You could call Miss Chee Sau Fen an unconventional hat designer.

Traditional milliners count steaming equipment and wooden hat blocks as indispensable tools of the trade.

Not this 39-year-old. She is not only selftaught, she also designs hats which are constructed with mainly the needle, thread and the warmth that palms emanate.

"It was important for me to design my hats in a way where its production would not be too laborious or painful.

She explains: "I really wanted the label to be sustainable, and to carry products which could be made by communities without electricity."

Miss Chee had worked with other artists, setting up exhibitions and events for about 17 years before she started her millinery.

She opened Heads of State Millinery after winning first place in a sustainable fashion design competition and a business pitching competition, both held here in 2011.

She was later commissioned to design a hat by an experimental arts college in New South Wales. Her work was then presented as a gift to Crown Princess Mary of Denmark two years ago.

These days, many of her hats are produced by 10 to 14 housewives in Cebu, Philippines.

"I was put in touch with the women when I attended a creative conference in Cebu, and was already on the lookout for communities to work with," she says.

The hats are made from abaca fabric, which comes from the abaca tree.

Its fibre is collected and hand-woven on traditional looms by women from the Daraghuyan community of the Bukidnon tribe in southern Philippines.

The hats are then constructed with just needles and threads.

"You don't need steam. I found that the heat from our hands can soften the fabric, then make this shape stay," she points out.

The hats, which are designed to be breathable and weightless with Singapore's humid weather in mind, don't come cheap.

Retailing at three boutiques in Singapore, they cost between $128 and $298.

She declined to reveal figures, but states that the response to the hats have been "encouraging". Customers of all ages buy them for special occasions as well as daily wear.

"They are first attracted to the unique designs and the characteristics of the hat; how light it weighs and how it looks on them, before learning of the stories behind how they were made. Then they become fans," she enthuses.

Although millinery is an ancient art, Miss Chee doesn't think that hat-making is necessarily a dying trade.

"I think good designers can survive anywhere.

We are able to sell because we recognise and satisfy an unfulfilled need.".

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