Hat Designers Deliver

The guy in the red, Make America Great Again cap and orange hair was bidding like he was Donald Trump. Two seats away, a bidder quickly dubbed Hillary Clinton by auctioneer Todd Lyon, was in a pitched bidding war with ​“Trump” over a DelMonico straw fedora and was not backing down.

The bidding action took place this past weekend alongside a red carpet runway behind Creative Arts Workshop (CAW) and Neighborhood Music School, site of this year’s heady, ​“Hats Off!” fundraiser on behalf of Creative Arts Workshop, a nonprofit center for visual arts education that has served Greater New Haven since 1961.

In the end, even ​“Trump’s” pockets were not deep enough to overcome the tenacity of Hillary in winning the DelMonico hat, a creation that joined several dozen hats designed by area artists and artisans in support of the Hats Off event.

Modeling the hats were some of greater New Haven’s best drag performance artists ….

… whose outfits, in some cases, seemed and extension of the works they were modeling.

Model escort Julius LaVaughn Stone Jr. sported a heart-bedazzled purple hat that seemed to be having its own party.

Event attendees also got in on the fun with many creating their own hats for the occasion. Jacob Lewallen said he moved to New Haven from southern California two years ago and created his panoramic fall landscape, complete with barns and an outhouse, as an homage to the colorful New England landscapes he had experienced for the first time.

A simple sun hat worn by a CAW supporter Ashleigh Huckabey, was transformed into an elegant statement with the addition of natural eye-marked peacock plumes.

Co-emcee and Creative Arts Workshop instructor Violet Harlow, who fashioned a number of hats for the event was at her saucy best sporting a hat made from a can of Sclafani crushed tomatoes.

Modeling Harlow’s ​“Dropout Fascinator” stocked with pens and pencils and other supplies, was model Kiki Lucia …

… who also modeled Bill Butler’s ​“Connectivity” a swarm of Monarch butterflies and colorful clothespins.

Winning bidder of that hat was Bill Reese, who said he loved the hat’s dynamic qualities and also that the hat would ​“enable us to put up or wash.”

Lucky bidders received their hats directly from the models; most put them on immediately.

CAW’s executive director, Daniel Fitzmaurice, wore his trademark blue glasses, a nice complement to the pyramidal hat of recycled plastic pink and black cups.

Other CAW hat-wearing luminaries included Ann Lehman, board member, metal sculpture instructor, first president and CAW founder who provided a good foil for her wispy orange hat with tinted blue locks and matching blue glasses.

Longtime CAW student Gioia Connell who was part of a team helping to promote the Hats Off event with spray painted placards around town last week, gleamed as she modeled the ​“Devo Glitterati” hat after the official runway show.

With food and drink provided by Meat & Co. and 116 Crown, the picturesque setting, the amazing models, dozens of enthusiastic participants, the creative hat making that inspired the event, and the cause; that of a venerable arts organization that continues to inspire and instruct thousands, the only thing that might have improved the evening would have been an overflow crowd. Liz Pagano, CAW printmaking instructor, hat designer, and one of the event organizers said, ​“We are looking forward to being bigger and better next year.”

For those that missed the Hats Off event, donations to Creative Arts Workshop can still be made on the website.