HATTER ELLEN CHRISTINE COLON-LUGO GETS UP FRONT AND PERSONAL WITH THE NEW YORK TIMES

We congratulate Ellen for her great work and her ability to capture the press. Below is the article as it ran in the New York Times.

Keeping Heads From Going Naked
Enter hatless at your own risk — particularly with Easter around the corner. “Ugh, a naked head!” Ellen Christine Colon-Lugo is liable to chastise the bareheaded. From her small, blond-wood millinery shop at 255 West 18th Street, Ms. Colon-Lugo, 58, has been covering naked heads since 1995.

Why hats? It’s a way of teaching costume history. Hats are tiny little costumes.

What’s on her mind at the moment: I’m wearing a 1940s Lilly Daché turban.

Personal style: I’m a hippie. What I love to wear is rockabilly.

Why the Easter Parade is not what it used to be: The ladies who wear all these cockamamie hats — the Empire State Building on their head — that’s not millinery.

What killed millinery: Hairdos changed. The casual switch of society. And then you had Vatican II. The ecumenical council decreed woman no longer had to wear hats in church.

How men became hat-phobic: People like to blame it on J.F.K. He loved his lush hair, plus he was always getting dressed so fast from all his affairs he didn’t have time for a hat.

First creation: I went to the School of Fashion Design in Boston. While there I was working for Uptown Strutters, now it’s Bobby From Boston, a warehouse of vintage clothing. Bobby bought out an estate, hundreds and hundreds of hats squashed flat, from the turn of the century to 1950. I took pity on them. I ran the costume shop in Strutters. I was costuming for the Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard. They needed a helmet for a gladiator. I took a World War I doughboy helmet. I took a broom and cut up some vinyl auto upholstery into scales. I come from the school of “just get it done.”

Inspiration: My research period went from 1803 to 1947, from Beau Brummell, who changed men’s fashion, to just before Christian Dior, because I like pre-New Look.

Top hat: One of my biggest sellers are boaters. I think because Ralph Lauren is making seersucker, and Brooks Brothers. What does a gentleman wear with pin stripes? When you really want the 1920s Jay Gatsby look: a boater!

A hat for every head: Quite frequently hats are ready-made on a block. But I’ve got guys with heads that come to a point. My hats take bumps and lumps into account. I look at where their eyes are in their head, the architecture of the face. If a hat doesn’t work, I’ll tell them, “Take that off your head immediately!”

Bottom line for a topper: They’re $245 average. My most expensive hat is $1,200. Headpieces can be in the $3,000 range. They’re more fanciful and whimsical, with feathers.

Secret of success: I have a really high I.Q., and I get things done. I once went to the teacher’s desk and looked. 185. There’s no “no” in my vocabulary.

Big break: Around 1997, Italian Vogue did a blurb on me. It featured one of my headpieces. It put me right up there. I became fodder for the Condé Nast grist mill.

Life after millinery: I love to ride. My oldest brother breeds horses in Puerto Rico. I love gardening. I love cooking. It’s sort of like making a hat. You build it layer by layer.

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL