Back in the day a hat was something old-school kerktannies wouldn’t dare to leave the house without. The art behind crafting such interesting and extravagant headpieces lies at the hand of a milliner. Crystal Birch, a Cape Town-based milliner can design and create anything from a top hat to a taco hat. MatieMedia spoke to Crystal about her life as one of South Africa’s most sought-after and creative stylists and milliners.
Crystal Birch, a Cape Town-based milliner, has been designing and making hats for more than 10 years. She started her label The Real Crystal Birch after she returned from studying millenary in London and is regarded as one of South Africa’s most sought-after stylists and milliners. PHOTO: Marianne Francis Stewart
Cape Town-based milliner Crystal Birch, recalls the first hat she refused to take off as a little girl: “I was wearing a denim hat with a big sunflower stitched on”. Today, Crystal has her own label, The Real Crystal Birch, and is also the proud owner of The Hat Factory at 24 Newmarket street in Foreshore, Cape Town. It is here in The Hat Factory where little [mad] hatters sit and create unique and eccentric hat pieces for her label.
After Crystal grew fond of her denim sunflower hat, she realised that she had a special bond with hats. She recalls that she always used to take a hat with her on the airplane, when she went to visit her father.
Later in her life Crystal found out that her grandmother also used to be a milliner. “In those days it was quite common for women to be milliners, because hats were regarded as an important accessory,” Crystal says.
“I don’t want people to think that wearing a hat is a vintage thing, I want to make people aware that wearing a hat is a contemporary thing”
Back in the day it wasn’t just highly conservative kerktannies who wore hats. People wore hats to shops, to concerts, outings with friends and to work in the garden. “I don’t want people to think that wearing a hat is a vintage thing, I want to make people aware that wearing a hat is a contemporary thing.”
Crystal says that The Hat Factory has about 300 hat blocks. Hat blocks come in various shapes and sizes and each head size requires a matching brim block. “I check Gumtree on a daily basis, for more hat blocks – because in a hat factory you can never have enough,” Crystal chuckles. PHOTO: Marianne Francis Stewart
Even though a lot of people wear hats as part of their image or identity, Crystal says that “to wear a hat is not only to make a statement or to be eccentric, it is actually crucial to wear a hat in the harsh African sun. “Wearing a hat outdoors is just as important as wearing shoes.”
Today, Crystal is famous for her absolutely unique and artistic hat collections. She has a hat collection called Disney Funeral, which are hats that Mickey and Minnie Mouse would wear, if they were dressing for either Goofy or Pluto’s funeral. Wish You Weren’t Here is a collection that reminds you of sunny days on a beach in Hawaii, while Quack Attack! is a collection inspired by ducks attacking humans, and so the list of unique and quirky hats goes on.
The Miserable Minnie hat pictured here, forms part of Crystal’s Disney Funeral collection. PHOTO: Sourced/www.therealcrystalbirch.com
Stylist turned milliner
In high school Crystal already had her heart set on fashion. So, after graduating from high school she started her studies in fashion at Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design in Stellenbosch. “I had to work very hard, because I also had a side hustle where I made wedding- and matric farewell dresses.”
“For me, the coolest part of it all was to physically make something.” She says that even though being a milliner keeps her busy full time, she loves the fact that she will always have the skill to make clothes. “It is something you will never unlearn, because even if my skills are a bit rusty it will take me a week or two to get into swing again,” she says.
“I have a phobia for routine”
Although she was immersed in fashion whilst studying, she knew that she was not cut out for making clothing. For Crystal, to be sitting in a studio with a sewing team that is just sewing day in and day out, sounded like too much of a set routine. “I have a phobia for routine,” Crystal laughs.
Some of the machinery in the factory is almost 100 years old. Pictured here is a hat in the midst of the production process. “There are women who braid some of our hats by hand, everyone is so skilled in what they are doing,” Crystal says. PHOTO: Marianne Francis Stewart
She was convinced to specialise instead, after she won a competition at the South African Fashion Week. Well-known milliner Albertus Q. Swanepoel spoke at the event and said, “if you want to be a specialist, you have to decide that early on in your career”. Albertus was a great inspiration to her and after his speech, the art of millinery looked like a specialist field in fashion that she might like to immerse herself in.
London’s calling
“After graduating from Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design in 2006, I went to London.” To gain some experience in the world of fashion, Crystal worked at Topshop Oxford Circus, at nightclubs and did some styling on the side.
“I remember when me and some of my friends went to Ireland, we wore lampshades on our heads and someone saw it and loved it, and told me I should strongly consider becoming a milliner.” To her this was the final sign from the universe that millinery is her true calling.
“I did a short course in millinery under the guidance of Noel Stewart, whereafter I did my practical at Piers Atkinson,” Crystal says. Noel and Piers is known as some of Europe’s finest talents in the art of hat-making. She describes Piers as being the rebel hatmaker of London, because some describe him as being too provocative or too freestyling. But it is exactly this creative freedom that draws her to millinery.
The real REAL Crystal Birch
After all Crystal’s adventures in London, she came back to South Africa – where she started her own label The Real Crystal Birch. When MatieMedia asked why the REAL, she said, “when I started my own label about 13 years ago, I wanted to register my own website.”
There was already a website registered as www.crystalbirch.com, which is the site of an American novel, Crystal Birch. The writer did not want to sell the URL to Crystal, so she had to be creative and decided, “but I am a real person, I am the real Crystal Birch”. So, she registered her own website as www.therealcrystalbirch.com.
Crystal is now a full-time business woman, but says that she misses making hats herself. “I force myself to make at least one hat a month,” Crystal says. Between being a mother and being in charge of her business, she meets with clients and suppliers on a weekly basis. These different tasks take up a lot of her time, leaving her with little time to sit and make hats. PHOTO: Marianne Francis Stewart
“I told my housemates I was going to have a small hat studio, with six people working for me and at first it was like that, but it went from one person by my side to 60 people and due to Covid-19 it unfortunately dropped to 20 workers.” But before her label became well-known and sought after, Crystal had to sell hats out of her car.
“I started to sell my hats on every job”
“I had a wardrobe van and when we had to do photoshoots with Norwegian models in the African summer sun, I just knew they came unprepared so I saw an opportunity to start selling hats whilst styling shoots,” Crystal laughs.
So, she started making Panama hats to put in the trunk of her car and when she saw Europeans almost burnt to a crisp she offered them a locally made hat. “So, then I started to sell my hats on every job.”
“The Real Crystal Birch as a brand has a lot of fun, we play with the idea of what lengths you can go to, to make a hat unique and get a new take on it,” Crystal says. PHOTO: Marianne Francis Stewart
After that she started selling her hats at the Neighbourgoods Market, which gave her the ability to network with other traders who inspired her. “I learnt a lot from all the creatives and entrepreneurs there, because when I started my label I was thrown into the deep end, I had no idea how to run a business.”
Engineering the famous Jack Parow kêps
Crystal has a well-known client base. She designs hats for Francois van Coke, David Kramer, Ricky Rick, Karen Zoid, Martin Magner, Bonang Matheba and Jack Parow to name only a few.
A lot of planning and hat engineering goes into Jack Parow’s famous leopard print hat. “The hat consists of about four layers, made up of different materials as well as a coat hanger made of wire,” according to Crystal.
Crystal says that Jack Parow’s hats get stolen on the regular, so she frequently has to make new hats for him. “Every time, I get to re-engineer his hat, because we are constantly trying to make the hat lighter – because when Zander [Jack Parow] is on stage, he jumps around quite a lot.”
Jack Parow and his long kêps is an inseparable concept. This infamous leopard print hat by Crystal Birch features in Jack Parow & Gazelle’s music video, Hosh Tokolosh. According to Crystal, the hat is a constantly under construction. Improvements are made in order to make it lighter, so that Jack can comfortably hop and bop around on stage. VIDEO: YouTube