Name: Vester Carter
Background: Born in Leland, Miss., Carter came to Chicago when she was 16. She took a millinery class while attending Wendell Phillips High School and, in 1963, opened her first business, Vester Custom Hats. After 12 years at a Loop location, she now works out of her home in Chatham.
Years as a milliner: 34
I learned about making hats the hard way. Even when I opened my first business, I would jump on the ”L” and go downtown and buy some hat material and work with it to see what I could create.
When milon straw became popular, I knew nobody could stay in business without knowing how to work with it, and it is a difficult process to learn. So I went to New York`s millinery district where someone showed me the fundamentals of sewing milon straw, and from there I trained myself how to block felts and fabrics.
Every hat is a new experience, and you really learn a little bit more every time you make a new hat.
Styles of hats have changed since I started in this business. Draped turbans and real wide brims used to be in, but now women want to show more of their faces. Crowns have become shorter and the derby has lost its popularity for street wear. But fashion is cyclical, and you now see the return of the pillbox, which gained popularity in the early `60s, and the cloche.
The most popular hat today is the Spanish hat, with the flat top. The breton is coming into being, and the fedora-a hat that can be worn for both dress and sport-is also a very popular hat.
When I make a hat, the first thing I consider is the structure of the person`s face. I have to know what kind of style to make for an individual, and the cheekbones and the chin have a lot to do with how the hat will look on her. A person with high cheekbones can wear practically any kind of hat, but for a person who doesn`t have high cheekbones, I make a hat to complement one side of her face.
Young people today from 14 and up are going in for hats-not the streamer hanging down their backs, but the flapper, the hat of the `20s. And more women are wearing hats to work too.
I have three types of customers. The long-term one, 80 percent of the time, will say, ”Vester, make me a hat!” Then there is the one who comes in and knows exactly what she wants, but I know that it won`t look right on her. Nonetheless, I have to follow her orders, so I`ll make the hat with some adjustments.
Finally, there is the person who knows absolutely nothing about what she wants. I have a piece of straw or felt brim all ready to try on to let her see how this particular brim would contour her face. If she doesn`t want a brim, she probably wants a pillbox or round crown. If she has a large face, I would suggest putting some veil on the hat to cover just below the eyes and to soften the face.
I make anything in millinery: wedding hats, leather, suede, mink, whatever. I like the excitement of making a hat that somebody likes.
My customers come from all over and from all walks of life. For years, I`ve designed hats for about half of the ministers` wives in the city. I`ve made hats for lawyers on LaSalle Street, for Jackie Vaughn, president of the Chicago Teachers Union.
I do every phase of hats, from resetting the head size, cutting down the brim, restyling an old hat and cleaning and blocking hats. There`s almost no hat that is beyond repair.
Sometimes unexpected things happen on the job. I got a phone call once from someone who said he was Larry Hagman, during the time ”Dallas” was still on TV. He said he was in Chicago and that he needed his cowboy hat cleaned. I was so excited. I went down the hall telling everybody in the other shops that Larry Hagman was coming to clean his hat. Everybody gathered in the hallway waiting to see him. The elevator opened and out walked . . . a delivery service with his hat. We were all disappointed.
I have eight different sewing machines that I use for different hats. For example: I use a mink machine to make mink hats, a straw machine for straw hats and so on. I don`t do much hand sewing, except for some trimming.
The first step in the process of making felt hats (I use only velour felt) is to put steam into it to get it soft enough to mold or block into a style. We have about 300 blocks. Then it`s oven-dried, put together, trimmed and ready for the customer. Sometimes you have to block the felt in two pieces-the crown and the brim-separately.
The most difficult fabric to work with is probably chiffon. You have to learn how to drape it and make it real neat, and then you have to take part of the chiffon and make your design with it. Straw is the easiest to work with.
There are many advantages to buying a custom-made hat. The customer can be fitted for the perfect size, style and color she wants. She can also match a hat to any outfit by matching the color at any of the fabric houses. In straw, I can dye it any color she wants. And once she puts in the order, I can have the hat for her in a week.
Yes, I get unusual requests. Some people want a hat designed like a boat or a cat, and they`ll bring me in a picture to copy. Someone might want a jockey hat with horses going around the crown. These are fad hats, used as a joke or for a special party. The most unusual hat I have made was for a movie made in Chicago. The crown was 18 inches tall and was made of felt. Abe Lincoln`s hat.
My busy seasons are from Aug. 15 until about the second week in December for the fall, and from March until July for spring and summer.
One of the most exciting experiences I`ve had was to make hats for the movie ”The Untouchables,” which was filmed in Chicago a few years ago. They were filming a scene downstairs by the Stevens Building. As I was passing by to go up into the building, I gave them my card. Before I could get upstairs, they were there, and said: ”We need some hats, and we need them bad, and we want to show you what we need.” I ended up making the vintage hats that were worn in the movie.
The most difficult part of my job is that it is really time-consuming. But it`s worth it because I love what I do. I like pleasing people. What I like best is to create a hat from an idea that I have. That`s exciting. And I can spend hours doing it.
