Theme and competition explanation

Welcome to the 20th edition of the International NHV Hat Competition!

For the NHV Hat Competition 2025, we challenge you to bring together fantasy, bizarre beauty and surreal elements into one eye-catching headpiece. Inspired by the playful and eccentric spirit of the Mad Hatter, we invite you to design a hat as unpredictable as a tea party in Wonderland.

The challenge is for each participant to incorporate at least one unconventional material visibly into the hat/head piece that contributes to the playful, imaginative nature of the design. By unconventional material is meant: different from the ordinary and different from what you would expect. So look for material outside your studio! The extraordinary material should play the main role in your design, but may of course be supported with material we are familiar with from the millinery world. Of course, you may also use several unexpected materials. The weirder and more unexpected, the better! This theme is all about creativity and daring - designing hats that surprise, entertain, and defy the rules of traditional millinery.

However, remember that your creation must be wearable, so don't make it too heavy.

We challenge you to think outside the rules and create a hat that would be perfect for a frenzied and playful tea party, where each hat tells its own story and stimulates the audience's imagination!

Competition conditions

Under the heading competition conditions, you will find all the information about the NHV Hat Competition 2024. Read these terms and conditions carefully: this way you’ll be sure that you have a chance to place among the top ten or even the winning three designs!

Participation - registration is no longer possible

Everyone is welcome to enter this competition, whether you are a hobbyist, a professional, advanced or a novice milliner, living within the Netherlands or abroad.  An annually-changing professional jury will nominate ten hats from all the entries on the basis of originality, quality and millinery craftmanship. From these ten, the three winning designs will be chosen.

As always, only fifty places are available to enter.

The deadline to enter the competition is January 31st, 2025. Participating designs must have arrived at the submission address no later than March 28th, 2025.

Hat show and exhibition

The Hat Show will take place at Kasteeltuinen Arcen (Limburg) on May 10th, 2025. The winners will be announced after the hat show. Afterwards, the competition hats will be exhibited for a duration of three weeks after the competition day in Arcen where visitors can cast their vote for the audience award.

Costs

The participation fee is € 60,- for NHV members and € 75,- for non-members. Participants will have free access to the opening show in May 2025 and will receive a photo booklet featuring all submitted designs after the show. Sign in!

Jury

We would like to announce the jury members:

 

Ann Cluyts

I was born in the Antwerp Kempen region of Belgium. After secondary school, I trained as a fashion teacher in the (fashion) city of Antwerp, after which I started as a fashion teacher in secondary daytime education. In 1996, after training as a milliner, I started teaching ‘hats and accessories’ in adult education. Since that year I have been teaching millinery continuously and hundreds of students have completed the course. KISP (a Flemish institute for adult education) still offers this successful training course on its campus in Borgerhout (Antwerp). 

 

From the very beginning, this training has carried the slogan ‘Where technique, creativity and passion come together, something unique is created’. These pillars are also clearly reflected in my work as a millinery teacher.

 

First of all, I think refining the different techniques is the most important basis of the millinery profession. These techniques also result from the new materials that have been added over the years. Experimentation and further study are therefore a constant in my work. The second pillar is stimulating the student's own creativity. Students are encouraged to leave well-trodden paths and are challenged to create a personal style. Further refinement is found when the craft of millinery becomes a passion. Expertise and creativity thus serve as starting point for a milliner.

 

Marij Gravestein

Born in 1977 in Oud-Alblas, I lived in various places in South Holland and Brabant. I have now been living for many years in ‘s-Hertogenbosch where I finally feel at home. 

 

To find out what my first hat memory is, I pulled out my old school reports. While studying MDGO-Fashion and Clothing- Realisation in Tilburg in 1994, I wrote an English report on ‘All Kinds of different Hats’. I guess I was already interested in hats even then. In 1995, I started looking for an internship related to hats. In Amsterdam, I found a hat factory called ‘Hebri Mode b.v.’ where I did a very pleasant three-month internship. I made my first hat there. After my training, I started working in a bridal boutique where I was regularly allowed to decorate hats.

 

I started working as a tailor at De Efteling (a fairy tale-themed amusement parc) in 1997. I have been working there for 28 years now. Occasionally I do a creative project on the side, just because it makes me happy. For example, a sustainability project with textiles, set dressing/ clothing on a film set. Or making a hat for a photo shoot!

Working with materials that are obvious/ leftover/ waste/ discarded is what I like best. It makes my creative brain run wild!

 

Suzanne Wajer

I was born in April 2003 in the village of Bovenkarspel. I did VWO (pre-university secondary education) and am now in my third year of millinery training at the HMC (a vocational college) in Amsterdam. I chose millinery because the precise handwork really appeals to me. As you may know, I like to write and have a regular column in Hatlines.

 

My style is still evolving as I have only been making hats for a short time, but it can be described as classic and sleek. When I do something, I want to do it well. I think about my designs and their construction well in advance, so I don't improvise much during the making process. I am interested in history and fashions of the past, and like to be inspired by them. As a horse girl, my first memories of hats are of course of a riding cap, to protect one’s head, and of cowboy hats in western shows. 

 

Prizes

The winner will, of course, receive the silver NHV hatpin. In addition, we proudly offer the following prizes:

 

1st prize

The silver NHV hatpin. A voucher worth € 500,- from Plooij Hats & Materials, Uddel (Netherlands). The winner will receive an invitation to take part in the international podcast Millinery. Info with an interview by Lauren Ritchie (Australia). In case the winner has been featured in this podcast before, one of the other winners may be invited. A signed copy of the new by Marianne Jongkind (Netherlands). A gift card worth € 30,- from Easy Hat Blocks (Letland). The three winning hats will be shown on Mother's Day Hat Day during the various hat shows that day at Kasteeltuinen Arcen with Carina van 't Hof.

 

2nd prize

A voucher worth € 300,- from De Vroey Hats, Antwerp (Belgium). A package of hat materials worth  € 100,- composed by Marjorie Louwerens from All for Hats (Netherlands). A gift card worth € 30,- from Easy Hat Blocks (Letland). The three winning hats will be shown on Mother's Day Hat Day during the various hat shows that day at Kasteeltuinen Arcen with Carina van 't Hof.

 

3rd prize

A voucher worth € 250,- from Easy Hat Blocks (Letland). A one year subscription to The Hat Magazine (UK) and. The three winning hats will be shown on Mother's Day Hat Day during the various hat shows that day at Kasteeltuinen Arcen with Carina van 't Hof.

 

People’s Choice Award 2024        

A package worth € 100 from CdiC Supplies (Belgium). A gift card worth € 30,- from Easy Hat Blocks (Letland).  

Submission of Entries

For all participants, your competition hat must be received at the submission address no later than March 30th, 2025. The delivery address will be sent to you after registration.     

Please weigh your parcel and measure its dimensions before shipping. We need this information to calculate the return shipping costs of your hat. Shipping will take place after receipt of these shipping costs.

We ask you to submit photos of and information about your competition hat twice; (1) printed on A4 paper in your mail package and (2) digitally, using this form.

Information on what we ask you to provide can be read here: competition conditions.

Questions?

Do you have any questions? Send an e-mail to wedstrijd@nederlandsehoedenvereniging.nl.

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