Stories of the Store

Edie Hats has been put together with much love and consideration. While the decor may seem like a random pastiche of fabulousness, everything has been carefully selected with a particular intention in mind.  Much of the items around Edie Hats have stories of their own to tell…

Edie dancing on the sprung floor at the Spanish Cafe Night

The store itself has been constructed as a live theatre with the large glass window acting as the proscenium, inviting passers-by to survey the drama unfolding inside. With fourteen circuits of real stage lighting and a specially commissioned White Oak sprung dance floor there is a real sense that performance can break out at any moment!

Music plays a major part in the daily activity of Edie Hats and homage to this world is visible everywhere. From Edie’s hand-made, custom Sparrow guitar to the Piano and Flute that lay in wait by the door. Those that can are welcome to pick up an instrument and just start playing!

The beautiful fabric on the wall above the cash desk was gleaned from a Parisian flea market and was originally draped on the walls of an eighteenth Century French castle. The golden ropes that hang from the ceilings may look familiar to some. Originally they took pride of place in the Orpheum Theatre, and were given to Edie when it closed for re-furbishment.

Our hat stretcher has become legendary in Vancouver. It is over two hundred years old, and while its origins are uncertain, it was attained by Edie from a collector who used to turn such old items into sculptures. The collector also happened to be one of Disney’s original animator and did much of the work on ‘Snow White’.

Mad Hatters can often be seen whirring along the walls as if by magic. Our ladders function not only as a speedy way of getting to the high up cubbies, but create a fun way for staff to travel around the store! They come from New York, and were handmade by the famous Putman library ladder company.

Above the doorway to Edie Hats is a beautiful alabaster lamp that was almost left to ruin until Edie rescued it at a fleamarket. Sensing there was something special about it, she took it home and scrubbed the thick black layer to reveal beautiful amber alabaster and bronze fittings circa 1920.

Dotted behind the cash desk are many little tiny hat boxes which never fail to intrigue those who spot them. Inside these tiny hat boxes are even tinier hats. While children love to hear how these are owned by the little elves who sew together all our hats at night-time, adults seldom fall for this fairy tale. They are in fact relics of the past, from a time when these were used as gift certificates or as a receipt for a deposit on a life size version of the same hat.

The antique cabinets that store and display our hats are from Victoria, and were bought from a gentleman whose father used them in his hat store there at the turn of the last century. This same gentleman also supplied us with the bust of Biltmore.

Our beautiful chandeliers that bookend the cash desk came all the way from Austria and are made by the same people who made all the chandeliers in the White House!