From WWJ.90 Newsradio Detroit:

Mr. Song Millinery on Woodward Avenue in Detroit has struck a sour note with Aretha Franklin.  It was her inaugural hat that caused a flood of orders from around the world.  And now, the Queen of Soul wants royal treatment from store owner Luke Song for wearing it.

“I think that I should be getting big time royalties from him.  That’s what I think,” said Franklin in an interview with WWJ’s Vickie Thomas at Sunday’s NAACP Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner.

I happen to agree with her. At least she should be getting free hats from Mr. Song. What do you think? Read the article here.

HippieShop.com :: Jimi Hendrix Hat

After much anticipation, the hat arrived in the mail last week. HD ordered this reproduction of the wide-brimmed black Jimi Hendrix hat shown below from HippieShop.com. Of all her hats, I’m sure this one is a “keeper.”

The folks at HippieShop.com have everything from flowy flowery dresses to long-haired wigs to tie-dyed everything. They have a bricks-and-mortar location in Fairfield, NJ but most of their business comes from their website. Here’s a bit from their “about us” page:

Building a successful business that started out on the road traveling the country while following the Grateful Dead, Phish and other Jam Bands didn’t come overnight. When they first started out they had to do every thing from scratch with no experience and no money, it wasn’t easy.

Then in 1995 when their business started to take off the world lost one of its greatest musical inspirations, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. It was the end of an era. Business started to slow down and this could have also been the end of their dream. Instead it was just the beginning. In 1997 they took grasp of a new way of doing business when they ventured online and registered the name HippieShop.com.

Over the last decade HippieShop.com has delivered unique products to over a 100,000 satisfied customers all over the world. They recently relocated their Headquarters to an 11,000 sqf. location that houses their offices, warehouse and brand new Retail Store. We are sure they will be in business for a long time to come spreading good vibes and making hippies happy everywhere.

ForMathilda :: Fascinator

Fascinators seem to be everywhere these days. Most seem to be made of feathers, lace and flowers… but Burdastyle has a fascinator-how-to that can be customized to fit your fancy. ForMathilda has several for sale at her Etsy Shop including a few that would be perfect for Valentine’s Day. The one above is made of leather animal print on the outside and black wool on the inside. Fastens with a hair clip.

Aretha Franklin

The $179 hat, customized with Swarovski crystals, came from Mr. Song Millinery in Detroit where Luke Song has been making ladies dress hats for 25 years. (He wholesales his designs at many locations throughout the U.S., including Brasseur, Donna Vinci, Maxi, PJ’s, Hat Library, Jean Nobles and Pam Imports in the L.A. area.)