LJ Runway Monday: Hats Off to You (PR 8:4)

Heidi: On the most recent episode of Lifetime’s Project Runway, the designers were asked to design an outfit inspired by a Philip Treacy hat.

Summer: We didn’t want to give Becks the unfair advantage of designing for one of the hats she’d already seen on the show.

Barbie: I don’t know why Mr. Treacy wouldn’t return our calls asking for a hat for Becks to use. Perhaps he doesn’t create for 1:6 scale.

Heidi: Fortunately, another brilliant designer saved the day. Timothy J. Lambert, from our first season of LJ Runway Monday, designed a delicious hat for this challenge.

Barbie: If you sometimes feel that you could eat fashion, here’s a little taste of Timothy’s creation on this week’s model, Justine, selected for Becks by me.

Summer: That’s a lot of hat.

Barbie: It is a lot of hat, and I think Justine has the perfect features to pull it off.

Heidi: Timothy’s skills as a milliner continue to show why he’s a Runway Monday winning designer. Now we need to see if Becks can come up with a look worthy of his chapeau. I should mention that Barbie, Summer, and I are all wearing end-of summer frocks designed by Becks.

Barbie: For some reason, she just laughed when I mentioned that we’d also like hats to wear.

Summer: I think her design does have a couple of surprises for us, though.


Becks chose a lightweight houndstooth for a classic dress with a short jacket.


She also made this leather belt.


Becks loved the drama of the hat, and rather than compete with it using a full, flowing dress, she hoped to make it even more dramatic by pairing it with a slightly severe design.


She added a touch of whimsy with the lining of the jacket.
The circles of the fabric repeat the shape of the pillbox hat and provide a contrast to the tweed’s pattern.


For accessories, she made a clutch with the same black leather she used for the belt.
Using the silver rings as fasteners for the belt and clutch repeated the circles.


Becks also used the black leather to create a pair of open-toed, lace-up booties.


A silhouette that blends vintage and contemporary.


See you next time on the runway!

Thank you, Tim, for the fantastic hat. I hope Justine and I did it justice.
Heidi’s, Barbie’s, and Summer’s accessories are by Mattel, except Heidi’s shoes, a gift from Mark G. Harris, also a designer on Runway Monday’s first season.

Previous designs from this season:

PR 8:3–It’s a Party
PR 8:2–Larger Than Life
PR 8:1–And Sew It Begins

10 thoughts on “LJ Runway Monday: Hats Off to You (PR 8:4)”

  1. Fabulous. I’m writing a story in my head where Justine is getting on a plane with that hat and accidentally whapping her fellow passengers in the face with her feathers. But Justine is going to Hollywood to audition for the 21st century reboot of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (as we see in the photo where she’s taken the jacket off), and you can’t check that kind of hat in your luggage.

    1. I don’t think there is a single thing in the world you could tell me that would fall more pleasantly on my ears than that something I’ve created, be it doll clothes, fiction, poem, painting, whatever, sends you off on a flight of fantasy of your own.

      Thank you.

    1. Thank you! I enjoy lining conservative or solid fabrics with something whimsical. It’s probably a bit like wearing fun undies under boring old everyday clothes. 😉

  2. Poor ol’ Mark G. Harris has up and fainted thanks to you. Happy now?

    (Gorgeousness! You went to town in a Porsche on this one, Becky. Mad for it. All those details! Did your eyes cross while working with that tweed, I wonder.)

    1. Thank you, thank you, thank you! That tweed was surprisingly easy to work with–I was sort of afraid of it, but it was fine. All the accessorizing was fun, too.

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