Occupation Milliner | Name Molly Yestadt | |
Alma mater Fashion Institute of Technology | ||
Marc Jacobs x Yestadt Millinery
Molly Yestadt is a milliner in the United States.
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Life
Yestadt grew up in New Rochelle, New York, her mother an artist and her father an architect. Her grandparents had a tailor shop on the west side of Manhattan. She studied fine arts at University of Hartford, and eventually transferred to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and started focusing in millinery in 2004. She worked as an apprentice at millinery design studio Cha Cha’s House of Ill Repute from 2004 to 2007, and as a designer for Steve Madden from 2007 to 2009.
In 2008, she started Yestadt Millinery with friend Jane Pincus.
In Spring 2009, fashion retailer Intermix started carrying some of Yestadt Millinery's designs. Later that same year, a model wore a hat of Yestadt's at a photo shoot with Alister Mackie, then stylist for Marc by Marc Jacobs, and the design caught the stylist's eye. This resulted in a collaboration with Marc by Marc Jacobs that significantly raised Yestadt's profile.
Work
Yestadt Millinery has come to be known as the "go-to for cool, artisanal hat-making." Yestadt herself is known for hand-designing with classic techniques and traditional hatmaking styles - bowlers, cloches, panamas, berets, turbans, pork pie hats - with elegant, modern flourishes, and a ready-to-wear aesthetic.
Yestadt has collaborated with designers such as Marc Jacobs, Vena Cava, Thom Browne, Rafael Cennamo, WHIT, and Phillip Lim. Her works with Yestadt Millinery also have a number of celebrity fans, among them Rihanna and Courtney Love. A number of retailers carry or have carried Yestadt's designs, including Intermix, Anthropologie, Henri Bendel, Barney's CO-OP, and The Hat Store.
While a number of high fashion figures started out as milliners, such as Halston and Coco Chanel, the art of hatmaking has had a comparatively lower profile in the latter half of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, possibly as a result of the woman's wardrobe becoming more casual and informal. Yestadt is one of a small but growing number of designers championing millinery as an art.