Gigi Burris Is Building a Pillbox-Hat Army, and You're Coming Along

Funny ladies in funny hats is a phrase that enters my mind often when I'm strolling on the Upper East Side. For years, delicate headwear and polished hats have always been associated with the glamorous women of yesteryear—the ones who prioritized craftsmanship over fast-fashion trend items (guilty as charged!) and whose Google calendars were filled with art gallery openings and charity luncheons, armed with wit, charisma, and a closet full of vintage heirloom finds. In my mind, millenery, and the fantastical hats that come along with it, has been a space reserved for established women of a certain social caliber—that is, until I saw my millennial, Dimes Square–adjacent therapist pull up to our Zoom session with a tiny little pillbox hat. The style felt reminiscent of the glamorous gala women I so deeply admired who were plastered across my Pinterest board, and naturally, I had to ask her where she got it. Thus began my obsession with Gigi Burris.

Founded in 2012, the namesake label created by Burris was born out of a deep admiration for the rich history of women's millinery. There's a hat for nearly every occasion—for the trend-forward, Cheetah-obsessed editor going to New York Fashion Week, for the mother of the bride at a British-countryside wedding, for a dapper fashion icon playing around with hats on a new Netflix show (looking at you, Colman Domingo!).

With Floridian swamp influences and a Parisian charm, this New York–based label has been swirling in and on the heads of fashion's elite for years. It wasn't until pillbox hats started popping up on the runways and our feeds late last year that the general population began to take notice. Since then, Burris, whose large list of clientele and editorial credits has made her a go-to in the industry, has been inundated with a new kind of luxury customer, one who's intentional about dressing and thoughtful about the items they put in their wardrobe. For any independent brand, an influx of virality can be overwhelming. On the phone, Burris jokes that her Chinatown shop and atelier look like a postage office with the number of packages they're sending out to keep up with demand. But Burris and her team have juggled the exponential growth of her label with utmost excitement and pride.

"We really encourage this new audience to try a hat if you're hesitant because it can give you such great confidence. It really, truly is one of the most defining style statements that one can make," Burris told Who What Wear. "And what an honor and privilege it is to give anyone confidence."

Below, we spoke to Gigi Burris on the rise of her millinery empire.

For a reader who might be a bit unfamiliar with you and your work, tell me a bit about your origin story. What drew you into the millinery side of the business, making you fall in love with hat-making and deciding to create your own brand?

My brand was founded pretty quickly after I attended the Parsons School of Design. I had always loved the emotion of fashion and had always loved accessorizing and came to Parsons to study ready to wear, not necessarily to become a milliner. It wasn't until my junior year when I studied abroad at Parsons in Paris, where my coursework revolved around the integrity of couture craftsmanship and the people behind a maison, where I became attracted to the French style of teaching and creating. I just really fell in love with the history and the romance of millinery and materiality and handwork, and so when I came back from Parsons Paris, I took one of the few millinery classes that they had at Parsons with only five students. I worked intimately with the course teacher, Leah Chalfen, who offered me an internship the following summer.

When I graduated school at Parsons, it was a challenging time to find a job, and I worked retail so I could support my love of making hats. When I presented my senior thesis at Parsons, I was nominated for Designer of the Year, and my headpieces really drew attention. … Some stylists began approaching me and asking for custom commissions. I was able to dedicate myself to my brand full-time in 2012 and was selected to be part of the Vogue Fashion Fund in 2014. [The fashion fund] really changed the landscape for me and our brand because we started to get some industry recognition and then also started to develop relationships with stores.

Rich craftsmanship is at the center of Gigi Burris. So I'm curious, what role does being a handcrafted, smaller-batch brand play in the brand's storytelling and identity?

We do a tremendous made-to-order business. Part of our sustainability pillar is that we don't overproduce, and, since we produce everything locally by hand, our inventory isn't tremendous. We have a very growing bespoke business for bridal and for occasion wear, so a lot of it is essentially couture that has to be really beautifully made. There's such a history in our niche category of millinery created for women. Coco Chanel started as a milliner. Lanvin started as a milliner. They honed their taste level, style, and skill with millinery that's anchored in handiwork before they expanded their brands. The romance and history is what really drew me to pursue a career in this field. Craftsmanship and preservation of skill is something that's really important to me, and so in addition to my brand, I'm the executive chairwoman of a nonprofit organization called Closely Crafted, which highlights the trades and the skills of U.S. fashion artisans and the local production capabilities to make sure that we have access to them for generations to come.

How does the environment, the places you go, the things you do, the people you meet inspire the shapes, textures, or the designs of your collections?

I was born was in Florida. It's a little swampy, so you'll see this sort of, I don't want to say like dark romance, but there's certainly something quite anchored about the way that we approach things. The palette is quite tempered. It's not gloomy, but it's certainly not cheerful. It's quite distinct, timeless, feminine, but not girly. That sort of moodiness certainly impacts things. Living in Paris was quite instrumental as well, just really seeing the integrity of materiality and what we're going to use season after season. I'm also always inspired by paintings from Victorian era and those color palettes that are pulled from various artists. I have a bachelor's in fine arts, so that education is also something I continue to draw from.

There's so much that goes into the ideation process of creating a hat, from sketching to sourcing to modeling. What does that process look like to you, from start to finish, if you're working with a client who wants a bespoke piece?

We'll usually meet with the individual in-person or over Zoom to get an understanding of need—is it something for everyday wear? Is it for a bridal moment? Is it something for a big occasion? I think what's distinctly different about having a millinery brand is we get to participate in some really emotional moments for people—it could be by the way of a funeral, or a wedding, or a horse race. A lot of times, the person will already have a ready-to-wear piece, so we incorporate that outfit into the design of the hat. Sometimes, it's about getting references, and we'll pass sketches back and forth for approval before it goes into production, which takes usually about three to six weeks.

Creating a hat is so personal. How do you strike the balance between incorporating your own sartorial brand aesthetics versus those of clients coming to you for a bespoke piece?

It's an interesting dichotomy. People come to us for the Gigi Burris Millinery aesthetic, which is often more delicate, sharper, tamer, and quite refined—but we're partnering with them, so we're celebrating their personal style. My style tends to bleed through in our main collection more, but when it comes to bespoke commissions, everything is really led by the individual's choices and personality shining through.

You just mentioned something I find really interesting, which is the signature Gigi Burris aesthetic. The brand has exploded on social media as of late—I mean, it feels like everyone is wearing a pillbox hat. For you, what has it been like to see one specific type of style of a piece explode in popularity on social media, adding to a sense of virality that the brand has?

We have absolutely attracted a new kind of luxury customer, and we're so thrilled to welcome them into our world. Much of that has to do with some really amazing tastemakers wearing the hats in inspiring ways, and so that inspires other women to have the confidence to wear styles like the Laura, the Lauren, or the Serena. Our brimless styles are really leading those trends. The core client we've fostered since the inception of our brand has always dressed intentionally—she's curated and considered. Other people see that and want to emulate that too, with small touches of their personalities or runway-inspired imagery popping up in their looks in the form of a hat. It's really about getting the audience to understand that headwear is an essential part of the wardrobe, and once you start integrating them into your closet, you'll really feel them become a necessity.

Shop Gigi Burris Millinery Pieces