Irish born milliner Sarah O’ Rourke from Saraden Designs is absolutely delighted to announce that she has been chosen as one of the 130 worldwide milliners to have a design exhibited at London Hat Week.
The design which was chosen is called ‘Warrior’ and will be exhibited from October 7th – 12th 2016 in London. This is a huge honour for Sarah to be chosen and she is very excited to be apart of the event.
99% of the fabric’s used in Saraden pieces are constructed by Sarah. There are two fabric making processes Sarah used for this piece. One is a sturdy fabric which has a strong colour pigment and the other is a light fabric with lighter tones and has a shine running through it. You can see in the design that one fabric compliments the other.
The piece chosen for London Hat Week was constructed using Saraden fabric and finished with emu feathers. Sarah’s use of colour for this piece began with a green piece of Saraden fabric. Sarah then added various complimentary colours to her fabric during construction. The fabric colours were then replicated in the feathering effect.
Warrior
Sarah decided to name the piece ‘Warrior‘ as it reminded her of a helmet on a soldier and ‘Warrior‘ seemed appropriate to the design.
Each designer had to follow guidelines when submitting their pieces. The design had to be either inspired by a ‘painter, film or architecture, created hats with the help of a sculptor, scientist or collaborated with a print designer, stylist, photographer to create history and to make great ideas come true.’
Warrior
Sarah began this piece with about a 50% understanding of what direction she wanted it to go in as she had never used both fabric types in one design before, much to Sarah’s delight they worked tremendously together.
Warrior
‘Warrior‘ was inspired by artist Victoria Horkan. Sarah first saw Victoria’s work online and her use of layering and colour was what caught Sarah’s attention. In Sarah’s own work she uses a lot of layering and she saw a similarity between both sets of work.
Each one of Victoria’s brush strokes are unique and can never be replicated which can also be said for Sarah’s handmade fabric’s. Each stitch and fibre that has gone into Sarah’s fabric’s can never be replicated.
Victoria Horkan
Victoria’s images are striking and mesmerising. If you look at her painting’s long enough it seems as if the brush strokes are moving in the wind. This movement was what inspired Sarah to use feathering in ‘Warrior‘.
Sarah felt the feathering gave a similar visual effect to Victoria’s paintings and when photographed outdoors the feathering gave a strong visual sense which Sarah felt echoed Victoria’s work.
Victoria Horkan
Warrior
Warrior
Sarah is flying over to London on October 6th for the private view party. ‘Warrior‘ will be on display to the public from October 7th – 12th 2016.
Tickets are still available for London Hat Week which you can buy here. You can see all of Sarah’s designs and shop on her website www.saradendesigns.com.
