Tag: milliner

While at the Circle Craft Winter Market at the Vancouver Convention Center I had the pleasure of meeting and spending a few minutes chatting with Karyn Ruiz of Lilliput Hats. She designed and made the hats Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip wore on stage during the Man Machine Poem tour.

I have been a fan of The Tragically Hip for many years and was lucky enough to see them live in Vancouver on their Man Machine Poem tour. Seeing them in concert was both amazing and sad…amazing because hey it’s “The Hip”, sad because of Downie’s terminal health issues and this would be their last tour. I have very fond memories of that concert. And a major part of those memories are the bright outfits and very cool hats Downie was wearing during that concert. To meet and speak with someone who had a hand in creating those memories is very cool.

When asked what it was like to meet Gord Downie, who is to a lot of people, a Canadian icon, she said he was just a normal quiet man who was quite involved in the creative process of designing the hats.

She told me 6 hats were made for Gord to wear on stage during the tour with another two hats made to be auctioned off. And she mentioned how she printed some of the lyrics of two Tragically Hip songs into two different hats she made for Downie. The two songs were “Bobcaygeon” and “Done and Done”. Downie was surprised and really happy with that detail. How cool is that!

The auction was in support of the “Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund at Toronto Foundation”, “Gord Downie Secret Path Fund for Truth and Reconciliation at The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) at The University of Manitoba” and “Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre”. The website with more information is https://www.courageforgord.org/ The website has a page where donations can be made and a gift shop as well. All proceed from the site support the above funds.

While we chatted she showed me some photos taken when she met with Downie at her shop and there were photos of him on stage wearing the hats she created.

It really was interesting to meet and spend a few minutes talking with Karyn. Maybe it’s time for me to upgrade from wearing ball caps to something custom made and a lot more stylish.

Below are a few cell phone images from the Tragically Hip concert in Vancouver BC, July 26, 2016.