The Gmeiner Art & Cultural Center is delighted to announce the Main Gallery exhibit for July, a retrospective of 30 years of millinery by Christine Moore titled “Sketches of American Horse-Racing Fashion.” Christine is the featured milliner of the Kentucky Derby and the official milliner of the Breeder’s Cup. While her hats have received an enormous amount of press, the sketches and process behind them have not been seen by the public before. This exhibit will open on Saturday, July 13^th with a reception from 2-4PM. The reception is free and open to the public, who are invited to come enjoy light refreshments and meet the artist. This exhibit will remain on display until Sunday, August 4^th.

Christine Moore grew up in Telford, Pennsylvania, but has spent every summer of her life in Wellsboro. Her father bought property near Hills Creek State Park in 1960 that she and her husband Blake built a small off-the-grid cabin on in 2006. In 2022 they bought an old house in downtown Wellsboro and split their time between that house and New York City, where Christine’s studio is located. Christine credits nature as the inspiration for her designs. The trim in her designs comes from nature’s beautiful flowers, leaves, the shapes of trees, and many other natural wonders. The changing of the seasons, a bright sunny day, or a cloudy storm can all have an impact on her choice of color palettes.

Christine started her career as a costume designer and worked in costume shops in regional theaters including Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theatre, Buffalo’s Studio Arena Theatre, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, to name a few. Her theater experience taught her the choices and use of fabrics for hats, hand sewing, machine skills, and how to collaborate with clients and store owners. She learned the art of millinery in the mid ’80s when she started assisting a milliner at the Walnut Street Theatre and immediately loved the curling of feathers and the crazy trims that were added to theater hats. In 1988 Christine moved to New York City to work for esteemed milliner Rodney Gordon, who was making hats for all the Broadway Shows at that time like Phantom of the Opera, Crazy for You, The Will Rogers Follies, and many others.

She started her own fashion business in 1994 in NYC when she designed a collection and took them to stores in a drum case that her mom had covered in fabric. Two stores bought—Henri Bendel in NYC and Joan Shepp in Philadelphia. Christine now sells to over 35 stores throughout the country. In 2004 she was invited to do a trunk show at a store in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby and showed up with all the wrong styles except for an over-the-top very wide brim hat that two customers tussled over. It was then that she realized what the “Derby style” was, and realized if she designed extravagant wide brimmed pieces with the addition of elegance, her creativity would have no bounds! The horse racing world took notice, and in 2018, Christine was honored as the first ever featured milliner of the Kentucky Derby, a distinction she has held ever since.

This exhibit is a retrospective of Christine’s Derby work as well as other collections that she designs on a yearly basis. The exhibit is a view into the design process and business model that she began developing in New York City in 1994. This is the first time these sketches will be viewed by the public. Sketches are drawn for clients who have placed a special order for a one-of-a-kind hat for a race or special event including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont, Ascot, Breeders’ Cup, garden parties, Mardi Gras, weddings, luncheons, Halloween, and others. Christine’s hats have been worn by famous actresses, models, and musicians, but only the lucky visitors to the Gmeiner this summer will get to see all of these examples of her sketches and hats gathered in one place.

Christine Moore’s hats can be seen at www.camhats.com and on her Facebook page.

The Gmeiner is open from 12-6PM Tuesdays through Sundays and is located at 134 Main Street in Wellsboro behind the Green Free Library. Admission to the gallery is free.