Baltimore trend designer aims to turn heads with her one of a kind choose on hats for Preakness – Baltimore Sunlight

Preakness may perhaps be a accumulating centered around horse racing, but for Baltimore indigenous Lacey Johansson, who has been attending festivities for a long time, the hats steal the demonstrate.

“I just preferred the hats, and it is a unique day for Baltimore, and it’s the finest day to be in Baltimore,” mentioned Johansson, 42, who attended the pre-Preakness Black-Eyed Susan event as a toddler and grew up likely to the horse races just about every year. “It’s just a ton of fun to get dressed up and consider the time to think about what you’re heading to use.”

What to don is critical, since Preakness, established for May perhaps 21, is not just about getting stylish, but standing out.

“I want to have a hat that no just one else has,” Johansson reported. “I like to be distinct and [Preakness is] type of the a single location that I’m very style forward. I like to make a statement.”

Social media influencer and Baltimore indigenous Morgan Moses-Allen, who has attended Preakness and also noted the trendsetters, claimed the occasion prioritizes the head-turning hat.

“There is anything unique to Baltimore about owning a specified style of hat, some thing that stands out, some thing that is distinct,” Moses-Allen, 35, stated. “Every time I would go or another person would invite me, it was usually a concern about your hat, like, ‘What variety of hat are you carrying?’”

And that is in which Ashley Clark arrives to the rescue. Clark is the founder, designer and CEO of Soigné Luxurious Components, headquartered in Fells Position.

“A great deal of the time I make hats that I just cannot find out there,” the 34-calendar year-previous entrepreneur said. “I often say I style and design for the incredible, not the regular. There are no basic bagels in my client roster. “

Soigné began as a vivid dream that felt so actual it led Clark to fall out of law faculty. She traveled to France to study the craft, took millinery classes from Hat Academy, and commenced making hats for pals about 2016.

In 2018, Clark officially launched Soigné and commenced the business’ transformation from a aspiration to a manufacturer that has loyal clientele and a name for jaw-dropping layouts.

For past year’s Preakness she produced a hat for Moses-Allen that showcased distant-controlled feather butterflies. The design and style made headlines.

“Morgan’s hat was on the protect of Usa These days,” Clark reported, describing how she hand-painted feathers to craft the hat and butterflies. “They fluttered on her head.”

The pandemic pressured Clark to explore other extras this kind of as headbands, earmuffs, jewelry and far more.

“Hats are the like of my lifetime, truthfully,” she explained. “All of the other items came about due to the fact of COVID. I didn’t want to hearth my staff and we had a bunch of cloth and things lying about, and we just pivoted. It was like: ‘how can you appear superior from the neck up in pajamas on a Zoom connect with throughout COVID?’”

Clark opened a brick and mortar in Boston in November 2020, but she rapidly “outgrew” that location. She earlier lived in Baltimore for 9 decades, where she participated in pageants, labored as an NFL cheerleader and examined in graduate faculty. When it was time to broaden, the CEO knew the space would be an economical alternative to increase her organization.

“Baltimore performs these a huge position in this journey since of the affordability and then there is horse racing and that niche current market,” Clark mentioned. “But people today really do not realize that Baltimore has a kaleidoscope of manner that also inspires me on a every day foundation.”

A extensive-standing Baltimore fight of local aesthetic also influences Clark’s layouts.

“There’s this preppy factor of Baltimore, exactly where there’s ladies in the county, and it is pretty Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew,” she explained. “Then you have this sensational road trend that has so substantially angle and flair.”

“And when you incorporate these two issues collectively, you get this gorgeous vogue market that is the town. And to me, it offers me lifetime and propels me ahead,” the designer claimed.

Right after gutting the developing, Clark opened her Fells Point place on Thames Avenue very last August.

“I was blessed mainly because the site that I’m in utilised to be a retail retail outlet, so it experienced superior bones,” she mentioned.

Individuals bones have stretched out to a physique of operate that incorporates an yearly collection of 55 hats plus person consultations, life time shopper hat blocks (molds of clients’ head shapes and measurements) and custom creations. Soigne’s 2022 hat assortment is inspired by billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk recently exploring house, and the on a regular basis trending cryptocurrency discussions.

“The new assortment is called Sexual Area Odyssey — it’s the derby on the moon. So believe of a large amount of lace, a large amount of leather-based, a large amount of fake flowers, a large amount of taxidermy,” Clark claimed. “We have sections that move, we have area helmets, we have airplanes wherever the cockpit lights up on a hat that is wrapped in this sumptuous and boss leather-based. It’s form of wild.”

Pieces from her new selection and custom made creations will be on comprehensive screen at the Preakness.

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“Morgan’s hat this yr is three-feet large,” Clark mentioned, spilling some of the tea about Moses-Allen’s vibrant pink Preakness seem in advance of Saturday’s huge function.

“I’m going to have to turn to stroll in the doorways,” Moses-Allen laughed. “It’s also not heading to be your regular hat on your head. It’s additional like a framework.”

Clark is also planning Johansson’s 2022 Preakness appear, crafting the hat close to a jungle concept.

“It’s likely to be one of all those the place it’s about 1 eye, sort of tilted down with black and white and purple hues in the course of,” said Johansson, who has been acquiring Clark’s customized creations considering that 2018.

The designer also results in complimentary matching accessories with her hat designs. For example, she will present tips for a partner’s glimpse these kinds of as a coordinating bow tie, lapel pin and handkerchief, all preserving to the identical topic.

Johansson mentioned Clark presents “the total nine yards,” but which is not the only reason Soigné hats are ideal for Preakness.

“It’s a lengthy working day, so I believe the most vital part is that it suits,” said Johansson. “It doesn’t go, it stays on your head, you don’t have to stress about it blowing absent.“