Wig Wag Thank You Ma'am

With all of Jennine's talk of wigs, and being in the market to buy, I can't help but share some wig-spiration from my own wardrobe (grand totals: 4 wigs, 4 sets of hair pieces/falls/extensions, only one looking natural).

Wigs are a great way to bring some vibrancy and creativity to your outfits, whether they are natural looking or not. (Perhaps one thing that would have made the Met's Superhero themed gala more interesting would have been a few in-character wigs!)





Really, it's not just me who has this obsession with wigs. You're likely to find several in the closets of most of my friends.

wait... Oh, where do we wear them? To the bar, the club, during the entire weeks of Halloween and Mardis Gras, to clean in, to Rocky Horror, around our homes, etc.

Great, beautiful, top-of-the-line (or over-the-top) wigs aren't cheap. If you're good with a teasing comb and rather crafty, I imagine you can make some beautiful ones yourself.

If less craft-inclined, here are two resources I recommend:
Fifi Mahoney based in New Orleans. Always worth a trip if you're visiting!

Peacock Blue Design Studio. Makers of so very, very much more. Milliner-costumer all around beautiful goodies.

Snow White & Rose Red

Recently I finished my first (successful) attempt at the tiny top hat (efforts at the taller tiny top hat failed).

He's deliberately gaud-acious; on table he looks far more tacky on the table than on head. On the head, it manages to look perfectly vibrant and fun and festive. He has a white ostrich feather with prismatic white & red rhinestones, and the center of the flowers have red rhinestones as well. There are also black goosey feathers, plus years of black or red sequined ribbon around the edges.

He's not a perfect little guy-- the fabric on his brim is in desperate need of either double sided fusion or a hot glue swirl through the center. I sewed the head band on too narrow-ly, so I had to hot glue it wider apart. And I was SO excited to be finished, that I didn't exactly center the height. Despite this, he sits rather well on the head and looks very cute.

Stop Copyin' My Head (Ay Ya Ya)

Could it be that Ashlee Simpson is (as my friend Annabella would say) "bitin' my style"? Is her Rubix Cube Dancin' Dominatrix self rocking a tiny top hat? Methinks she is.

NolaBird Tiny Top Hats

Everyone looks fancier with a tiny hat on their head!

NolaBird Tiny Top Hats describes the person she wants to meet as: Anybody who can give me a reason NOT to wear a tiny hat!

Designer J-Bird (also known as Jamie), along with the Marci (the owner the most glorious wig shop ever) designed the first tiny top hat in December of 2001 as a complement to their New Year's Eve costumes. In the past six years, J-Bird has perfected her tiny hat design and has been outfitting people with hats ever since!

I picked up my first hat in January 2006, as the final accessory for my Alice in Wonderland costume-- it was a crystal studded lace flower headband. In many ways, I wondered how I could spend so much money on such a frivolous accessory and worried I'd never have the opportunity to wear it again. But with something so lovely, I have since found many, many more chances to wear it!

It became no question that on my most recent trip to New Orleans I had one agenda in mind: To Get The Tiny Top Hat I Didn't Buy In the Past. My heart nearly broke when I went in to Fifi Mahoney's though, and there were no J-Bird hats that had struck my fancy! Certainly, there were a few that were lovely and cute enough, but none that screamed Ashe Mischief. The wonderful lasses and lads that worked at Fifi's assured me that J-Bird was bringing in more hats that weekend.

On Saturday, imagine my surprise when J-Bird herself came out toting not one, but two glorious tiny top hats that not only screamed my name, but threw temper tantrums to be on my head! One is the gorgeous turqoise one, featured on J-Bird below. It was made of a vintage evening gown, complete with beading and sequins on it (it was one of her personal favorites!). The second (featured on my funny face), is a delightful hot pink and black polka dot print one. When I saw it, I about nearly died in happiness-- imagine, finding a tiny top hat that would match one of my favorite pairs of shoes! The likelihood of something that incredible happening is absurd and rare, to say the least.