Raquel Brant
La Folle de Chapeaux
Milliner
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
The many ways to wear a hat
- Raquel has built a millinery practice shaped by ingenuity and craft
- She inherited her design skills from her grandmother who made wedding dresses
- Her practice demands an ecosystem of skills, traditions and imagination
As a child, Raquel Brant wore bonnets and oversized flowers, and hats have always been part of how she inhabited the world. With roots in theatre, dance and costume, she brings a dramaturgical sensibility to millinery. "Each hat is a being, a character hidden inside me that has appeared," she says. Millinery lacked dedicated programmes in Brazil, so Raquel found her way into the craft through defiance. “It took persistence. I wanted to become a milliner and I did,” she says. In 2017, Raquel pursued the craft at Lycée Camille Claudel in Lyon, France, before returning to her native Brazil to set up her atelier. She won the 2026 Queen's Hat Award, the top prize at the international exhibition for contemporary millinery.
INTERVIEW
First, an image appears in my mind. I connect it to a feeling, a reference or an experience, and then I ask myself how I can bring it into being. I do not always begin with a drawing. The material also leads me.
Millinery is composed of an entire universe, from the hat maker to the block-maker, the florist, the material suppliers and the techniques. Before my training, I used to say I made hats. After graduating, I felt I could say I am a milliner.
In Brazil, I do not have the infrastructure of a European atelier, so I work with what I can find. Even an ordinary kitchen sieve can become a substitute hat block. While each step of the process requires its own specialist, I bring many of areas together myself.
In Milan, someone once thanked me for bringing them enchantment. This has stayed with me ever since. I was used to my own work, but through other people’s reactions, I began to understand what the hats could stir in them.
Raquel Brant
La Folle de Chapeaux
Milliner
Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
ADDRESS
Address upon request, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
AVAILABILITY
By appointment only
LANGUAGES
Portuguese, French, English
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