Hello everyone,

My name is Chloë Haywood and I’m the designer and founder of the brand Hatastic!

I'll start with a little bit of background information about myself and how Hatastic! came about....

I’ve always had an interest in fashion or ‘dressing up’, and always customised clothes or made clothes from the lovely fabrics I found in the atttic at home. My 'playing' led me to design a patchwork skirt of vintage materials, adorned with sequins and beads which then won me the Young Clothes Show Designer of the Year award when I was 16. Leságe, one of the judges, himself offered me an opportunity to study at his school in Paris at the time.

This love of vintage fabrics, and ‘all things glittery’, is something I’ve never grown out of, and my desire to rejuvenate and transform the old, unused and unloved, into something unique but beautiful and elegant,  is essentially the ethic of Hatastic! Nowadays, this would fashionably be called ‘up cycling’.

BRAND PROFILE

Hatastic! was founded in March 2009 after I designed and made a few different pieces for myself to wear at the many weddings I was to go to that year (five to be exact), and was then commissioned to make a headpiece for a bride and her two bridesmaids. There was no turning back.

In my first year I won a competition called ‘Fashioning Technology’ where I designed a headpiece using old wires, scart leads and a kettle lid.

Hatastic! then showed its’ premiere collection ‘Recreation’ which was launched at Alternative Fashion Week in 2010 - a series of ten headpieces made from old games / toys. This collection then went on to Brighton Fashion Week, and consequently was featured in The Times, Cosmo and OK Magazine and countless blogs.

The next collection L’air du Temps’ – Spirit of the Times, is a collection of hats steamed and reworked into shape and then adorned with vintage remnants, jewellery and millinery foliage. Fenwicks of Bond Street have confirmed they’ll be showcasing this collection in the Spring of 2012 which is really exciting!

I was then nominated as Accessory Designer of the Year 2011 and I’ve also been working on a couple of projects featured in a book called ‘101 Things to Do with Glitter’ (published 2012).

The Candy Collection - which is due to launch Spring 2012, has already been seen on the likes of Keisha Buchanan launching her solo career after her many years with the Sugarbabes. Made from resin covered real sweets and vintage ribbons and vintage hat materials, it really demonstrates how the vintage or old, can be updated and look modern, but with a nod to the futuristic mod look.

Cold Cocktail AW12 Collection has caught the eye of Esthetica and will be Hatastic! debut collection to be shown in Milan at The Green Closet - an exhibition of UK brands of eco-sustainable fashion, accessories and life-style products within Touch women’s fashion show, Milan 25-27 February 2012 off schedule at Milan Fashion Week! It’s such a prestigeous event and to have been selected is quite something. It's already been quite a year but next year promises to be even more exciting...but I just need support until my 2012 events begin...

Here is a bit of info on the event itself…

The Green Closet, is organised in conjunction with the February 2012 edition of Milano Fashion City. Sustainable clothing and fashion accessories from UK will be displayed, thanks to the cooperation with Pitti Immagine, in a dedicated area of the fashion exhibition Touch! neoZone.

This initiative shows that it is possible to be green in unexpected areas of life such as fashion and clothing. The Green Closet presents designers and brands sensitive to environmental issues making them part of their business. Following both stylistic & environmental criteria the UKTI Fashion & Design Unit has carefully chosen companies that use sustainable raw materials and production methods.

This year another eight brands have been carefully selected by Marina Iremonger, head of Fashion & Design UKTI team Milan, for their innovative and attractive proposals for a fully ecological wardrobe.

Fantastically my label has been selected to be part of this exciting event. This is an absolutely amazing opportunity for me and my label especially as I will be stocked in Fenwick’s – it creates so much more awareness on Hatastic! and its’ ethics.

It will be the platform that could launch Hatastic! into a another dimension of work and design and offer me so many more possibilities.

Anything you could offer to help my fund raising to be at Milan Fashion Week would be amazing and I would like to thank you with my various unique pledges.

Many thanks again and I do appreciate all help you can afford.

Yours Chloë Haywood (Hatastic!)