spectacular does it look .

We managed to find an incredible antique 1920s copper & glass shop display counter which was the perfect fit in the middle of the room and we also found a antique velvet chaise lounge at an estate sale that fits in with the theme perfectly.

Willow modelling on our Antique Chaise

We painted our wooden hat stands gold to match our feature mirror.

Our Gold Wooden Hat Stands

We designed the shelf layout and found a local carpenter that custom made a cupboard and timber shelves built on both wall for hat display and hat box storage.

Design for Shelves

Finished Timber Shelves

We are now just in the final stages of finishing and are just waiting on curtains and another cabinet to be painted and we will be finished,

Stay tuned for the final reveal.

SPRING is Finally Here

SPRING is finally here , wow what a whirlwind of a year we all have had, it's been a very challenging year for all of us, I hope you have all been well and safe through this pandemic and wishing us all better times ahead.

We haven't stopped creating and have new exciting styles coming soon.
We will be adding some new coloured straw hats to our ' Folk ' Range and will have options of different brim sizes.
We have sourced some incredible sixties pattern fabrics and trims and we are excited to show you.
For our International hat lovers coming into the cooler season we haven't forgotten about you.
We will be introducing some wonderful new colours to our Felt Hat Collection you are going to love these.
So you now have the choice of hats to wear all year round
Our Hats are such beautiful high quality durable to wear everyday and will last you a lifetime.....

We have had such a wonderful response to our new ' CHRYSALIS ' collection and are selling out fast, these hats are limited and are mostly one offs due their vintage fabrics and trims so once they are gone there gone, so if you have your eye on something grab it before its gone forever

We just wanted to say a huge Thank you for all your ongoing love & support for our small business this year.
It gives us such joy to see our hats on you and you enjoying wearing them.

MY VINTAGE VALENTINE The House Of Hats A/W 19 Collection

‘ My Vintage Valentine’ is The House Of Hats A/W 19 Collection.

Sydney Milliner ilana Meilak designed and created this beautiful collection of Hats inspired by Valentine’s Day in Paris 1940’s. Each Hat is named in French as a refection to the passion and love of Valentine’s Day. GIGI Our stunning black fur felt heart shaped halo bonnet with big red satin chin tie.

JE T’AIME ( pictured on the right ) Our pinup red velvet heart with cascading smaller hearts , so fun and flirty.

MON CHERI our small percher hat with bow front Swarovski Red Crystal detail and long red veiling that can be draped around the neck for a dramatic film noir feel.

AMOUR Our side heart shaped black cocktail hat with red velvet heart front detail and b lack veiling across the face.

And last of our collection is COEURS meaning ( Hearts) red veiled headpiece with sparkling heart shaped Swarovski Crystals scattered over the veiling.

The Colour pallet is all black and red reflecting love and decadence. Luxurious Fur Felts and Velvets , and rich red ribbon creates these stunning one off hats.

The wonderful hat styles are all designed off original 1940’s style hats that women worn in this time.

Indulge in the decadence of our vintage inspired Valentine’s designs. Hypnotise with Old Hollywood style, glamour and allure or lose yourself in the fantasy of classic film noir 1940s France. ‘My Vintage Valentine’is the epitome of elegance and romance brought to life through the unique, quality craftsmanship The House of Hats is known and loved for. Le coup de foudre! (love at first sight).

Our GIGI Hat

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'JE T'AIME' 

Meet ‘ Je T’ Aime The first hat in our ‘ Vintage Valentine ‘ Collection…

Je T’ Aime is purely inspired my the 1940’s pinups , The Je T’aime Hat is one of a kind and made from the softest rich red velvet and is meticulously hand sewn into the perfect Valentine’s day Heart. Je T’aime is trimmed with a soft red pom pom trim and three falling hearts the fall in perfect order on the side of the head. The Heart is attached to a black velvet headband to sit comfortably on the head at the perfect front tilt

Shop our Hat Shop to view our whole collection of women’s hats.

Our MON CHERIE Hat

Why We Love TURBANS

Other than being one of the most glamorous hair accessories and the easiest cure for a bad hair day that makes you look instantly Glam.!! , bad hair day? (throw your hair in a turban and way you go).. The Turban has quite  a history behind it and while the fashion for the turban was partly borne of necessity in Europe, it became chic and highly worn in the early late 1930s early 1940s when it appeared on the heads of Hollywood icons. such as  Lana Turner who created an iconic image of femme fatale in turban in The Post man always rings twice..( I highly recommend to watch) ,the growing US popularity of South American stars such as Carmen Miranda  also raised the profile of the draped turban as glamour wear – Miranda wore hers in a variety of extreme permutations in her films. The turban really  never lost its glam as it was still a hot accessory straight through into the early 70s when Biba loved a shiny disco turban .

In current time the Turban has made a huge come back as seen on Prada's runway in back in 2007 and a huge turn around in the Pin Up scene , incorporating into  vintage hairstyles.

You can really adapt your own style & character with a classic turban, add a vintage brooch, a feather, the turban can take you from day to night.  

I fell in love with the turban many moons ago , and started experimenting with my own  variation of the 1940s turban creating it into a classic modern day design and using  high quality Dupion silk that I sculptured, I managed to recreate an easy lightweight style that can be worn everyday.

Shop our Turban collection made to order in any colour 

https://www.thehouseofhats.com.au/shop

I hope you enjoy our Turbans and never have a bad hair day again

ilana Xx

The House Of Hats Gold Dust Turban

" My Gold Dust Turban is so beautifully made for me it gets worn almost daily, i love it so much'

Testimonial form one of our Clients Melissa Bant.

Photo shoot with Photographer Margaret Ellen Burns & Model Pearl Spring Featuring our Aqua silk Turban

Vintage 1940's Turban

Vintage Vogue 1940's Featuring a glam Turban

Carmen Miranda was the Queen of Turbans , Famous for topping them with Fruit

The House Of Hats Fortune teller Silk Turban as featured in Elegant Magazine .