Crowning Glories: Estelle Ramousse

Parisian milliner Estelle Ramousse loves a bit of drama. The painted skull gracing her showroom window says so, along with the leopard-print and flower trimmed fedora, the enormous spangly blue sombrero and the snaky skullcap sunning next to it. That she’s sewn for stage – Paris Opéra, Théâtre de Chaillot, Comédie-Française, catwalks, fashion shoots, children and horses – comes as no surprise. Whoa, horses? Well, not any old nag in the paddock and more the human performers in France’s famed dancing equine ensemble, the Théâtre Equestre Zingaro Bartabas; the hatter spent three years on the road with them. Now holed up in perenially funky Belleville, Ramousse spends her days fashioning feathers, fur, leathers, shells, velvet, tulle, felt and frou-frou into pork-pies and derbys, fascinators and trapper hats, headbands, bonnets and berets, cloches and caps. And whatever else she can dream up in between, say a perky black fez sprouting a soaring velvet frond. Evidently she loves her work. Me, too! 64 rue de la Mare, 75020