{"id":12840,"date":"2024-05-03T13:43:09","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T17:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/artanddesign\/?p=12840"},"modified":"2024-05-07T09:38:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T13:38:49","slug":"milliner-evetta-petty-off-to-the-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.fitnyc.edu\/artanddesign\/2024\/05\/03\/milliner-evetta-petty-off-to-the-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Milliner Evetta Petty: Off to the Races"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evetta Petty is off to the races\u2014the UK’s Royal Ascot, one of the most famous in the world. Her hat has already arrived.<\/p>\n

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Alumna Evetta Petty’s Royal Ascot Hat 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petty is the only American milliner represented at Ascot this year, and she\u2019s the first Black milliner ever to have a hat selected for the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective. Twelve milliners were chosen from all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hat will become a part of the permanent collection,\u201d exults Petty who founded Harlem\u2019s Heaven Hats<\/a> in 1985. She will travel to the UK in June to celebrate and to take a seat at the races in the Royal Enclosure.<\/p>\n

Ascot emailed \u201cout of the blue,\u201d she recalls:<\/p>\n

\u201c’Hello Evetta, I\u2019m writing on behalf of Royal Ascot. We have come across your millinery and we think your hats are showstoppers\u2026We would love for you to be part of the Royal Ascot Millinery Collective 2024.’\u201d \u00a0A formal letter was attached.<\/p>\n

“Oh my God! Is this for real? Let me book everything right now,” was her reaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea they were looking at my work. It\u2019s not something you apply for or solicit. They actively look for designers with an interesting edge. They choose upcoming as well as established milliners,” she says.<\/p>\n

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Milliner and alumna Evetta Petty wearing a “sushi” hat she designed, made from wool felt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey had been on my website and they had favorites. We played around with different colors as well.”<\/p>\n

As requested, Petty emailed several hat photos to the Ascot team for their perusal.\u00a0 After much deliberation, they chose a style and requested a custom color (powder blue and white). The base of the hat is straw with fabric flowers.<\/div>\n

Petty received her BA in what is now Textile Development and Marketing in 1983, but she has had a long involvement with the School of Art and Design. She has been a valued and exuberant guest speaker in the Accessories Design classes. “Evetta has has always been supportive of our program,” says Prof. Janet Linville, who is also a milliner. She notes that students in her Design Studio class are curious to learn from Petty “everything from design and pricing, to day-to-day concerns and work-life balance.”<\/p>\n

Petty, who is self-taught in millinery arts, has been designing accessories since childhood.\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cI always made these cute little hats. They got so much attention. \u2018Where did you get that hat? I want a hat like that!\u2019\u201d she recalls admirers saying.<\/p>\n

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“My Poppy Flower,” designed by Evetta Petty, is made with cotton fabric, tulle, and feathers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Petty says her aunt knew very early that she was \u201ca natural-born designer” and would buy her jewelry- and handbag-making kits. \u201cI\u2019ve always made fun things, earrings and necklaces. I had an earring business when I was 10 years old.\u201c<\/p>\n

But hats held a special significance. \u201cI grew up in the South. Everybody wore hats. Especially to church. We\u2019re just hat people. The African American community, we have a special relationship with hats.”<\/p>\n

From the time she was six years old, Petty spent summers in New York with her aunt, who was an oncology nurse and a “fashionista,” says Petty. “She was always taking evening classes at the School of Art and Design.” They would attend events at FIT together.<\/p>\n

\u201cFIT was just amazing to me because I became so surrounded by fashion and art and the Museum at FIT, and looking at all the collections and going to all the shows —\u00a0 all of the activities FIT would have! I was immersed in all of that. It was my world. I learned so much.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d cry when it was time to go back south after each wonderful summer. By my teen years, I knew I wanted to go to FIT.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Long green veil hat, made of tulle, straw, and a silk flower, designed by Evetta Petty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTHER NYC ADVANTAGES<\/p>\n

New York might be a tough town, but it can be magical for entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

After graduating from FIT, Petty went to work in corporate fashion. “I worked as a sales rep for an accessories company, jewelry and handbags.” Meanwhile, she continued to get “so much attention from the little hats I made for myself.”<\/p>\n

Her aunt had the idea “to make a few hats and do a pop-up. Down in SoHo they had these weekend markets. I showed up, and all of my hats sold out quickly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI quit my corporate job because a place opened up down there called the SoHo Emporium. It was like a little mini mall, with 10×10 spaces. We had all these up-and-coming designers there.”<\/p>\n