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September 26, 2013 - Gallery on the Boulevard Trunk Show with Mr. Song

On September 26, Gallery on the Boulevard in Pontiac presented a “Trunk Show” with renowned millinery designer Luke Song of Mr. Song Millinery. Many of his works of art (hats) were on display and for sale. You might have heard of Mr. Song because the internet was all abuzz in 2009 when Aretha Franklin donned the Inauguration Hat that Mr. Song designed for the Queen of Soul to sing at Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration. The hat even has its own Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aretha-Franklins-Inauguration-Hat/71597018624. In May 2011 it was inducted into the Smithsonian Museum and the only other one is a replica hat in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mr. Song was born in Korea and moved to the USA in 1982. He was one semester shy of getting his degree in biochemistry when he left that program to attend the Parson School of Design. His career led him to Paris, but he found his way back to Michigan in 1997 to begin his career in millinery. He has spent 26 years designing in his Southfield location and has expanded his sales thorough more than 500 fine retailers around the globe. He has been featured in numerous fashion magazines and has an interest in bringing style back to dressing for social events. Pat David, co-owner of the Gallery, had it right when she said you are not fully dressed until you put on a hat. During the discussions Mr. Song mentioned that the younger generation has accepted that idea and young women are buying a lot of his hats.

There were many attendees at the trunk show who enjoyed trying on and sometimes purchasing the chapeaus., However, for the most part, these were not ordinary “hats,” but fashionable creations of feathers, flowers, colors, and netting, with chiral symmetry, which means not actually symmetrical at all in the usual sense while being perfectly balanced in design. You’ll get a better idea of what we’re trying to express about these “fascinators” by checking out the photos above.

For more information use the following links:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mr-Song-Millinery/204051356757
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gallery-on-the-Boulevard/338925219550856

Similar hats are for sale now on Mr. Song’s website:
https://www.mrsongmillinery.com/shop/

Note: As an experiment we used our new iPhone 5S's to take these photos!