Swan&Stone Millinery

I love their masks! By far the most comfortable and durable style I have worn. When they shipped my order, a mask was missing, but after I sent an email, I got a reply almost immediately with a promise to ship out the missing mask the next day!nThank you Swan & Stone!

Great hat! Wonderful people!

I am an ungainly man. Long torso, short legs, giant head. Blessedly I am also reasonably well spoken. This has allowed me a measure of dignity as I travel through my life. But I’m still ungainly. It has mostly always been so. I was a slim, quick-witted sylvan child, more at ease out of doors than in. I was at peace with a book or with some Legos, perhaps, but wildly out of place in venues with class. At ten or so I ballooned, and began my adventures as the big kid, later to be the big adult. Baggie clothes became de rigueur, and cargo pants and flannel shirts filled my closet and drawers. I never learned to tie a tie. I still cannot. As an adult I aspired to very little in a sartorial sense- comfortable clothes with little to offer beyond being one small step beyond sweatpants. I never tried for more than that, and I never imagined I could feel much beyond ungainly in the world of fashion. Every now and then I’d venture into the world of jeans, or khakis when I had to, but it was outside my comfort zone. I wandered the world in public and private as a wallflower, hoping at best not to stand out, comfortable among friends but reluctant to meet people, reluctant to engage those I didn’t know.nThen I came across Swan and Stone. Like many of their customers I was drawn into their booth by the beauty of their creations, and by an intense curiosity about what it was like practice millinery in the 21st century. When handed a hat and urged to try it on I demurred- it’s beautiful but not for me, I said. A comment echoed regularly by customers drawn in but not really looking for a hat, not really believing that a hat is out there that would fit them. Physically of course a fit is possible. Philosophically? Mentally? I’d have said no. I’d have been wrong. These folks know their business, and they know that their hats are more than fashion accessories. They’re an entry into a new you, a formidable you, dashing in your new hat, confident in a way you might not have thought possible. The first few times I wore my hat I was consumed with self-consciousness. This isn’t for me, I thought. People will know I’m a fraud. Slowly, though, as the compliments added up, as this lovely piece of artistic haberdashery opened social doors for me, I realized that these hats are more than clothing accessories. They’re magical pieces of chic confidence, creating a dashing you to replace the drab you that has always stared back from your mirror. They’re doorways to adventure, windows into a world where you’re a sophisticate, where what people notice is the elegance on your head, not the caution in your step. Swan and Stone, and their miraculous creations, will change your life.nDonning one of their hats is like playing dress-up for adults, except you’re not a pirate or a princess, but a confident version of who you’ve always wanted to be. Find them. They’re at the Grand Central Holiday Fair in New York City from mid November until Christmas eve, and they’re obviously here on the website. Let them look you over, and let them help you find your hat, your adventure. You won’t regret it.