Lady LUX

The industrial designer once spent her workdays outlining airplanes, creating antique car parts, and designing chandeliers. Hailing from Taiwan, it wasn’t until she visited Europe and the United States for the first time that she realized westerners had adoration for head accessories. A serendipitous new job at a handbag company got Claudia to redirect her love for design and precise aesthetic into a cocktail hat company.

LadyLUX: How did you go from chandelier making, to cocktail hats?
Claudia Chien: So when I first moved to California from Taiwan, I started working in the airline industry. Then I got another job for an antique car parts company, so I was doing some design for their parts. That my major, industrial design, so that was easy for me. After a year, I was at a handbag company in downtown LA. So that’s how my fashion stuff started. I moved because it was too far from my home in Manhattan Beach and got a new job at a uniform company.

LL: You worked for a uniform company?
CC: Yeah, I was the buyer in product development for the company. So I got to see tradeshows and go to China to see garment factories. So those last two jobs gave me a look at the production side of the fashion industry.

LL: What made you leave the job and start your company?
CC: Well, I actually got laid off last August. So I was thinking, “What am I going to do?” I didn’t think I’d find a similar job. The economy wasn’t very good, so I took a little vacation to New York with my boyfriend. We were walking on 5th avenue and saw a hat shop that sold cocktail hats…all different kinds of hats. It inspired me and I thought, “Hey, maybe I can do this too.” I came back and started researching materials and how to make them. I started making some for myself…for when I’d go out to concerts, wedding or something. I’d wear them and my friends would start asking me, “Oh, where’d you buy that?” Some of my friends asked me to make a few for them… so that’s how it started.

LL: The perfect solution to unemployment.
CC: Yeah, my friends were like, “Why don’t you sell it? You have nothing to do but sit at home, right?” I said okay. I found Etsy and put some of my stuff online and started selling pieces in a week. I was really surprised and thought I should try to make them at home. At the same time, I was thinking I should still be looking for a job and this could be extra income. I recently decided I want to focus on this…give myself a chance to be a designer and have my own brand.

LL: How do you think your background plays a part in your design?
CC: I’m from Asia and we don’t really wear hats there. I think in western society you have that kind of tradition…you have the image of what a hat is “supposed” to look like. I don’t have that. I do a lot of research, read a lot of books and see the history of hat making. For me, it’s all brand new and I don’t have those limits. A lot of my hats are experiments, if you asked me to make a second hat…I couldn’t.

LL: Does your industrial design training ever kick in?
CC: I’ve been thinking lately about the best way to start reproducing, and how I can teach someone to make the hats and keep the quality the same. That’s an industrial design aesthetic. Everything is a procedure. Also, in ID you combine function and beauty together. So the product not only looks good, but is also user-friendly. I’m always applying that to my cocktail hats.

LL: What about chandelier making, are you ever reminded of it when you’re making hats?
CC: My chandeliers were inspired by Asia…I used a lot of bamboo and traditional weaving techniques. I would like to bring that into my winter collection that I’m working on right now. I would like to bring some Asian influence to the hats. I don’t want it to be obvious; I want them to be very modern. I don’t want it to be labeled “Asian-inspired”.

LL: What’s your inspiration?
CC: I’m inspired by the places you’ll go, and the clothes you’ll wear with my hats. I don’t want to create something people that don’t know how to wear with the clothes in their closets. Also, my first trip to Europe in 2001 was inspirational. I really like the old…1920s, 1930s fashion…even 1800s. Those things aren’t available in Taiwan. People in Asia want new things all the time. They don’t really care about tradition. So I think when I moved to America, going to thrift and antique stores, I thought, “We need this old spirit back, but with a modern look.” How can we combine the elegance with our modern life?

LL: Where do you see your brand going?
CC: I think my dream future would be to have my own store. For me, right now I would like to be in bridal store and eveningwear stores.

Claudia’s chic creations can be purchased on her Web site at www.claudiacustom.com.

Tagged in: lux exclusives, fashion, claudia duveneck custom design, claudia chien, cocktail hat,

Fashion / Features