The Art of Making a Kentucky Derby Hat

It’s a milestone year for the Kentucky Derby. The annual Churchill Downs horse race is celebrating 150 years of jockeys, mint juleps, and some of the world’s best hats and fascinators.

The Kentucky Derby 2024 style guide emphasizes the importance of guests embracing traditional “race day occasion wear” with a chic, contemporary twist and building looks around “the star of the show”: the Derby Day hat.

When looking around the Churchill Downs grounds, you’ll see a sea of extravagant and ornately designed hats and fascinators, many of which are Christine A. Moore creations. A veteran milliner, Moore has worked in the horse racing space for 19 years, creating over-the-top luxe pieces for the Derby and other annual race events. With a background in costume design and having worked on Broadway as an assistant to legendary theatrical milliner Rodney Gordon—designing hats and accessories for iconic shows like Phantom of the Opera—drama has always been an integral part of Moore’s design aesthetic.

“Theatrical fashion is what I’m really known for…and I think my detail is what I’m really known for,” Moore tells Vogue on a call from her car as she drives between Churchill Downs and Louisville’s famed boutique, Rodes, where her iconic hats are sold. “Everything’s hand-made in my style, so we don’t buy parts at all. We don’t buy flowers, we don’t buy bows; we just buy flat fabric and raw material, and then we just hand press everything. That is the point of focus that sets us apart from other hat designers.” One of the most spectacular styles you’ll find at this year’s Derby is Moore’s hand-crafted silk rosette hat purchased by longtime Rodes client and Kentucky Derby regular Patricia White.

2024 is a homecoming of sorts for White, who previously held decades-long attendance at the Louisville affair but has missed the past four years. Originally planning to wear a “head-to-toe yellow” ensemble, the thoroughbred breeder’s vision for her Derby Day comeback look immediately changed once her eyes landed on Moore’s black, white, and red rose creation.

“It totally changed my whole outfit,” White says of the intricate chapeau. “As soon as I put it on, I loved it, so I had to switch. And it’s the 150th year too, so to have the red roses—it’s a great way to come back since I’ve been away for four years. It was perfect.” (For the uninitiated, the Kentucky Derby is sometimes referred to as the Run for the Roses—a nod to the 544 roses the winner is presented with.)

Designed as an homage to Moore’s long-standing relationship with the famous race and its grounds, the hand-crafted hat features 150 delicately layered, hand-made silk roses. The flowers vary in size and shape, featuring anywhere from two to 18 petals, and the hat is made from silk taffeta, silk organza, horsehair, and wire, with a cotton lining base. The elaborate 3D design also incorporates french netting that is interwoven between the roses—topping off everything “a southern girl would want on a hat,” Moore says.

“[Moore] makes some different looking hats but they’re all beautiful and they all have a feminine side; even if they’re a little edgy, it’s also feminine—that’s why I like them,” says White, who decided to style her accessory with a simple, one-shoulder black dress “as not to take anything away from the hat.”

Further explaining the concept behind the Run of the Roses-inspired design, White says, “One of the things about Derby style is that it’s aerial. You have to go up and out. So I just thought, ‘Well I’m going to build the roses up on wire.’ So there’s the focal point rose, which is 18 petals, and then around that is a bunch of six petals and then it goes out to four and then two.”

Moore used a sheer fabric as an outer layer, allowing more light to illuminate the wearer’s face. “I like my hats on the bigger side, but I don’t think [this one] is too big,” says White. “The brim on this one is sort of sheer, which I like.”

Taking over over 40 hours to make—30 hours to craft the individual petals and about 10 hours to assemble them—the style was Moore’s most expensive piece this year, priced at $5000. (The average price of her hats today is around $1100.)

In addition to White’s rosette creation, Moore—whose hats have made it across the pond to Britain’s Royal Ascot—also designed the hat worn by Derby’s National Anthem performer and five-time Grammy winner Wynonna Judd.

“I do the swirled top hats, which I learned to do with Rodney Gordon,” Moore says. “We made all the Phantom of the Opera top hats which were the traditional swirl. There are very few milliners that actually can do that,” Moore says, noting that Judd is wearing one of her signature top hat designs.

The Derby is understandably one of Moore’s busiest times of year. For the annual event, her millinery goes through about 700 yards of silk and, like White’s design, can create hats with 50 or more petal pieces that are hand sewn together. “Since starting my business in 1994, we have sewn over 30,000 labels into my hats,” she says. Additionally, the milliner works to use every ounce of fabric sourced for her designs, which are reworn and passed down through generations.

“What I do is definitely not fast fashion,” Moore says, adding that she can “do so much” with just one yard of fabric. “Everything gets cut up, and drawn into patterns. We can get a little tiny petal out of a tiny piece of fabric.”

She continues, “Some people insure my hats. They’re investment pieces that you’re going to pass on; they’re keepsakes. And people have told me that they’re planning to save their hats and give them to their kids.”

While White admits to feeding into “the culture” and buying a new hat every year, she makes sure her past pieces aren’t collecting dust in the closet. “I usually buy a new hat every year,” the Louisiana native says, “but someone will borrow a hat from [a previous] year or my mother may wear a hat that I have. Or I may donate a hat to an auction.”

While the market for extravagant hats is rather niche, White and Moore have noticed a recent uptick in people embracing the look. “When I first started going to the Derby, I never wore hats at all,” White says. “Now, I wear ‘em to horse shows—not ornate [ones], but the small versions. People wear them out to dinner here; I see a lot of people wearing hats other [places] than the Derby.”

Though the craft of hat making has dwindled in recent decades, Moore is among a group of milliners still passionate about the work. “People save their money to buy one of my hats,” she says. “I’d have to save money to buy one.” And for those who appreciate the sentiment and craftsmanship attached to a Moore design, it’s a worthwhile splurge. “It brings you so much happiness. It’s artwork.”