Tag archives: hats

Caps Off to Montecito
By Richard Mineards   |   July 9, 2024

Terry Pillow, former head honcho of Ralph Lauren, Coach and Tommy Bahama, hosted a bijou bash at Homer, his popular leather store on Coast Village Road, to launch Baja Montecito, founded by Blake Siemens, grandson of entrepreneur Wayne Siemens. The first product in the new line is a cap emblazoned with the mountains of our […]

Transition House’s 25th Annual Mad Hatter Fundraiser
By Joanne A Calitri   |   May 7, 2024

Transition House (TH) held its Silver Anniversary Mad Hatter Luncheon fundraiser at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara on Tuesday, April 23. The theme was “Come Celebrate our Silver Anniversary.” Guests arrived showcasing a variety of silver threaded designer pieces, from hats, scarves, dresses, rhinestone tops, right down to the basic silver lurex card’y. Hats took on their […]

Hodge’s Hats
By Elizabeth Stewart   |   February 27, 2024

PP has a weakness for vintage hats; for the past 10 years she has paid $300 a month to store her collection of 1950s hats. She sent me a picture of hat which is a cross between lime green and avocado, a cloche hat with a gold silk band. The interior is marked for Mousse […]

Hats Off to Lotusland
By Richard Mineards   |   October 31, 2023

Millinery madness took root at Montecito’s 37-acre botanical Eden Lotusland when it launched a new exhibition Madame’s Millinery Masterpieces: Hats Through History focusing on the wardrobe of the late owner, Polish opera singer Ganna Walska, who died in 1984 aged 96. The six-times-married diva was acquisitive with an impressive jewelry collection, a large selection of […]

A Millinery Match at the Polo Fields
By Richard Mineards   |   August 1, 2023

A profusion of creative and colorful tony tête toppers packed the stands at the Santa Barbara Polo Club for the annual Ladies Day. As usual, I had the difficult job of judging the mélange of magnificent millinery, having learned my “craft” donning my top hat and tails attending the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot races […]

Millinery Match in the Making
By Richard Mineards   |   July 25, 2023

It’s that time again! For the 16th year I have the onerous task of judging Santa Barbara Polo Club’s hat contest on Sunday at the spectacular Carpinteria locale after launching its high goal season with the Left Coast’s top tournament, the Netjets, USPA Pacific Coast Open on September 3. The three categories for the mélange […]

Raising a Paddle for the Hats
By Richard Mineards   |   June 20, 2023

It was really a hair-raising event when extensive millinery and glorious vintages of wine from the Birnam Wood home of the late uber philanthropist Leslie Ridley-Tree, who moved to more heavenly pastures at the age of 98 in October, were auctioned off at Moving Miss Daisy’s Consignment and Auction House and the Louis John Boutique […]

15th Annual Millinery Match
By Richard Mineards   |   August 16, 2022

A sea of colorful hats proliferated in the stands at the Santa Barbara Polo Club when, for the 15th consecutive year, I had the onerous task of judging the mélange of magnificent millinery. Sorting out the torrent of tony tête toppers and choosing three winners was not the easiest of jobs given the sheer number […]

Hats Off to You
By Ashleigh Brilliant   |   October 5, 2021

Since usually we each have only one head, it’s amazing how many different types of headgear there are, for such purposes as protection, decoration, and identification. It’s also remarkable how much you can tell about a person, in terms, for example, of their occupation, status, gender, even their beliefs. One hat I remember was on […]

Hats Off to You!
By Richard Mineards   |   September 7, 2021

For the 15th year my millinery skills, garnered from attending the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, England, where outrageous hats are de rigueur for ladies attending the centuries’ old races attended by Queen Elizabeth, for more than four decades, were called on by the Santa Barbara Polo Club to judge the annual hat contest during the […]

Haute Hats
By Richard Mineards   |   August 1, 2019

It was a record turnout when the Santa Barbara Polo Club held its annual Belmond El Encanto Robert Skene Trophy final between undefeated BenSoleimani.com, last year’s runners up, and banker Henry Walker‘s FMB Too! Henry tied the game with only a few minutes of the hotly contested 16-goal match remaining. Just as overtime loomed, Felipe […]

MAW and Order
By Richard Mineards   |   July 19, 2018

The Music Academy of the West’s popular 71st annual summer festival has been in full swing with concerts at Hahn Hall, the Lobero, and the Granada. At the Lobero, the festival artist series featured the world premiere of instrumentalist Timothy Higgins‘s entertaining work Nursery Crimes with soprano Deborah Voigt and a multi talented sextet, accompanying […]