Chester race-goers shown, ‘Hat’s the way to do it!’

IT’S no secret the women of Chester produce some of the most glamorous hats in the country, thanks to the city’s famous racecourse.

Now, with Ladies’ Day around the corner, one of the UK’s most famous boutique ribbon designers, VV Rouleaux, has launched at Hobbycraft Chester and will be offering boutique hat design classes.

Deputy Lord Mayor, councillor Bob Rudd, and Deputy Lady Mayoress, Sandra Rudd, visited the store, based at Chester Retail Park, yesterday to take part in an event to launch the range and meet renowned designer and VV Rouleaux founder, Annabel Lewis.

Annabel even created a commemorative Chester hat design for the Deputy Mayoress to wear at the races, and then showed other race-goers how to design a hat to stand out from the crowd.

Annabel Lewis founded VV Rouleaux in 1990 in London and the brand has since been given CoolBrand leader status, alongside the likes of Topshop and Harrods. Its creative patterns and inspiration fit perfectly with Hobbycraft, and Chester was chosen as the launch location because of the popularity of ribbons and hat designs at the store.

Paul Harris, store manager at Hobbycraft Chester, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Annabel Lewis to the store. Our customers love using ribbon to create their hats and I thought the Deputy Mayoress looked very elegant modelling the Chester inspired design.

“We’ll now be holding workshops with customers to provide inspiration ahead of Ladies’ Day at Chester Racecourse on June 28, including how to prepare headdresses, and ribbon and tassel techniques.”