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

ONCE BITTEN...The House Of Hats New Halloween Collection 2022

ilana wears our ‘ LA BELLE ‘ Red Felt veiled Tilt Hat

October is finally here and you know what that means, yes you guessed it...HALLOWEEN.
If your anything like me, you count down the month's till Halloween and prepare a costume just to get your spook on.
Well i've been super prepared this year and have made an entire collection dedicated to the dark side.
I'm so excited to introduce to you our latest collection for halloween
' ONCE BITTEN ' inspired by all things Victorian gothic.

This collection is going to knock your socks off, I'm very proud of it and i hope you love it as much as I do.

Ever since I was a child i've always been fascinated with the Victorian era, the fashion , the Victorian houses ,the jewellery and everything else.
I always dreamed of owning an victorian bustle dress and hat of course hoping I could wear it and somehow  time travel back to that time, so i've conjured up some of that time in this collection along with my love of all things vampires , witches , New Orleans & all the old haunted Mansions.
 So here it is and you all get the honour of previewing it first. 

We have seven new designs in this collection.
Introducing , our ' LA BELLE ' Hat which screams the Victorian Bustle era with her striped sash bow and face veiling.

 Our ' GRACE ' hood hats made of the most luxurious velvet and detailed with vintage rare clasps .

Our ' SPELLBOUND ' Velvet turbans with Rhinestone Spider brooches  and our ' ROSES OF RED  silk flower headpieces.

Our ' ONCE BITTEN ' Collection is perfect to bring out the dark goddess in you just in time for Halloween.

I hope you all enjoy this collection as much as I did creating it.
Head over to our online boutique to view the full collection.

Wishing you a very spooky season & happy Shopping 

Love Ilana

Your Milliner x

ilana wears our ‘ GRACE VELVET HOOD ‘ In Raven

ilana wears our ‘ROSES ARE RED ; Silk flower Headpiece

ilana wears our ‘ROSES ARE BLACK ‘ Silk Flower Headpiece

ilana wear our ‘GRACE ‘ Velvet Hood in Crimson

ilana wears our ‘SPELLBOUND ‘ Velvet Turban in Raven

ilana wears our ‘ SPELLBOUND ‘ Velvet Turban in Crimson

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.