Barbara Feinman Millinery is a custom hatter

Hatter

A hatter is a person engaged in hatmaking.Hatter also may refer to:*The Hatter, a fictional character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* Luton Town F.C., team a.k.a. "The Hatters"* Stockport County F.C., team a.k.a. "The Hatters"...

y in New York City's East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

.
Feinman hats are made by two other milliners using a 100 year-old sewing machine and various materials.

Feinman

Feinman studied English at Vassar College

Vassar College

Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...

 and worked 20 years in corporate jobs before taking a millinery class at the Fashion Institute of Technology

Fashion Institute of Technology

The Fashion Institute of Technology, generally known as FIT, is a State University of New York college of art, business, design, and technology connected to the fashion industry, with an urban campus located on West 27th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea neighborhood of...

 and switching careers. Her work has been described as elegant and of "impeccable" workmanship with a "dash of whimsy".

The store

Feinman sold her hat designs through retailers until opening her shop in 1998.
The millinery store is a member of the nine store Designers of the East Village Association or (DEVA) group.
It is located in an area that has "a history of anarchy

Anarchy

Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...

, counterculture

Counterculture

Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...

 and edginess."

The store is unusual in having hats made on site.
Feinman works with apprentice designer Mei Lan Low to "hand-block and hand-craft hats from start to finish using techniques and equipment scarcely changed since the 19th century".

Styles range from fedoras to cloches and fur hats, as well as retro

Retro

Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...

 film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 and cocktail hat

Cocktail hat

A cocktail hat is a small, extravagant hat for a woman. It is usually a component of evening wear and is intended as an alternative to a large-brimmed hat. These hats are often decorated with beads, jewels or feathers, as well as a veil...

s with face veils. The hats start at a price of $250.
The store also stocks jewelry, bags, scarves and gloves.

Reception

Barbara Feinman Millinery was number four in New York Magazine's 1998 Christmas shopping guide "50 Great New Stores" list and included in the "New York Magazine Shops — A Guide to the Best Stores in New York" in 2000.
Customers range from uptown matron

Matron

Matron is the job title of a very senior nurse in several countries, including the United Kingdom, its former colonies, including the Republic of Ireland, although the title Clinical Nurse Manager has become acceptable as an alternative.-History:...

s to Japanese tourists. Brookelynn Starnes from the show Cloak & Dagger said she wears Barbara Feinman's Panama-style hats.

Comments on hat wearing and buying

Feinman suggests trying hats on when shopping for them because "two hats can look the same, but a small difference in proportion makes a big difference when worn" and to "stay away from small hats if you have big hair" in favor of a "loosely fitting hat that that frames [the] face." Her motto is "If you want to stand out, wear a hat," and she has said that "There really is no substitute for a handmade hat."