It took more than 40 hours to make the petals (30 hours to make the individual petals and about 10 hours to assemble them) and was Moore’s most expensive piece this year, costing $5,000. (The average price of her hats today is about $1100.)
In addition to White’s rosette creation, Moore — whose hats have made it across the pond to Britain’s Royal Ascot — also designed the hat worn by Derby’s National Anthem artist and five-time Grammy winner Wynonna Judd.
Photographed by Lili Kobielski
“I make the vertebrate top hats, which I learned with Rodney Gordon,” says Moore. “We have all ghost of the opera top hats that were the traditional swirl. Very few hatters can actually do that,” says Moore, noting that Judd is wearing one of her signature top hat designs.
The Derby is understandably one of Moore’s busiest times of the year. For the annual event, her millinery processes about 700 yards of silk and, like White’s design, can create hats with 50 or more petals sewn together by hand. “We have sewn more than 30,000 labels into my hats since I started my company in 1994,” she says. Furthermore, the fashion maker uses every ounce of fabric she uses for her designs, which are worn again and passed down from generation to generation.
