My Houzz: A Hat Collection in Los Angeles That’s Hard to Top
http://decor-ideas.org 10/09/2015 04:13 Decor Ideas
“I’ve worn hats since I was born,” says Wendy Ann Rosen, a self-confessed incurable collector, a makeup artist, an instructor and editor of Uncover Magazine. “My mother was very creative and would always make matching hats to go with my outfits,” the Los Angeles renter says. “When I turned 8, I dressed up as the Mad Hatter for my Alice in Wonderland-themed party.” Some 50 years later, Rosen has amassed a museum-worthy collection. It’s focused mainly on women’s hats of the 20th century, and she specializes in prominent milliners of Paris and New York, including Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli. Additionally, the collection includes men’s hats, ethnic hats, tools of the trade, related printed material and an extensive collection of hatboxes. “Though the collection dominates the apartment, I also lace beautiful mementos throughout from my past, my friends and my travels,” she says.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Wendy Ann Rosen and her Brussels griffon dog, Maxim; her cat, Olive; and two koi
Location: North Hollywood arts district area of Los Angeles
Size: About 1,000 square feet (93 square meters); 2 bedrooms, 2 baths
Rosen has more than 1,000 items in her collection, and it’s a challenge to display and preserve everything while also living with it. She normally keeps her blinds closed to protect the objects from damaging sunlight.
Rosen cleverly creates tall stacks of hatboxes that hold many of the hats, and uses antique display cases for the smaller items. “I like to arrange things according to theme or color. I’m very matchy-matchy,” she says. Here, she’s created a beautiful display of hatboxes in bold reds, greens and blacks.
“The collection is throughout my home, in every room except the bathrooms and the kitchen, with one bedroom being ‘the hat room,’ which is solely used for hats,” Rosen says. “I like things to be lined up and in just the right place. There’s a bit of an art to stacking them.”
The high ceilings and open layout of the apartment’s living and dining area were big draws for Rosen. “I’ve filled the space wall to wall, floor to ceiling, with stacks of hatboxes,” she says. “My house looks more like a hat museum than a home, and I dream of one day having a couch and a TV, but feel it would ruin the aesthetic of the collection.”
Hanging at the top-left corner is a poster from the 2009 exhibition Hats: An Anthology, by Stephen Jones for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. “I worked in London during the late ’80s and was fortunate to meet the renowned milliner Stephen Jones. Many years later, he asked me to loan several of my hats and boxes for this special exhibition he was curating,” she says. The exhibition traveled to the Queensland Museum in Australia and then to New York in 2011.
Rosen’s passion for hats extends to the craft of making them. Seen here are various hat-making tools, such as hat blocks, irons and stretchers. The most interesting of them is a hat conformator, above, a device from the 1800s used to determine a customer’s head shape.
A close-up of one of her vintage cabinets shows more tools of the trade, along with hat ads, magazines, books and matchbook covers. One of her prized pieces is a perfect miniature replica of a Dobbs beaver fur top hat. “It’s apparently quite toxic and full of mercury, arsenic and other elements,” she says. “They used to cure the fur with mercury that over time often led to mercury poisoning and dementia in hatters. That’s where the term ‘mad hatter’ came from.”
Displayed in the far corner of the living room, above, is Rosen’s current favorite collection: Asian hats and hatboxes. “I have hats for royalty dating from the 1800s and various boxes made of lacquer, leather, wood, wicker and even reeds,” she says. The large display cabinet holds vintage feathers and flowers used for hat-making, hat magazines and catalogs from the 1920s, a vintage glove collection and promotional items, including teacups, from various milliners.
Two portraits of famed milliner John P. John, known as Mr. John, hang above the large display cabinet. Having designed hats for many classic films, including Gone With the Wind, Mr. John was considered “the Dior of hat designers” and a milliner to the stars. “While volunteering for the costume department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I was able to acquire a portion of his estate that the museum was unable to keep,” Rosen says, adding that the yellows and golds of the painting above inspired the color scheme for the apartment.
A built-in bookcase holds souvenirs from Rosen’s travels to Hong Kong, Bali and Thailand. To the left are beeswax paintings from New York artist Eric Blum. Glassware and ceramics collected by Rosen’s mother are also displayed. “Collecting is in my blood,” Rosen says. “My parents loved to collect things and would always take me antiquing with them. I discovered the thrill of the treasure hunt at an early age and learned how and where to find beautiful things.” Almost every inch of her home is filled with a treasured object.
Rosen describes her decorating style as vintage eclectic with Asian accents. “I started collecting midcentury furniture back in the ’80s when it wasn’t in style,” she says. A set of four vintage American armchairs in their original vinyl creates a seating area where Rosen’s dog, Maxim, takes naps.
Stacks of hatboxes create a division between the main room and the eating area behind it, where Rosen’s dining table serves as both her eating surface and creative workspace. The coffee table, nicknamed “the surfboard table,” holds two lacquered Burmese offering vessels, which are some of her favorite pieces. They are intricate and have smaller vessels nested within them. This is the area of the apartment reserved for when Rosen wants to unwind and relax.
A close-up shows some of the beautiful carving detail as well as a collection of Russian pins from the former Yugoslavia held in the top of the vessel.
Next to the vessels are glass paperweights collected by Rosen’s mother.
“I clearly have a fascination for boxes,” Rosen says with a laugh. On top of a collection of Horizon hardback magazines rests a small assemblage of silver boxes once used for holding crickets.
Another stack of Horizon magazines holds what Rosen calls “Dad’s shrine,” which includes his World War II Air Force journal and medals, along with a small roll of film for his Leica camera. A trophy won by the family’s Great Dane, Othello, is also displayed. “I wanted a horse growing up, but my parents said they couldn’t afford one, so I asked for a Great Dane instead,” Rosen says. “They decided to breed the dog, and two generations later, Othello won the prize as the No. 1 Dane in the country. He was my dad’s great love.”
A large aquarium with two koi fish sits opposite Rosen’s dining table. “Growing up, we always had aquariums. My dad even got me a double-decker one just for my bedroom and would always take me fishing,” she says. “The only time I’ve been without fish was during my time in London.”
Origami necklaces hang from a decorative metal screen along with some tassels bought during a trip to Asia. “My parents had a restaurant in West L.A. called the Continental Hofbrau, which served the best hot rare roast beef sandwich in town. It was around the corner from Sawtelle Avenue, a small street lined with many Japanese vendors and restaurants, so I was exposed to Asian culture at an early age. I bought an origami book from a gift shop there and have been doing origami ever since,” Rosen says. “I love details and precision, and origami is very precise. It’s helped me as a makeup artist, which also demands precision. There is also something very soothing and meditative about paper-folding, so it’s a great way to unwind.”
One of Rosen’s bedrooms is “the hat room,” where many of her prized pieces are stored. “I use industrial shelving to hold the boxes, some of which date back to the 1700s,” she says.
Pictured here on the top shelf are wooden band boxes by Hannah Davis from the 1800s. “Band boxes used to hold men’s collar bands and were the precursor to hatboxes,” Rosen says. On the bottom shelf are a 1780 decoupage box and an Early American hand-painted box.
Rosen’s collection also includes a large selection of miniature hatboxes, above. “Most people think these are salesmen samples, yet they are actually gift certificates,” she says.
Since the preservation of the hats is important to Rosen, she stores most of them safely inside hatboxes. Pictured here are some of the few out on display: a classic 1920s cloche from the Hotel del Coronado (famous as the film location for Some Like It Hot) and a straw hat from 1915.
Rosen’s talent for creating coordinated displays highlights the stunning colors and graphics of the hatboxes as well as the different design styles throughout the eras. “For me, so much of the enchantment of these boxes is in the beautiful artwork,” she says.
Pictured here are tall, slender boxes used for storing rolled-up Panama hats.
Nestled among the hatbox stacks is a small collection of vintage cigar boxes. “As with the hatboxes, I was lured by the graphic designs,” she says.
Rosen’s hallway displays more hatboxes as well as pieces from Mr. John’s estate, including antique hand-carved Italian frames and some boutique signage.
An arrangement of colorful souvenirs from her travels and a vintage mannequin piled with straw hats decorate a set of midcentury dressers.
It comes as no surprise that more hatboxes can be found in the other bedroom, too.
One of Rosen’s favorite hats, seen here on the cover of Uncover magazine, is a Schiaparelli with feathers shooting down from the top of the crown.
Photographer: Albert Sanchez; model: Mitzi Martin; makeup artist: K.C. Mussman
Rosen, pictured here, is selective about what she adds to her collection now, largely due to space considerations and to the difficulty in finding new pieces she doesn’t already have. She is also focusing on preserving the history of hats. “At one time, an outfit was simply not complete without a hat,” she says. “They were unquestionably just as important as the clothing. I hope to create a website called Hatapedia to document all aspects of the history of the hat, ranging from hats in fashion from all periods to ethnic, religious, military and occupational hats.” Her hope is that with her collection and website, their history will be recognized and never forgotten.
More: World of Design: 9 Cool Collectors and What They Keep at Home
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